Best App for NJT

Can anyone suggest the best app to get up to date NJT and Light Rail info. Son commuting to JC and need an app for platform info and delays.

I like DepartureVision, which is just a page from the NJT website that duplicates the 'board' in Penn Station or equivalent info for other stations. I have shortcuts on my phone to the Penn Station and Maplewood Station views as well as one for the general page to select a station of interest. Not sure if this includes the light rail though - anyone know? Other transit-related apps in the same 'group' on my phone are MyTix and NJT Ontime (to look up schedules.)

The Clever Commute App is helpful as well

For schedules: EmbarkNJ is helpful and easier to use than the NJT mobile site, but for platform boarding numbers you would still need to check Departurevision on Njtransit.com.

I use (in order of frequency) Embark for schedules and service alerts, CleverCommute push notitifications for alerts about delays and grumpiness -- generally unhelpful but amusing ("4:45 still sitting at penn at 4:52....no announcement how schocking"), and Departure Vision. I don't use the ticket app, mostly out of fear of losing my phone and my $200 train ticket simultaneously.

I've been meaning to try Clever Commute, but so far mainly use Departure Vision. It does have itsutility for track information and anticipated delays, but your son should be aware that it pulls the train information after the scheduled departure time. So, if a train is due at 10am , it pops off the departure board at 10:01 even if it never arrived. So, at that point, you have no idea if it's a two minute delay, ten minutes delay or the train will never arrive and you will stand there forever.

It seems so silly. You need "real time" information more when the train is delayed than when it is on time.

Typing this out prompted me to download Clever Commute..

• I use the CooCoo ap great for schedules and back it up with Clever Commute.

j_r said:
I use (in order of frequency) Embark for schedules and service alerts, CleverCommute push notitifications for alerts about delays and grumpiness -- generally unhelpful but amusing ("4:45 still sitting at penn at 4:52....no announcement how schocking"), and Departure Vision. I don't use the ticket app, mostly out of fear of losing my phone and my $200 train ticket simultaneously.

FWIW, a monthly ticket through the MyTix is associated with the account, not the phone. So if you were to lose your phone, I agree that would suck. But you could pull up the MyTix app on your replacement phone, log in, and have your monthly ticket back. That said, you cannot be logged into the app from multiple phones, for obvious reasons.

You're right, of course, and that's probably what I would do (and why I always keep an old phone as backup). But I've left my phone behind a handful of times each year, and I never forget my train pass, and I don't carry much cash, so I'm just playing the odds here.

Can I just ask what exactly you use Clever Commute for? I used to belong to the free service, but got rid of it as I simply didn't find it all that useful.

ridski said:
Can I just ask what exactly you use Clever Commute for? I used to belong to the free service, but got rid of it as I simply didn't find it all that useful.

Best is as a general heads up as to impending problems of which I am made aware before I leave the office for Penn. Saved me a few times as I knew to go straight to Hoboken.

I removed myself from the Clever Commute service. I found that I got 20 irrelevant messages for every one that was useful. And I couldn't deal with the way it filled my inbox on some days with repetitive messages. The problem as I saw it was that people had a hard time separating issues that were personal annoyances to them from system wide problems that were helpful to communicate. Single tracking in/out of Penn with 30 minute delays - important and should be shared. "I'm on the 6:08 and it hasn't left Penn yet at 6:15" -- not at all helpful. Either I'm on the 6:08 too and I know it hasn't left yet, or I'm not on it and I don't care.

Whoever sends the message on Clever Commute that the 7:15 from Murray Hill is 3 minutes late ALL THE TIME needs to chill out.

I do find it occasionally helpful, though less so since I started regularly commuting out of Hoboken and don't face the same boarding/crowding/delay problems. @ml1 It can be helpful to get those messages though if a train is removed from the board but is still sitting on the platform - you might be able to make it if you are just arriving and receive the alert.

hmbooks said:
Whoever sends the message on Clever Commute that the 7:15 from Murray Hill is 3 minutes late ALL THE TIME needs to chill out.
I do find it occasionally helpful, though less so since I started regularly commuting out of Hoboken and don't face the same boarding/crowding/delay problems. @ml1 It can be helpful to get those messages though if a train is removed from the board but is still sitting on the platform - you might be able to make it if you are just arriving and receive the alert.

I almost never cut my arrival at Penn close enough that that's an issue for me. for the one time a year that might occur, it wasn't worth having my inbox full of commuter complaints on dozens of other days.

ml1 said:
The problem as I saw it was that people had a hard time separating issues that were personal annoyances to them from system wide problems that were helpful to communicate.

That is spot on. I probably shouldn't admit this but I find imagining the characters behind the messages slightly entertaining. Most of the time I ignore. (The early heads up when trains are all bollixed up is good, though, and more accurate and timely than NJT's own alerts on Embark.)

i use "Itrans NJT" and "ontime NJT"

I like NJ Rails over Departure Vision.

I use @*****njtransit on twitter.