Using Departure Board

Each row on a board shows one service. Reading left to right:

• Scheduled time — the timetabled departure (departures board) or arrival (arrivals board).
• Destination or origin — for departures this is where the train is going; for arrivals, where it started. A via note appears below if the route is relevant.
• Status line — only shown when something is worth reporting. "Expected at 14:38" in orange means the train is running late. "Cancelled" in red means it's not running.
• Platform badge — shown on the right when a platform has been assigned. "BUS" appears here for rail replacement bus services.

The segmented picker at the bottom of the board switches between Departures and Arrivals for the same station. Switching clears any active filter and resets the time window.

The board shows services around the current time. Tap Show earlier services at the top to step back 30 minutes at a time (up to 2 hours back). Tap Show later services at the bottom to step forward. A pill at the top of the board shows the current time window when you're not viewing the default window — tap it to jump back to now.

When National Rail has issued notices affecting the station — planned engineering work, disruption, or service alterations — an orange banner appears near the top of the board showing how many notices are active. Tap it to expand and read the full text.

The board refreshes automatically every 60 seconds. Pull down on the list at any time to force an immediate refresh.

Tap the filter icon (three horizontal lines) in the toolbar to open the filter sheet. Search for a station and choose whether to show trains calling at (to) or originating from (from) that station. The board immediately reloads showing only matching services.

A pill appears at the top of the board confirming the active filter — for example "Calling at London Euston". Tap the ✕ on the pill to clear it.

Long-press any service row to reveal a context menu. Under the destination station's heading you'll find a Filter to [destination] option — tap it to instantly filter the board to trains going there, without opening the filter sheet.

With a filter active, tap the star button to save that specific filtered board as a favourite — for example "Manchester Piccadilly departures calling at London Euston". This is useful for commute routes where you only ever care about trains on one corridor.

When you favourite a filtered board, it is automatically removed from Recent Filters to avoid duplication.

Open any departure or arrivals board — including a filtered one — and tap the ★ star button in the top-right toolbar. A filled star means the board is already in your favourites; tap again to remove it.

On the home screen, tap Edit to enter reorder mode, then drag favourites into the order you want. The order matters: when Auto-Load is active and multiple favourites are within range, the one highest in the list is the one that opens.

Each combination of station, board type, and filter is stored as a distinct favourite. These are all separate entries:

• Manchester Piccadilly — Departures
• Manchester Piccadilly — Arrivals
• Manchester Piccadilly Departures — calling at London Euston

You can favourite as many combinations as you like from the same station.

Tap any row on a departure or arrivals board to open the full calling points view for that service. You can also jump directly to a service from a favourite card if Tap to Jump to Service is enabled in Settings.

Calling points are shown as a vertical timeline. The visual state of each stop tells you where the train is in its journey:

The current station row is highlighted and the view scrolls to it automatically when the detail opens.

Each stop shows the scheduled time and, where available, the actual or expected time. Orange text means the train is running late at that stop; a strikethrough name with red text means that stop has been cancelled.

Some trains divide at a junction, with the front portion going to one destination and the rear to another. When this happens, the timeline shows the shared calling points first, then splits into separate labelled sections — one per portion — so you can see which coaches serve your station.

Tap the ⓘ button on a service detail screen to open the info sheet, which shows:

• Platform — confirmed platform at the board's station.
• Operator and coach count.
• Formation — each coach's number, class (Standard/First), toilet availability, and a live loading indicator (green / orange / red) where the operator provides occupancy data.
• Cancellation or delay reason — the official reason text from National Rail when available.
• Route map — an interactive map of the full route with a polyline and station pins. Tap a pin to see that stop's scheduled and expected time.

Service detail refreshes automatically every 60 seconds. A "Updated X ago" label in the toolbar shows when data was last fetched. Pull down on the list to force an immediate refresh.

Long-press any calling point on the timeline to open a context menu with options to open that station's Departures board, Arrivals board, or Station Information sheet.

Controls how many stations appear in the Nearby section at the top of the station list when location permission has been granted. The list is sorted by straight-line distance and updates whenever your position changes significantly.

