CTA bus · the L · Metra
Every departure, and whether you'll make it.
Stratus shows the departures near you beside how long it takes you to reach the stop, and colors each one by whether you can still catch it. CTA buses, the L, and Metra.
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3 min
How long it takes you to walk to that stop: your own pace, not the straight-line distance.
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4 · 13 · 21
The next three departures, colored against that walk: orange is tight, green is comfortable, red means you probably won't make it.
One card from the app, at poster scale.
Two agencies · one app
CTA and Metra,
same rules.
Metra sits next to CTA, on its own list. Switching between them changes nothing about how you read the screen: the same times beside the same walk, the same order, the same three colors.
Metra shows the scheduled clock time as well as the countdown, because Metra runs to a timetable. The walk and the color work the same as on CTA.
Every CTA and Metra line
CTA rail
- Red LineHoward – 95th/Dan Ryan
- Blue LineO'Hare – Forest Park
- Brown LineKimball – Loop
- Green LineHarlem/Lake – Ashland/63rd & Cottage Grove
- Orange LineMidway – Loop
- Purple LineLinden – Howard, Linden – Loop (express)
- Pink Line54th/Cermak – Loop
- Yellow LineSkokie – Howard
Metra
- BNSF BNSF
- HC Heritage Corridor
- MD-N Milw. District North
- MD-W Milw. District West
- ME Metra Electric
- NCS North Central Service
- RI Rock Island
- SWS SouthWest Service
- UP-N Union Pacific North
- UP-NW Union Pacific NW
- UP-W Union Pacific West
BUS And every CTA bus route in the system.
While you ride
Tap a departure
and follow it.
Stratus follows the vehicle stop by stop on a live map, with the stops you have left listed underneath. The map updates on its own. Following a trip this way is free; the three below are Premium.
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Stop by stop, on the map
Every remaining stop, each with its own arrival time.
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Share your live ETAPremium
Send a link. Whoever's waiting can watch the trip without installing anything. The link follows the bus or train you're on, not your phone.
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Countdown on the lock screenPremium
A Live Activity on the lock screen, in the Dynamic Island, and on Apple Watch.
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Departure alarmPremium
Set it once and Stratus tells you when to leave, not when the train arrives.
Premium
Out of the app,
still counting.
A trip you are following keeps counting down in the Dynamic Island and on the lock screen, and tells you when your stop is next. A widget holds one stop's departures on the home screen. None of it needs the app open.
Three captures from one phone, at their true widths on the screen.
New · The Guide
A system map
of both agencies.
The Guide draws CTA rail, Metra and bus on one map. Zoom into the Loop and the lines separate. Tap any station for its transfers and its next departures. Fare charts for both agencies sit alongside, with how to pay for each.
Alerts and detours
What's wrong shows up
at the top of your list.
When something is wrong on a route you ride, a strip appears at the top of your list with the agency's own advisory. Tap through for the full notice. If you're already following a trip, Stratus reroutes it around the detour.
Access
Getting to the platform,
not just to the station.
If stairs are a problem, Stratus can hide the stations you cannot use, and it tells you when an elevator is out.
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Filter out the stairs
Hide CTA rail stations with no elevator from the street to the platform.
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Outages, as they happen
Station accessibility status follows CTA's live service alerts.
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VoiceOver throughout
The departure list, trip tracking and the toolbars all read properly.
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Your settings apply
Dynamic Type sizes the whole app; haptics respect Silent Mode and Reduce Motion.
Privacy
Your location
never leaves your device.
Stratus needs to know where you are in order to work. It does not need to tell anyone else, and it doesn't.
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No accounts
Nothing to sign up for. No email, no phone number, no password.
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Coordinates stay on the phone
Your phone works out which stops are near you with GPS, then asks for just those stops by their CTA and Metra stop codes. The stop codes leave your phone. Where you are does not.
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Anonymous by design
No profiles, no advertising IDs, nothing for sale. Stratus records anonymous crash reports and counts of which screens get used. That is enough to fix bugs, and it does not point back to you.
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No ads
Not now, not later. Stratus does not make money from your data.
What it costs
The main thing is free.
Seeing live departures, and whether you can catch them, costs nothing. Premium adds the features that follow the trip for you.
Free
$0
- Live CTA and Metra departures, colored by whether you can make them
- One favorite route, pinned to the top
- Real-time service alerts
- Accessibility features
Premium
$1.99 / month
$14.99 / year
- Live Activities on the lock screen and Apple Watch
- Dynamic Island and home-screen widgets
- Departure alarm, and a heads-up before your stop
- Up to five favorites
- Trip sharing
- Offline CTA rail schedules
14-day free trial
Available on iPhone
Never miss your bus or train.
Free. No account, no email, no tracking.
