MVG Route Planning (Munich)

Purpose

Given two stops/locations in the Munich (MVV) public-transport network, return one or more route options with full leg-by-leg details — lines, departure/arrival times, real-time delays, intermediate stops, walking transfers, ticketing zones, and active service disruptions. Read-only — never books a ticket and never opens the customer portal.

The MVV network covers Munich + Greater Munich (S-Bahn, U-Bahn, Tram, Bus, MVV regional bus, and "Bahn" regional rail). Stops in neighboring transit authorities (Ingolstadt, Nürnberg, Landshut, Wolfratshausen, etc.) are also resolvable through the same globalId namespace, but their fare zones return empty (ticketingInformation.zones: []) because they fall outside the MVV tariff.

When to Use

• "How do I get from {A} to {B} in Munich [right now | at HH:MM | to arrive by HH:MM]?"
• Daily commute checks: "next train from {home stop} to {work stop}" with real-time delay info.
• Comparing options filtered by mode (e.g. U-Bahn only, no buses, walking only).
• Extracting structured route data (lines, transfer stops, polylines) for downstream display or trip-planning UIs.
• NOT for ticket purchasing — use the MVGO app / kundenportal flow instead. This skill stops at the route-suggestions stage.

Workflow

MVG's public website is a thin client over a JSON REST API at https://www.mvg.de/api/bgw-pt/v3. No auth, no cookies, no anti-bot stealth, no residential proxy — verified clean 200s direct from a bare sandbox IP. Lead with the API; the browser path works (and is faster than typical because the deep-link URL params auto-submit), but pays a ~50× cost premium and gets you a JS-rendered DOM you have to scrape.

1. Resolve each stop name to a globalId

GET https://www.mvg.de/api/bgw-pt/v3/locations?query={text} — text is a partial stop name or street address. Returns an array of up to 50 location matches, ordered by relevance + proximity. Each match has:

{
  "latitude": 48.137245, "longitude": 11.575421,
  "place": "München", "name": "Marienplatz",
  "globalId": "de:09162:2", "divaId": 2,
  "transportTypes": ["SBAHN","UBAHN","BUS"],
  "tariffZones": "m",
  "type": "STATION"
}

Pick the right match by place (city) + transportTypes (mode you care about). Munich proper is place: "München". Be careful with Hauptbahnhof — Munich alone has four distinct stops with that name (de:09162:6 for the U-Bahn/Tram hub, de:09162:100 for the main S-Bahn/regional-rail "München Hbf", de:09162:7000 Hauptbahnhof Nord, de:09162:5000 Hauptbahnhof Süd) — each lives on a different platform and routing between them requires walking. Disambiguate by transport mode or by asking the user which entrance.

Empty query → 400 getLocations.query: must not be blank. Nonsense query (e.g. xyzqwerasdf) → 200 []. Always check the array length before indexing.

2. Request routes

GET https://www.mvg.de/api/bgw-pt/v3/routes?originStationGlobalId={A}&destinationStationGlobalId={B} — minimum required params. Returns an array of route options (typically 5–7) covering the next ~30 minutes of departures.

Optional params (verified accepted):

Unknown / mistyped params are silently dropped (the API does not echo back validation errors for typos).

3. Decode the response

Top-level is an array; each element is one route option with:

{
  "uniqueId": -1166858465652141928,
  "parts": [ /* one entry per leg — see below */ ],
  "ticketingInformation": { "zones": [0], "alternativeZones": [], "unifiedTicketIds": ["9999","KURZE",...] },
  "distance": 1179.55,
  "bannerHash": "",
  "refreshId": "H4sIAAAA…"     // opaque token used by the website for live refresh
}

Each parts[i] is one leg of the journey:

{
  "from": { "name": "Marienplatz", "place": "München",
            "stationGlobalId": "de:09162:2", "stationDivaId": 2,
            "latitude": 48.137312, "longitude": 11.57534,
            "platform": 2, "platformChanged": false,
            "plannedDeparture": "2026-05-20T20:40:00+02:00",
            "departureDelayInMinutes": 3,
            "transportTypes": ["UBAHN","BUS","SBAHN"],
            "occupancy": "UNKNOWN",
            "hasZoomData": true,             // escalator/elevator live data is published
            "hasOutOfOrderEscalator": true,  // accessibility flag
            "hasOutOfOrderElevator": false },
  "to":   { /* same shape; uses `arrivalDelayInMinutes` instead of departure */ },
  "intermediateStops": [ /* same shape as from/to per intermediate stop */ ],
  "line": { "label": "S8", "transportType": "SBAHN", "destination": "Herrsching",
            "trainType": "", "network": "ddb", "divaId": "92M08", "sev": false },
  "noChangeRequired": false,
  "pathPolyline": "eyxdHitseAw@bGi@...",      // encoded Google polyline of the leg
  "interchangePathPolyline": "",              // walk path between platforms when changing trains
  "pathDescription": [],
  "exitLetter": "",                           // station exit letter (e.g. "B"), when known
  "distance": 1179.55,
  "occupancy": "UNKNOWN",
  "messages": [],
  "infos": [{ "message": "Technischer Defekt am Bahnhof", "type": "INCIDENT", "network": "ddb" }],
  "realTime": true                             // true ⇒ the times include live data; false ⇒ schedule only
}