This section is completely independent of favourites — it shows any station, whether you've favourited it or not. It disappears entirely if location permission is denied.

• Near a single station? Keep it at 1–3 to avoid clutter.
• Travel through multiple interchanges? Increase to 10–15 so you don't have to search.

When on, each favourite card on the home screen shows the next scheduled departure — for example "in 4 min" or "14:32". The time is fetched in the background and refreshes every 60 seconds.

Each favourite triggers its own live query on launch and during background refresh. If you have 10+ favourites and find the home screen slow to populate, turning this off will make it feel significantly snappier.

When on, tapping the next departure time pill opens the full Service Detail view for that specific train — calling points, live delay status, platform, and formation.

When off, tapping the pill (and anywhere else on the card) opens the full departure board for that station instead.

When on, departure times on favourite cards animate with a split-flap (Solari board) effect each time new live data arrives — each character cycles through the alphabet and digits before landing on the new value.

The animation is purely cosmetic and has no effect on data or refresh rate. Turn it off if you find the motion distracting, or if you're testing and want instant updates.

The toggle is automatically disabled — and greyed out in Settings — when Reduce Motion is enabled in iOS Accessibility settings. Times update silently in that case, regardless of this setting.

Controls what the app opens automatically the moment it launches. There are four modes:

The radius within which a favourite station must lie for auto-loading to trigger.

• 2 mi is the right default for most home and work locations — close enough to mean you're genuinely at your usual station, far enough that minor GPS drift doesn't prevent loading.
• Increase if you're in a rural area where stations are spaced further apart and you still want auto-load to fire from home.
• Decrease if you live equidistant between two stations you use for different routes and need to ensure only the correct one fires.

When Nearby Favourite or Favourite, then Nearest is active and more than one favourite station falls within the configured distance, the app opens the favourite that is highest in your favourites list — not the geographically closest one.

This is intentional: you control priority by reordering your favourites. Drag your most important board to the top of the list to ensure it takes precedence.

All auto-load modes except Disabled require location access. If permission has been denied, the app falls back to showing the station list regardless of this setting.

The app requests "When in Use" permission only — it never requests background location. Auto-loading fires on foreground launch only.

The first time the app needs your location, it shows its own in-app prompt before the iOS system dialog appears. This explains exactly what location is used for — nearby stations and auto-load — and lets you choose Allow Location Access or Not Now. If you tap Not Now, the iOS system dialog is never shown, and you can revisit the decision at any time via the toolbar.

If location access has been denied or skipped, a red location icon (⊘) appears in the top-right corner of the station list. Tap it to see an explanation and a button to open the iOS Settings app directly to the Departure Board permissions page.

Renders station names in lowercase small capitals throughout the app — boards, service detail, and station info. This is a typographic preference with no functional effect.

Small caps make long station names slightly more compact and can be easier to scan quickly on dense lists. Others find default mixed case more legible. Try it and decide.

Controls how operator brand colours are applied to each row on a departure or arrival board. Each theme positions the colour differently — from invisible to all-consuming.

Controls the intensity of operator colours across all Row Theme styles. Has no effect when Row Theme is set to None.

A live departure row appears directly below the Appearance settings showing exactly how your chosen Row Theme and Colour Vibrancy combination looks with a real service and operator colour. Tap Shuffle to load a different service and operator.

Hides or shows the Recent Filters section entirely. Disabling this doesn't delete your saved filters — they're still stored and will reappear if you re-enable the setting.

How many past filter combinations to remember. When the list is full, the oldest entry is dropped to make room for new ones. Increase this if you have many regular routes; lower it for a tidier home screen.

Controls which app opens when you tap the map in a Station Information sheet.

This setting only affects the maps link from station info. It has no effect on any other part of the app.

Forces an immediate re-download of the station list. You shouldn't need this in normal use, but it's useful if:

• A station has been renamed and the old name is still showing.
• A newly opened station doesn't appear in search.
• The station count looks wrong and you suspect a corrupt cache.

