How train notifications work
Follow one VIA Rail train without keeping its page open: your browser shows an alert when it leaves, when its delay changes and when it arrives.
What notifications you'll receive
When you turn on notifications for a train, the site can send these alerts for that train's journey:
Departure
Sent once, when a departure from the origin station is recorded. Useful to know whether the train has actually left.
Delay changes
Sent when the delay rises or falls by at least 5 minutes compared with the last alert you received. Small variations are not sent.
Arrival
Sent once, when the arrival at the destination station is recorded. Useful if you are meeting someone off the train.
Where the information comes from
TrainEnRoute reads VIA Rail's public train-status feed about once a minute and stores what it observes: the times at which each train reached its stops and VIA's own forecasts for the stops ahead. Every 30 seconds, the alert service compares the stored state of your train with the last alert it sent you.
The delay in an alert is the delay last observed at a station. The train page can show a slightly different figure while the train is between stations, because there the headline follows VIA's forecast for the next stop.
TrainEnRoute is an independent site, not affiliated with VIA Rail. An alert reports what the feed shows; it is not an official notice. For boarding instructions, replacement buses or a change to your booking, VIA Rail's own channels remain the reference.
What notifications do not do
- No track or platform alerts: VIA's feed does not publish platforms, so there is nothing reliable to report.
- At most one alert every 5 minutes for the same train, so a fast-changing delay does not flood your phone.
- An alert follows one run: the train on the service day you chose, in Toronto time. Long-distance trains such as the Canadian keep their alert for the whole trip, up to four days after departure.
- Alerts are deleted automatically 7 days after the travel date. Nothing repeats on the following days unless you turn it on again.
- If VIA's feed stops reporting a train, no alert is sent. Silence does not mean the train is on time: check the train page.
Phones, computers and browsers
Alerts use the standard Web Push system built into browsers, so there is no app to install. They work in Chrome, Edge and Firefox on computers and Android phones, and in Safari on a Mac.
On an iPhone or iPad (iOS or iPadOS 16.4 or later), Apple only allows web notifications for sites added to the Home Screen: open the site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen, and turn on the alert from the icon you just added.
Alerts arrive while the browser is closed, but the device must be online. If you block notifications for this site in your browser settings, no alert can be shown until you allow them again.
What is stored
No account, email or phone number is needed. The site stores the technical address your browser gives for push delivery, the language of the page you used (English or French alerts), the train number and the travel date.
Turning the alert off, or an address that the browser service reports as expired, removes it. Old alerts are deleted after 7 days.
Frequently asked questions
How many notifications will I receive?
Usually two to four per trip: departure, one or two delay changes, arrival. Never more than one every 5 minutes for the same train.
Do alerts carry over to the next day?
No. An alert covers the run on the chosen service day, including multi-day trains until they arrive. To follow the same train another day, turn it on again from that day's page.
How do I turn notifications off?
Open the train page and tap the bell again: a dialog lets you turn them off. To stop every alert from the site, block notifications for it in your browser settings.
How to turn on notifications
- Search for your train by number or open it from a station board.
- On the train page, tap the bell button "Notify me".
- In the dialog that opens, tap "Enable notifications".
- Allow notifications when your browser asks. On an iPhone, do this from the site added to your Home Screen.