• Lines: line.label is the public line designation — S1–S8 for S-Bahn, U1–U8 for U-Bahn, integer (e.g. 53) for buses, 12/17/19/etc. for trams. line.transportType is one of UBAHN | SBAHN | TRAM | BUS | BAHN | PEDESTRIAN. Walking legs have line.label: "Fussweg", transportType: "PEDESTRIAN", network: "unknown".
• Delays: from.departureDelayInMinutes and to.arrivalDelayInMinutes are absent when zero or when no real-time data is available; check realTime: true on the part before trusting them. The website renders these as +3 Minuten Verspätung.
• Disruption messages: infos[] carries INCIDENT / MESSAGE / STRIKE etc.; surface these prominently.
• Total trip duration: not a top-level field — compute from parts[0].from.plannedDeparture to parts[-1].to.plannedDeparture (yes, the last part's to uses plannedDeparture as its arrival timestamp; there is no separate plannedArrival field).
• Ticketing: ticketingInformation.zones is the MVV fare-zone set ("m" = inner Munich = zone 0; outer zones are integers 1..6). Empty zones: [] means the trip crosses out of MVV (e.g. into VGN around Nürnberg) and the fare is not auto-computable.
• Polylines: pathPolyline uses the standard Google encoded polyline format; decode with polyline libraries when rendering on a map.

4. Format and return

Emit one of the shapes in Expected Output. Always include real-time delay context and any infos[] messages so the caller can decide whether to surface a service warning.

Browser fallback

If the JSON API is unreachable (rate-limited or under maintenance — neither observed in iter-1 testing), navigate the deep-link URL directly:

https://www.mvg.de/verbindungen.html?from={URL-encoded stop name}&to={URL-encoded stop name}&lang=en

The site auto-fills the form and auto-submits the search immediately on page load — no click calls needed. After browse wait load && browse wait timeout 3000, the lib-connection-results element holds a listbox: Routenergebnisse with option: rows. Each option's accessible name has the shape Departure HH:MM - Arrival HH:MM Duration NN Min … Take the S-Bahn SX in the direction of {term} … +N Minuten Verspätung. Parse those fields out of the a11y tree (don't rely on visual CSS classes — they're shadow-DOM Wastl components).

Browser caveats:

• The autocomplete dropdown is NOT in the accessibility tree — browse snapshot won't see the suggestion list when typing in the stop fields. The deep-link URL bypasses this entirely.
• ?fromStation=de:09162:2&toStation=de:09162:100 style globalId deep-links do not auto-fill the form — only the textual ?from=…&to=… variant works.
• The driver daemon tends to hang after rapid sequential fill / press ArrowDown / press Enter cycles against the form fields. The deep-link path is more reliable than scripting the typeahead.
• The website's form-submit does not change the URL — results render in-place via XHR, so you cannot recover the result URL after a manual fill+submit.