When iOS Low Power Mode is active, the app reduces background activity to help preserve battery life:

• Auto-refresh slows down. Live boards and service detail normally refresh every 60 seconds. In Low Power Mode this doubles to every 120 seconds — across the favourites screen, departure and arrival boards, and service detail.
• Split-flap animation is skipped. Even if the Split-Flap Refresh setting is turned on, the flip animation is suppressed while Low Power Mode is active. Times update silently instead. (The same suppression applies when Reduce Motion is on in iOS Accessibility settings.)

These changes take effect automatically — no action needed. Normal behaviour resumes as soon as Low Power Mode is turned off.

iOS Low Data Mode signals that the current network connection is metered or constrained — for example a mobile hotspot with a limited allowance. The app respects this for background station data refreshes:

• Background station cache refreshes are deferred. When the cache is stale and Low Data Mode is active, the refresh is skipped rather than downloading the full station list in the background.
• First load and manual refresh always proceed. If no cached station data exists at all, or you tap Refresh Now in Station Data settings, the download always goes ahead regardless of Low Data Mode — so the app remains functional.

Live departure and arrival board data is not affected by Low Data Mode — those requests are small and time-sensitive.

Serialises your favourites list to a JSON file and opens the system share sheet, letting you save it to Files, AirDrop it, or attach it to an email. Useful for:

• Backing up before reinstalling the app.
• Transferring your favourites to another device.
• Sharing a set of boards with someone else.
• Hand-crafting a favourites list to import.

Opens the Files picker. Select a valid Departure Board export file and the app will read the JSON, validate every entry, and append the valid ones to your list. Your existing favourites are never overwritten or reordered.

The result is shown inline immediately after import:

• Green checkmarks — boards successfully added to your favourites.
• Minus circles — boards skipped because they're already in your favourites.
• Red crosses — entries rejected with an explicit reason. Common reasons include:
  • Not a valid board ID format — the string doesn't match the expected pattern.
  • Unknown station code "XYZ" — the primary station CRS code isn't in the app's station database.
  • Unknown filter station code "XYZ" — the filter station CRS code isn't recognised.

If the file can't be read at all, a plain error message is shown instead: for example if the file isn't valid JSON, or the favourites array is missing or empty.

A single key favourites whose value is an array of board ID strings:

{
  "favourites": [
    "MAN-dep",
    "LDS-arr",
    "LIV-dep-to-EUS",
    "EUS-arr-from-LIV"
  ]
}

Each string encodes one favourite board using hyphen-separated components:

{CRS}-{type}
{CRS}-{type}-{direction}-{filterCRS}

• CRS codes are case-sensitive and must be uppercase — MAN, not man. Look up a station's CRS code →
• Unknown CRS codes are rejected on import — the app validates each entry against its cached station list and shows the reason inline.
• Duplicate entries are skipped; the existing entry is kept.
• The order of entries in the array determines the order in your favourites list.
• There is no enforced maximum length, though very long lists may affect the performance of the Next Service feature.

Minimal valid file: {"favourites":["MAN-dep"]}

CRS codes used in URL schemes are the same three-letter codes shown throughout the app. Look up a station's CRS code →

1. Long-press any empty area of your home screen until the icons jiggle.
2. Tap the + button in the top-left corner.
3. Search for Departure Board.
4. Choose a widget type and size, then tap Add Widget.
5. The widget will appear on your home screen. Tap and hold it, then tap Edit Widget to configure which board it shows.

Widgets can also be added to the Today View (swipe right from the home screen) and to the Lock Screen on iOS 16 and later.

There are two widget types, each configurable to show any board from your favourites or any station.

How many services are visible depends on the widget size. The layout adapts — larger widgets show more detail per row.

Tap and hold a widget on your home screen, then tap Edit Widget. The configuration screen lets you choose which board to display — your favourites appear at the top of the list, followed by every other station in the app. For Two Boards, you configure a First Board and a Second Board independently.

Each board can be a plain departures or arrivals board, or a filtered board — for example "Liverpool Departures → London Euston" — if you've added filtered boards to your favourites.

