In Saskatoon, vehicles in the realtime database do not have route IDs. Instead, their trips have trip IDs. By poking around http://opendata-saskatoon.cloudapp.net/, I found that these match up with Transit Trip data, which is appears to be available in GTFS, and links out to route via route_id, and trip_headsign. This should allow linking busses to routes, providing the same level of experience as Columbus has directly with route information.
Figured out that the difference is in the linked servicedIds, which correspond to calendar.txt. One copy refers to service from 12/28/2017 through 1/6/2018; the other is for service from 1/7/2018 through 3/31/2018. That is also why only one of them ever has service.
Fixed. Already got the busses displaying a long time ago, but still had duplicate routes. Tonight, connected up service and route info, so now only the active routes are shown. Also account for time zone properly, since it might be tomorrow or yesterday in different parts of the world (although there's a very edge case where service after midnight might have an issue).