Please review the Frequently Asked questions below. If these don’t answer your question, or if you have a different bug or behaviour, please send me feedback via the Contact link above.

August 9, 2026

Using Next3Trains on Apple Watch

There’s a Next3Trains app for Apple Watch, for watchOS 9.2 and later. It shows the same train departure data as the phone, on your wrist.

Setting it up

Set your routes up on the iPhone first. The watch app doesn’t have its own route editor - it receives your saved routes from the phone automatically. If the watch app says “Add routes in Next3Trains on iPhone”, that’s what it’s waiting for.

August 9, 2026

Next3Trains on Mac

Next3Trains runs natively on macOS 14 or later. It’s the same app record on the App Store, so if you’ve downloaded it on iPhone you can just download it on Mac.

The widget works on Mac too - you can add it to Notification Centre or put it on the desktop. Everything added to the iPhone app in 1.9 and 1.10.1 - station information, notices and planned work and booked train lengths - is on the Mac as well.

August 9, 2026

Lock Screen, StandBy, Control Center and the Action Button

The whole point of Next3Trains is getting your departures in front of you in a couple of seconds, so there are several ways to reach it without hunting for the app icon.

Home Screen widgets

The Next3Trains widget comes in small, medium and large sizes. Which route it shows is chosen for you - see Why is my widget showing the wrong station?. On iOS 17 and later, the circular arrow icon in the widget’s header is a button: tap it to pull fresh data without opening the app.

August 9, 2026

Where does the train data come from?

All departure information in Next3Trains comes from National Rail Open Data, licensed via the Rail Data Marketplace. It’s the same live departure board feed that drives the screens at the station. The attribution is shown in the app under Settings → About.

Since version 1.9 the app also draws on National Rail’s Knowledgebase for station facilities and accessibility, planned engineering work and each operator’s network status, and since 1.10.1 on timetable data published by four operators for booked train lengths. All of it is read-only reference data - see Other data in the app below.

August 9, 2026

Is Next3Trains accessible?

Accessibility is an area where I’ve tried to include sensible uplifts to support those who need them.

VoiceOver

Each train is read out as a single combined description rather than as a scatter of separate labels, so you get “the 08:42 to Waterloo, on time, platform 4” in one go instead of having to swipe through the pieces. Since version 1.9 that description also includes the reason for a delay and any diversion (“now terminates at Slough”), and station names no longer carry a stray trailing space that VoiceOver read as a pause. Decorative icons and off-screen route cards are hidden from VoiceOver so they don’t get in the way.

August 9, 2026

What devices does Next3Trains run on?

Next3Trains started out as an iPhone app, but it now runs on most of the Apple devices you’re likely to be carrying on a commute.

iPhone - iOS 16 or later. This is the main app, in portrait and landscape.
iPad - the same app, with a grid layout that uses the extra width rather than just stretching the phone screen.
Apple Watch - watchOS 9.2 or later. There’s a proper watch app plus complications for your watch face. See Using Next3Trains on Apple Watch.
Mac - macOS 14 or later, as a native Mac app. See Next3Trains on Mac.

Apple Vision Pro is not supported. There’s no visionOS version and I don’t currently have plans for one.

August 9, 2026

How many routes can I save?

Up to 10 on iPad and Mac. On iPhone it’s between six and eight, depending on how wide the screen is.

The reason is the row of page dots at the bottom of the screen that lets you swipe between your saved routes. Those dots are accessibility and navigation affordances that have to stay big enough to tap comfortably, so the number of routes the app allows is worked out from how wide your screen is. An iPhone SE or mini gets six, most iPhones get seven, and the latest Pro Max models get eight. iPad and Mac have room for the full ten.

March 2, 2026

Why did the privacy policy change?

The privacy policy needed to change because of the release of push notifications functionality for the app. Previously all of the app functionality was local to the device (iPhone, iPad or Mac) and the only information that was sent from the phone was the pair of station codes that went to the National Rail API to load your next three trains.

With the introduction of push notifications, there is now cloud infrastructure that runs 24/7 that needs to know some details about your app setup in order to deliver push notifications. This infrastructure is only used if you have notifications enabled, and any data I hold is automatically deleted if you disable notifications.

December 12, 2025

Why isn't Siri working?

Siri requires your permission before it will allow Next3Trains to return your trains this way. This should happen the first time you try and use Siri to have Next3Trains return anything. Once this is done, you can ask Siri for your next trains even if the app is not running (ie ask via voice when you’re in the car, pulling into the railway station parking).

Since version 1.11 Siri also shows the answer: a card with your route and a row for each train - time, destination, platform and status - appears while Siri reads the departures out, with a short line such as “Next trains from Leeds to York” on screen.

September 3, 2025

Why doesn't my train show up?

Next3Trains uses the publicly available departure board data to source the data in the app. This is a free resource that has a number of limitations:

The app only shows direct trains - ie trains that leave from the station you specify, and either stop or terminate at the station you want to get to. It doesn’t show connections - if you need to connect you can put each of the legs you need into the app as its own route.
The app only shows departures that leave in the next 2 hours. If there aren’t any matching direct trains in the next 2 hours, the app won’t show any trains.
A train that has been diverted or cut short stays on the board rather than vanishing, with a line such as “Now terminates at Slough” - and if that means it no longer calls at your destination, it says so. See What are the notices and planned works on my route?.

What’s covered

The app covers Great Britain National Rail only - the standard set of 2,612 CRS stations, refreshed in version 1.9 to add stations that have opened since the app launched. That includes the train operators that appear on National Rail departure boards, so London Overground, the Elizabeth line and Merseyrail are all there.