How Chicagoland Rail works

Set your commute up once, then open the app to a live board of your next Metra trains. Here's how to get started and how to read what you see.

Getting started (about a minute)

1. Choose your line. Tap your Metra line on the interactive Chicagoland map, or pick it from the list below the map.
2. Pick your two stations. Tap where you board and where you get off — usually your home station and a downtown terminal such as Chicago Union Station, Ogilvie (OTC), Millennium Station, or LaSalle Street.
3. Read your board. Your next departures appear with live delays, cancellations, and countdowns. The app saves the route on your device, so it opens straight to it next time — you can save up to five routes.

Open the app →

Reading the board

• Next train, front and center. The soonest departure shows its scheduled departure and arrival times and a live countdown to departure.
• Live delays. If Metra's realtime feed reports a train running late, the original time is struck through, the adjusted time is shown, and a "+N min" delay is noted.
• Cancellations. A cancelled train is clearly labeled rather than silently disappearing, so you can plan around it.
• Express vs. local. Trains that skip many intermediate stops between your two stations are tagged Express; others are Local. A hint appears when an express is leaving soon after a local — sometimes worth the wait.
• Journey time. Each train shows the total time from your boarding station to your destination.
• Live position. When Metra is actively tracking a train's GPS, the app shows where it is along the line.

Direction that follows your day

Mornings show Home → Work and evenings show Work → Home automatically, based on time‑of‑day windows you can adjust. Outside those windows, and on weekends and holidays, both directions appear. A banner always states which direction you're looking at (for example, "Heading home to Naperville · evening"), and you can flip direction with one tap.

Fares

Tap "Fares & passes" to see the current one‑way, day‑pass, and monthly‑pass price for your specific trip, based on Metra's distance‑based fare zones. The app also does the math on when a Monthly Pass pays for itself versus buying tickets per ride.

Alerts and the morning briefing

Turn on notifications (after you've saved a route) to get a morning briefing — your first trains and any alerts, sent before you leave — and background push alerts when a new delay or cancellation appears on your line, even when the app is closed. On iPhone, add the app to your Home Screen first so notifications can be delivered.

Where the times come from

Schedules come from Metra's public GTFS static feed, refreshed daily. Delays, cancellations, vehicle positions, and alerts come from Metra's GTFS‑realtime feeds, polled about every 30 seconds and shared across users so Metra isn't over‑queried. A small server proxies the feeds so your device never contacts Metra directly.

Install it as an app

Chicagoland Rail is a Progressive Web App. On iOS Safari, use Share → Add to Home Screen; on Android Chrome, use the Install app prompt. It then launches full‑screen like a native app and keeps its interface available offline.

More questions? See the FAQ or the list of Metra lines covered.