Metro did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the change. But Thursday, an addendum was tacked on to the page explaining the various components of the feed: “Effective 08/04/2016, trains with the NoPassengers service type will no longer be included as part of the results.”

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James Pizzurro, co-creator of the DC MetroHero app, first noticed the change Thursday. Pizzurro, who made the initial push for Metro to be more open with its data, says the data removal sets a bad precedent.

“We like to think of this as more of a philosophical problem,” he said. “The more you add filtering layers, the closer you get to the same feed that we had before. It’s against the nature of open data.”

The previous feed was faulty and less dependable — relying on predictions for wait times rather than real-time train locations. Metro committed in February to revamping its feed.

The new feed effectively allows developers to publish a live map of train traffic in the Metrorail system, but Pizzurro said the lack of data on non-passenger trains creates a hole.

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“We can’t accurately track congestion or delays without knowing where all of the trains in the system are,” he said.

One possible reason for the change: to protect sensitive information, such as the location of the “Money Train,” which carries revenue collected from fare machines — and heavily armed security personnel — through the system.

Metro previously cited security reasons for not releasing any of its train location data before pledging to release its new feed in February.