Help & Support

Every CTA bus route, all eight L lines, and all eleven Metra lines. Metra arrived in version 1.1 and sits beside CTA in the same departure list, with the same walk shown beside each time, the same order and the same three colors. Metra rows also show the scheduled clock time, because Metra runs to a timetable.

Pace buses and other suburban bus service are not covered.

Stratus calculates the travel time from your current location to each nearby stop or station, using a walking pace it learns from how you move. It then compares that travel time plus any buffer you've set against each bus and train's estimated departure. The departure time appears in green when you can comfortably reach it, orange when you'll need to hustle, and red when you've already missed it.

Buffer time accounts for the time it takes to leave your building, wait for an elevator, put on shoes, etc. You can set a global buffer in Settings (0-15 minutes).

Long-press any departure row to open the context menu, then select "Favorite." You can also swipe right on a row to favorite it, with an Undo. Favorites sit at the top of your dashboard, even when you're nowhere near them. Free includes one favorite stop; Premium includes up to 5 favorites.

Tap any departure row to open the in-trip ride companion, then choose where you're getting off — Stratus starts tracking your trip once you've picked a stop.

Premium adds a live countdown on your lock screen and Dynamic Island, plus an alarm you can set to fire when it's time to leave, with the lead time set in Settings. Updates keep arriving even while your phone is locked or the app is backgrounded — Stratus's server watches your trip and pushes each phase change to your Live Activity, from before you board through when you arrive.

See Stops shows every remaining stop on the route, for the bus or train you're tracking. View it as a list with live ETAs for each stop, or switch to Map view for the route polyline, the vehicle's current position, your dot, and markers for where you'll board and get off. Free for everyone.

It's part of the in-trip ride companion — tap any departure row and choose where you're getting off, and Stratus opens straight into See Stops.

The Guide is a system map of both agencies, added in version 1.1. It 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.

The Guide also carries fare charts for CTA and Metra with how to pay for each, an icon guide for every symbol the app uses, and tutorials for getting started. Free for everyone.

The "Accessible stations only" filter, in the Nearby filters, shows only stations built with elevator access. When a live CTA alert reports an elevator out of service, the wheelchair icon disappears from the affected rows and the alert appears in the alerts banner.

Stratus is built for VoiceOver, with labels throughout the app, and supports Dynamic Type up to the largest text sizes. The haptic buzz for boarding and arrival cues still fires when your phone is on Silent, so you feel it even when you can't hear it; other haptics in the app respect Reduce Motion.

Free: Live CTA departures (rail + bus) and Metra departures shown beside your travel time and colored by whether you can catch them, the Guide, line / mode / direction filters, tap-to-track any departure, the in-trip ride companion with See Stops and Map, real-time alerts, the accessibility filter with elevator-outage warnings, and one favorite stop.

Premium: Everything in Free, plus Live Activity, Dynamic Island, Apple Watch, departure alarms, the destination heads-up alarm, widgets, up to 5 favorites, trip sharing, and offline rail schedules.

Premium is available as a monthly ($1.99/mo) or annual ($14.99/yr) subscription with a 14-day free trial.

Open your device's Settings > [Your Name] > Subscriptions, find Stratus Transit, and tap to manage or cancel. You can also access this from within the app via Settings > Manage Subscription. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

Stops and stations appear based on your travel radius, which depends on your pace setting. Try a faster pace or expand your travel radius. Also check that the Lines or Modes filter isn't hiding what you're looking for.

Departure times come directly from CTA's Train Tracker and Bus Tracker systems and from Metra's own real-time feed, and are estimates. Buses and trains can be delayed, rerouted, or cancelled without notice. Metra also publishes a timetable, so Metra rows show the scheduled clock time alongside the countdown. If you're consistently seeing inaccurate data, pull down to refresh or check the service alerts within the app. If the issue persists, let us know.

No. Your GPS coordinates stay entirely on your device and are never transmitted. When Stratus fetches departure data, it sends only stop or station IDs (public CTA and Metra identifiers) to our server.

When you track a trip, we send a small set of trip details and a push token so updates can reach your device while it's locked. These records are short-lived — deleted when the trip ends, and in any case within two hours. None of them identify you on their own, and we don't combine them with anything else. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Stratus is made by CloudPath, LLC, an independent software company based in Chicago. We're not affiliated with the Chicago Transit Authority or Metra. We built Stratus because we ride Chicago transit every day and wanted a better way to catch the bus and train.