Nearest Station appears at the top of the picker as a special option. When selected, the widget resolves to your actual nearest station at the time each refresh fires — useful if you commute and want a widget that automatically adapts to whichever station you're closest to. Location must be enabled for this to work.

If you don't configure a widget, it defaults to your first favourite board (or first two favourites for Two Boards).

On Medium and Large widgets, each service row shows:

• Scheduled time — in monospaced type for easy scanning.
• Destination — the final calling point, or multiple destinations for splitting services.
• Status — the expected time if delayed (in orange), or a red ✕ if cancelled. Rows that are on time show no status indicator.
• Platform — shown as a badge on the right when assigned.
• Bus icon — shown for rail replacement bus services.

On the Small widget, status text is omitted to save space — delayed times are shown in orange and cancellations show a red ✕ icon instead.

Tapping the station name at the top of a widget opens the full departure board for that station in the app. Tapping an individual service row opens that service's detail view directly — calling points, live delay, platform, and operator.

Widgets refresh every 5 minutes. iOS may delay or batch refreshes when the device is in Low Power Mode or when the widget is not recently visible — this is a system-level constraint that applies to all widgets. The app's own live boards (when open) refresh every 60 seconds independently.

Every widget shows a small ↻ refresh button and a relative "updated X ago" timestamp in the header. Tap the button to trigger an immediate data refresh without waiting for the next automatic cycle — useful when you've just arrived at a station and want the latest departures right now.

If a widget can't fetch live data — for example due to no network connection — it shows an error message in place of the departure rows. Rather than a generic "Could not load" message, the app picks a random train-themed pun to make the failure a little less grim. The message is chosen at fetch time and stays stable until the next successful refresh.

When your device's location is detected outside the United Kingdom, widgets switch to a travel mode view rather than attempting to fetch UK departure data. Travel mode shows the current London time, updating every minute — handy for keeping track of UK time while abroad. Widgets return to normal departure data automatically once you're back in the UK.

Controls how accent colours are applied to each row in the widget. The available themes are a subset of the board Row Theme options:

Controls where the accent colour used by the Widget Row Theme comes from.

Has no visible effect when Widget Row Theme is set to None.

When on, service rows animate with a split-flap push effect whenever the widget refreshes or a service drops off the top of the board. This is separate from the favourites screen Split-Flap Refresh setting — you can enable it for widgets without enabling it for the home screen, or vice versa.

iOS may suppress widget animations in some contexts (e.g. Low Power Mode). Departure times and status text always use a smooth digit-roll transition regardless of this setting.

A static widget-style preview appears directly below the Widget Appearance settings, showing four mock services with your chosen Row Theme and Colour Source applied. The preview updates in real time as you change settings — no need to go back to the home screen to check.

The app needs an internet connection to fetch live data. Check your signal or Wi-Fi, then pull down on the board to retry. If it fails repeatedly, the live data service may be temporarily unavailable — try again in a few minutes.

Check the following in order:

1. Location permission — go to the iOS Settings app → Departure Board → Location, and ensure it is set to While Using the App. If it's set to Never, auto-load cannot fire.
2. Distance threshold — if you're using Nearby Favourite or Favourite, then Nearest, check that your distance threshold in the app's Settings is large enough to cover the gap between your current location and the station.
3. Favourites list order — if multiple favourites are within range, the highest one in the list wins. Check that the board you expect to open is at the top.
4. Mode — confirm the Auto-Load mode is not set to Disabled.

The app searches its local station cache. If a station is missing, renamed, or newly opened, the cache may be out of date. Go to Settings → Station Data → Refresh Now to download a fresh copy of the station list. After the refresh completes the station should appear in search.

If Maps is set to Google Maps in Settings but the Google Maps app isn't installed on the device, tapping the map link won't open anything. Either install Google Maps or switch the setting to Apple Maps (Settings → Maps → Open in → Apple Maps).

Service IDs are time-sensitive — a service that has already completed its journey or was cancelled well in advance may no longer have detail data available. Try opening a current or imminent service instead. If the problem affects all services, check your internet connection and pull to refresh.