False positive error when trip_id has a leading space

[dnhlms]

Forget the validity of a leading space in an identifier for a moment. If a trip in trips.txt is named ' 0706' and that same trip exists in stop_times.txt as ' 0706' (leading space in both), the feedvalidator will report that there is a stop_times trip that doesn't exist in trips. That is incorrect. Turning this into a warning might be a good idea.

Example output when this happens:
Invalid value 0706 in field trip_id
This value wasn't defined in trips.txt
in line 132 of stop_times.txt
trip_id arrival_time departure_time stop_id stop_sequence stop_headsign pickup_type drop_off_type shape_dist_traveled
0706 7:10:30 7:10:30 56 4 None None None None

[bdferris]

Agreed, this seems like a bug. The spec implies that you should remove such white-spaces in field values ("Remove any extra spaces between fields or field names. Many parsers consider the spaces to be part of the value, which may cause errors.") but I know that in practice, both the Google GTFS parser and the OneBusAway GTFS parser both strip whitespace from values, even if it's enclosed with in double-quotes. I think it's reasonable to the transitfeed parser match that behavior.