About Late Again

What it does

Late Again lists the train lines you catch, worst first. A delay figure where there is one, the kind of trouble where there is not, and GOOD SERVICE where the line is running to timetable. Tap a row for the full notice, with the line drawn as a strip of its stations.

You pick a city first: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide or Canberra. Melbourne is Metro Trains and V/Line. Sydney is Sydney Trains, the M1 Metro, light rail and the intercity lines. Brisbane is Queensland Rail and the Gold Coast G:link. Adelaide is Adelaide Metro trains and the Glenelg tram. Canberra is light rail. Each city keeps its own lines, stations and rules, so switching takes one tap. With location on, a fresh install opens in the nearest city.

The departures board shows the next trains from a station you choose: destination, line, platform and how long you have. Set TO BLACKBURN and each train says whether it stops there, with the arrival time. Trains that run through are dimmed. The first train that stops is always above the fold. With no destination set, each row says ALL STATIONS or EXPRESS.

Open a line and its trains are drawn on it, seen from above. Citybound one side of the rail, outbound the other.

The trip planner covers city and country trains together. Carnegie to Lara changes at Footscray, not Southern Cross, because that is quicker. Each station has its own change time, and Settings can add two or five minutes more. Past the myki boundary a trip says the V/Line fare is bought separately. The five long-distance lines say the seat is reserved.

Follow a train and the lock screen counts to the stop you get off at, not the end of the line. GET OFF is when the train leaves the station before yours. A server keeps the card moving with the phone locked: Live Activity on iPhone, a shade notification on Android. ARRIVED stays a minute, then both go. Nothing starts a follow but you, and it is not there in a browser.

A station alarm, off until you turn it on in Settings, rings when that stop is next and keeps ringing until you stop it, on the phone or a paired Apple Watch. It needs a followed trip and a named get-off station. Line alerts wait until morning. This alarm does not. The looping alarm wants iOS 26; older iPhones get one notification; Android takes the whole screen. The web saves the preference and does nothing else.

Turn alerts on and the app tells you once when a new disruption appears on a line you watch. Quiet windows hold alerts back: 8pm to 6am every day and 10am to 4pm on weekdays to begin with, and you can add your own. A disruption still going when a window ends reaches you then. A commute rule is one trip, such as Carnegie to State Library on weekdays, 8 to 9:30, and it narrows alerts to what touches that trip. With no rules you hear about every line you watch.

On iPhone and Android a server checks your operator every couple of minutes and sends the alert, so a closed phone still hears. On the web the page only notices while it is open, and Settings says so. You can also mute an alert from the alert itself: hold it, or expand it on Android, and choose “Mute this window” or “Mute today”. The mute works with the app closed and lifts itself.

While a board loads, the screen draws that network's own train through its own city. There are ten of them, and a row in Settings tours the lot.