Site-Specific Gotchas

• No auth, no anti-bot, no proxy needed. Verified 200s direct from a bare sandbox IP for both /api/bgw-pt/v3/locations and /api/bgw-pt/v3/routes. Stealth + residential proxy adds latency without changing the result.
• fib/v2/* and fib/v3/* are dead paths — both return the MVG 404 HTML page wrapped in a 200 response (the page is 200; its body is the 404 view). Don't waste time on them. The only working API prefix in 2026-05 is /api/bgw-pt/v3/.
• routingDateTime requires UTC with explicit Z. 2026-05-21T08:00:00.000Z works; bare 2026-05-21T08:00:00 and …+02:00 both return 400. The server applies Munich TZ (Europe/Berlin, CET/CEST) internally — 08:00Z in summer becomes 10:00 Munich local.
• The query param is originStationGlobalId (camelCase, Station in the middle). Variants like originGlobalId, fromStationGlobalId, origin all return 400 You must provide either station global id or coordinate for origin. Get the casing wrong and you get nothing.
• Munich has four distinct "Hauptbahnhof" stops with different globalIds — de:09162:6 (U-Bahn/Tram), de:09162:100 ("München Hbf" S-Bahn/regional-rail), de:09162:7000 (Hauptbahnhof Nord), de:09162:5000 (Hauptbahnhof Süd). A naive routing between the first two yields a 16-minute walking route because they're on opposite ends of the station complex. When the user says "Hauptbahnhof", ask which mode they're using, or default to de:09162:100 (S-Bahn entrance) for arrivals and de:09162:6 (U-Bahn entrance) for departures depending on context.
• Non-existent globalId returns 200 [] silently. No 4xx error, no warning — just an empty array. Always validate that the locations call returned a real match before passing the id to /routes, and check routes.length > 0 before assuming success.
• Empty locations.query= returns 400 getLocations.query: must not be blank — the only documented validation error. Treat as user-input error, prompt for a non-empty query.
• Top-level distance and per-part distance are in meters (floats). The Munich U-Bahn/S-Bahn ring averages 1–2 km between adjacent inner stops; trips with distance > 30000 are likely crossing into MVV outer zones or out of MVV entirely.
• No plannedArrival field. The last leg's to.plannedDeparture doubles as the trip's arrival timestamp. (Yes, it's named plannedDeparture even on the destination — that's an API quirk, not a typo.)
• ticketingInformation.zones: [] means out-of-MVV. Cross-network trips (Munich Hbf → Ingolstadt, Munich → Nürnberg via S-Bahn + Regional) return parts populated but no zone info, because the MVV tariff doesn't apply. The unifiedTicketIds list is the canonical answer for in-zone fares — STK-K-1 is a single short trip, TKK is a Kurzstrecke, BT-XY are day tickets, E365J/E365M are the Deutschland-Ticket annual fares.
• viaStationGlobalId parameter is accepted (200) but does not appear to enforce the via stop — observed isViaStop: false on all intermediate stops in the response, and the routes returned didn't go through the requested via. If a strict via-stop constraint matters, post-filter routes whose parts[i].intermediateStops[] or part boundaries actually include the via id.
• refreshId is an opaque token for the website's auto-refresh feature — base64+gzip blob with internal state. Not stable across calls; don't try to parse, just pass through if you're proxying the response for the website's UI.
• Real-time delays only on the day-of. Routes scheduled for tomorrow or later return realTime: false and omit *DelayInMinutes fields entirely. Don't promise live delays on multi-day-ahead plans.
• The MVG marketing site does not expose this API in its docs. It's a private endpoint powering the public verbindungen.html widget. It can change without notice — the bgw-pt/v3 namespace replaced an older fahrinfo API around 2024. If queries start returning 404, check the network tab of verbindungen.html for the current path.

Expected Output

Three outcome shapes:

// Success — one or more routes returned
{
  "success": true,
  "origin":      { "name": "Marienplatz",   "globalId": "de:09162:2",   "place": "München" },
  "destination": { "name": "München Hbf",    "globalId": "de:09162:100", "place": "München" },
  "departureWindow": { "from": "2026-05-20T20:40:00+02:00", "to": "2026-05-20T20:56:00+02:00" },
  "routes": [
    {
      "departure": "2026-05-20T20:40:00+02:00",
      "arrival":   "2026-05-20T20:43:00+02:00",
      "departureDelayMin": 3,
      "arrivalDelayMin":   3,
      "durationMin":       3,
      "distanceMeters":    1180,
      "ticketingZones":    [0],
      "transfers":         0,
      "legs": [
        {
          "mode": "SBAHN",
          "line": "S8",
          "directionHeadsign": "Herrsching",
          "from": { "name": "Marienplatz", "platform": 2, "departure": "2026-05-20T20:40:00+02:00", "delayMin": 3 },
          "to":   { "name": "München Hbf",  "platform": 2, "arrival":   "2026-05-20T20:43:00+02:00", "delayMin": 3 },
          "intermediateStops": [{ "name": "Karlsplatz (Stachus)", "arrival": "2026-05-20T20:42:00+02:00" }],
          "isWalk": false,
          "realTime": true,
          "infos": [{ "message": "Technischer Defekt am Bahnhof", "type": "INCIDENT" }]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

// Stop lookup ambiguous — multiple top-tier candidates in Munich
{
  "success": false,
  "reason": "ambiguous_stop",
  "field": "origin",                              // or "destination"
  "query": "Hauptbahnhof",
  "candidates": [
    { "name": "Hauptbahnhof (U, Tram)", "globalId": "de:09162:6",   "place": "München", "transportTypes": ["BAHN","UBAHN","TRAM"] },
    { "name": "München Hbf",             "globalId": "de:09162:100", "place": "München", "transportTypes": ["BAHN","SBAHN","BUS"] },
    { "name": "Hauptbahnhof Nord",       "globalId": "de:09162:7000","place": "München", "transportTypes": ["TRAM","BUS"] },
    { "name": "Hauptbahnhof Süd",        "globalId": "de:09162:5000","place": "München", "transportTypes": ["TRAM","BUS"] }
  ]
}

// No stop matches the query OR no routes possible between the two ids
{
  "success": false,
  "reason": "no_routes_found",                    // or "stop_not_found"
  "origin": "...", "destination": "...",
  "note":   "API returned [] — origin/destination ids may be invalid or no service at the requested time."
}