EL Tracker
Free
rated 4.9 stars
About EL Tracker
We are the only completely free Chicago transit app that offers:
- Customizable widgets displaying departures, with SmartWalk delay
- Siri support and low-vision accessibility
- Multiple languages (including Spanish and Polish)
- Tailored alerts with push notifications
We are Chicagoans, who were irritated by the lack of a simple Chicago transit app. One night, we said, "Why can't I have a widget that shows me when the train is coming?" And from there, EL Tracker was born. We strive to create technology that has a positive impact on the lives of everyday Chicagoans. We also want to make traveling around the city as accessible as possible, which is why we provide low-vision support, ADA accessibility notations, elevator outage push notifications, and multiple languages.
EL Tracker is not an official CTA app, nor are we endorsed by the CTA.
EL Tracker Screenshots
Reviews for EL Tracker
Fellow Chicagoan 25
Great App, Small Bug
Great app! Use it multiple times daily. Unfortunately, the most recent update appears to have broken the readability of widget text. In my case I'm using dark, grayscale icons on the homescreen (iOS 18 feature) and recently the text appears white against a white background. I can't read any information on direction or arrival time. Please fix!
Haba boba1
Broken
This was great but as of today the data doesn’t load
A-man Aaron
This app rocks. I would pay $$ for it.
2025 Edit: I got a new phone with updated iOS. Yea, hands down the best El app out there. It’s not even close. I’ve recommended this to a ton of people and would totally pay to download it. It’s that easy, convenient, and gorgeous. Devs, y’all are awesome. What I wrote in 2024: The devs took all my criticisms of other El apps and corrected them. The widget feature is so convenient. The app is gorgeous, intuitive, and customizable. It all rocks, but I do have to constructive criticisms related to the widget: 1. Widget sometimes won’t update. I have an old iOS device so this might be the reason, but there will be times I’ll look at the widget, sprint to catch a train, only to realize the train passed my station 5 min ago and my widget says that it was updated 8 min ago. It definitely takes away from the convenience when the widget doesn’t update automatically every time. As I said, might be an old phone issue, but might I suggest adding a small refresh button in the top right corner of the widget? Just so I can manually refresh it when needed? 2. When i can tell it’s not refreshing, I click the widget, and the widget opens the app. I would loovveee if the widget can open right to the station it was displaying instead of going to the main screen. That’s especially helpful when the widget is set to the “closest station” setting (which also rocks, btw), because the nearest station might not be in my favorites and I’d have to go search for it. Other than those two things, everything about this app is amazing and still hands down the best app I’ve used for the El. It’s so clutch, thank you devs for taking the time to do this!
Treesplosion
Best CTA Tracking App!!!
The folks who’ve put this together are miles above Ventra and the rest of the trackers. Great UI, great loading and update times. Super responsive to feedback and suggestions for improvements. Keep up the great work!!!
Transit-Oriented
Awesome
I was looking for an app exactly like this. After using for the first day transit times are accurate. Very excited for the bike widget to be ready!
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