I am developing a transit webapp using Google Transit, while referring to documentation, i see two different datasets (trips.txt and routes.txt) but i can't clarify the difference between them.
trips (trips.txt) are individual components of routes (routes.txt)
example - there maybe many trips to 1 route
Here's the documentation from Google: https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/reference
In this model, a "trip" occurs along a "route". I think the simplest difference can been seen in the fact that a "route" has no directionality, it's just a line along which a transit vehicle travels. So if you look only at the route, you don't know which direction along the line anything is travelling: you need a "trip" to know that.
I guess you could say that a "route" exists on the ground. And a "trip" is what happens when the transit vehicle travels on along the route.
(note I had to use the word "when" in that last sentence... which indicates that a "trip" extends a "route" with some time information)