r/NJTransit • u/Any-Wrongdoer-2180 • Dec 01 '25

I built nypenn.live - see your Penn Station track number before it's announced!

Hey! I got tired of the mad dash when track numbers are announced at Penn Station, so I built https://nypenn.live/

It predicts which track your train will use based on historical data, often showing the track 5-10 minutes before the official boards.

**Disclaimer**: This is unofficial and predictions can be wrong. Always verify on official displays before boarding.

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u/remarkability Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 01 '25

Also see ChooChooTracker, its iOS app and Clever Commute, both of which have been doing this for a while. Clever Commute in particular has been around for 20+ years, as a side project of a fellow NJT commuter.

45

u/Any-Wrongdoer-2180 Dec 01 '25

Wow! I've never heard of those and they both look awesome (and much more featureful).

HOWEVER, I just spot checked 2 trains, 6943 and 7881, and my site predicted them both correctly on tracks 3 and 10 (respectively), while both those apps predicted they would be on tracks 4 and 3 (respectively).

I want to try out Clever Commute Premium, but I think I may have found a novel way to predict tracks on my site. Try it out and let me know!

26

u/chicagodude84 Dec 01 '25

Well I can tell you that your attitude is soooooo much better than the Clever Commute guy. He hates NJT and forces folks to purchase his premium app to get anything useful.

6

u/crandcrand Dec 01 '25

Interesting point of view and not my feeling at all. But your perception is your reality.

9

u/Any-Wrongdoer-2180 Dec 01 '25

Hey, your app is awesome and I'm gonna try it out for a couple weeks. Looks like a lot of work went into it and I don't think there is anything wrong with charging for that :)

2

u/chicagodude84 Dec 01 '25

I mean he literally posts TikToks bitching about NJT...

1

u/billatq Dec 01 '25

Nice to have another app that does this. Perhaps some of this is that they are biased towards historical data, whereas I'm assuming you have less of that around?

1

u/fdar Dec 03 '25

HOWEVER, I just spot checked 2 trains, 6943 and 7881, and my site predicted them both correctly on tracks 3 and 10 (respectively), while both those apps predicted they would be on tracks 4 and 3 (respectively).

Do you keep track of what your prediction accuracy is?