Alert Me (National Rail App)

What do the alerts tell me?

The new feature to the app will provide you with a push notification detailing the following:

• When your next train to your selected destination is scheduled to depart
• Whether that train is on time or delayed
• Whether your service is a replacement bus/other method of transport
• What platform the service will be departing from (providing a platform number has been released)
• Whether there is disruption affecting your route

How do I set this up?

Setting up the alert me function is easy, providing you have downloaded the National Rail app, just follow these simple steps:

1. Go to the ‘More’ tab on the National Rail app
2. Select the ‘Alert me’ tab and enable ‘show my next train’

Now you have set up the functionality, to start receiving notifications when you are arriving at your station, you will need have at least one of the following: 

• A Home & Work station saved- which can be saved under the ‘My travel’ tab of the National Rail Application.
• A live journey favourited- which can be favourited by selecting the ‘Live trains’ tab, inputting a journey and selecting the star which appears just about the results.
• A journey planner favourited- which can be favourited by selecting the ‘Planner’ tab, inputting a journey and selecting the star which appears just about the results.

You will now receive a push notification about your next train, platform number and any delays as you are arriving at your station.

By setting up the Home & Work stations, you will receive notifications for when you are arriving at your home station and when you are departing from your work station to head back home.

How do I stop receiving these?

Stopping these notifications is easy, simply go to the National Rail app and go to More > Alert me > Disable ‘show my next train’.

Frequently asked questions

Will this functionality work for multi-leg journeys?

Not at present, however you will still receive an initial notification once you are arriving at your station even if your journey requires a connection.
If your journey is between Nottingham & Brighton (Which requires a change at London St Pancras), when arriving at Nottingham you will receive a notification informing you of your next train to Brighton (this service will be your next one to London St Pancras where you will have to change)

To mitigate this, you can save multiple journey searches (For instance from Nottingham to London St Pancras and another from London St Pancras to Brighton) which would result in you receiving a notification upon arrival at Nottingham and London St Pancras.

Why can't I get information about trains leaving in under 5 minutes?

We have set the default to show ‘my next train’ after 5 minutes, for practical and safety reasons You can reset this to a minimum of 3 minutes or a maximum of 20 minutes, simply go to the National Rail Application and go to More > Settings > Amend ‘show my next train after’.

Can I receieve notifications for as many journeys as I like?

No, unfortunately not! You can still favourite as many journeys as you like, however you will only receive a notification for the first 5 Live Journeys and first 5 Journey Planner favourites (10 in total).
Additionally, you will be able to receive notifications by saving a Home & Work station.

Will I have to select both a start and end station for the alert to work?

Yes, to receive a push notification users will need to have favourited a live departure board journey that has both an outward & return leg as opposed to simply favouriting a departure board for a specific station.

Will I be notified about which train company is operating the service?

No, at present this functionality will not display which Train Operating Company your next train will be run by. This may affect customers who have both ‘Show my next train’ and ‘Show fastest train’ which may tell you the next service however, your ticket may not be valid on that service.

Whilst we are looking to improve this functionality, we would ask that you make sure you are aware which Train Operating Company your ticket(s) are valid on.

Why have I not recieved a notification when I am heading home?

To stop customers who have saved Home & Work stations from receiving an additional notification when they are arriving at their destination, telling them to return we have added a feature where once the Home/Work initial notification has been sent, the Work/Home location will be disabled for 3 hours.
Whilst we are looking to improve the functionality, customers returning to either their Home/Work station within 3 hours will not receive a return notification.

Is this replacing the already available alerts?

No, this is simply another form of alerts which our users will be able to benefit from. Users will still be able to set up the current alerts in the usual way.

Feedback

We would appreciate any feedback that you have regarding the new 'Alert Me' functionality. Feedback can be sent to [email protected]