Terms of Service

Version 2.0 • Last Updated: August 14, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing and using GhostRail ("the Service"), you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to them, please do not use the Service.

Much of GhostRail works without an account. If you would rather not agree to these Terms, you can still use the stop pages, the departure board, and the embedded widget.

2. Who May Use the Service

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under 18, you should review these Terms with a parent or guardian. By creating an account you confirm that you meet this requirement and that the information you give us is accurate.

One person, one account. Do not share your account with anyone else or create accounts on behalf of others.

3. Description of Service

GhostRail provides real-time transit information for Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) trains and buses, as well as Metra commuter rail services. The Service includes:

• Real-time arrival predictions
• Ghost vehicle detection — vehicles that are predicted but appear not to arrive
• Bunching detection and headway analysis
• Service alerts and disruption notifications
• Historical performance analytics and route reliability information
• Station and route information
• Push notifications for commute updates
• An embeddable arrivals widget and a display mode for screens

4. Where the Service Is Offered

The Service is operated from the United States and offered for use by people located in the United States, and specifically the Chicago metropolitan area. It is provided only in English, covers only Chicago-area transit agencies, and is not directed at or marketed to people located outside the United States.

5. The Service Is Free

GhostRail is provided free of charge. There is no subscription, and we do not collect payment details. If we ever introduce paid features, we will say so clearly in advance and the features you use today will not be taken away without notice.

6. Data Sources and Attribution

Transit and weather data is provided by:

• CTA Train Tracker API — real-time train arrival predictions
• CTA Bus Tracker API — real-time bus arrival predictions
• Metra GTFS-RT Feeds — real-time Metra train updates
• CTA Alerts API — service alerts and advisories
• National Weather Service — weather conditions and alerts

CTA Train Tracker and CTA Bus Tracker are trademarks of the Chicago Transit Authority. GhostRail is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected with the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, or the Regional Transportation Authority. Any errors in what you see here are ours, not theirs.

7. User Accounts

An account is required for the parts of the Service that are about you: saved favourites, My Commute, notification preferences, and your account settings. Some transit views also need one, including arrivals, search, station and route detail, and the API documentation. The live train, bus and Metra maps, service alerts, the history and reliability pages, the About page, the status page, stop pages, the departure board, and the embedded widget do not require one.

To create an account you agree to:

• Provide accurate and complete registration information
• Maintain the security of your password
• Accept responsibility for all activity under your account
• Notify us promptly of any unauthorized use

We verify your email address before the account becomes usable, so an address you do not control cannot be used to register. Joining an email list (such as an iOS beta list) does not create an account and does not require email verification at the time of entry; list collection is governed by our Privacy Policy.

8. Your Content

Saved stops, commute routes and the nicknames you give them are yours. We store them to provide the Service to you and do not publish them, sell them, or use them for any other purpose. You may change or remove them at any time.

9. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Service, or to another user's account
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service, or probe it for vulnerabilities except as described in section 10
• Scrape, harvest, or redistribute transit data obtained through the Service
• Misrepresent the Service's output as official information from a transit agency
• Exceed or attempt to circumvent the rate limits applied to the Service. We apply request limits to protect the Service and the upstream transit APIs it depends on. Automated access that evades those limits, including by spreading requests across multiple addresses or accounts, is prohibited.

Rate limits are enforced automatically. Exceeding them means requests are refused for a period; that alone is not a reason for us to close your account, but deliberate and persistent circumvention is.

If you want programmatic access to transit data, get it from the transit agencies directly — the sources in section 6 are public.

10. Reporting Security Problems

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability, email support@ghostrail.app with enough detail to reproduce it, and give us a reasonable opportunity to fix it before disclosing it publicly. Testing that is limited to your own account and does not degrade the Service for others, destroy data, or access anyone else's information will not be treated as a breach of section 9.

11. The Embedded Widget and Display Mode

GhostRail offers a widget that other sites may embed, and a display mode intended for screens in lobbies and similar places. You may use these to show GhostRail arrival information provided you do not remove or obscure attribution, do not present the information as official transit agency data, and do not place unreasonable load on the Service. We may change or withdraw either at any time, and the disclaimers in sections 13 and 14 apply to them in full.

12. Experimental Features and Beta Testing

Some features and standalone apps are made available for testing and may be incomplete, changed, or withdrawn without notice. Where a feature or build is marked as experimental or in testing, expect it to behave that way.

If you submit your email address to join a beta or preview list (such as an Apple TestFlight beta):

• Submitting your email does not guarantee an invitation or access to the beta.
• Beta builds are provided "AS IS" under section 14 and may contain bugs or cause performance issues.
• Use of beta builds is also subject to any applicable third-party distribution terms (e.g., Apple's TestFlight Terms of Service).
• We reserve the right to modify or revoke beta access at any time for any reason.

13. Service Availability

We aim to provide reliable service but do not guarantee uninterrupted access. The Service may be unavailable due to:

• Scheduled maintenance
• System upgrades
• Technical difficulties
• Third-party API outages

We are not liable for events beyond our reasonable control, including failures of transit agency systems, hosting or network providers, power, or acts of government.

14. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. We do not guarantee:

• The accuracy of arrival predictions
• The completeness of service alerts
• Continuous or error-free operation
• That data will be current or accurate

Transit predictions are estimates and should not be solely relied upon for time-sensitive travel decisions. Ghost detection, bunching detection and reliability scores are inferences drawn from public feeds, not statements of fact about what a vehicle did. Do not rely on them for anything safety-critical, and do not use them as the sole basis for a decision that matters.

15. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, GhostRail SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY:

• Indirect, incidental, or consequential damages
• Lost profits or data
• Missed transit connections or travel delays
• Damages resulting from inaccurate predictions

Our total liability shall not exceed the amount you paid for the Service in the past 12 months, which for a free service is nothing. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, in which case the limitations above apply only as far as the law permits.

16. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless GhostRail, its operators, and affiliates from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from your use of the Service or violation of these Terms.

17. Third-Party Services and Links

The Service links to and loads content from other companies — map tiles, libraries, analytics, and the transit agencies themselves. We are not responsible for their content, availability, or practices. Which parties are involved, and what they see, is set out in our Privacy Policy.

18. Privacy

Your use of the Service is governed by our Privacy Policy, which describes what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and which other companies process it.

When either document changes materially, you will be asked to review and accept the updated version at your next sign-in, and continued use of your account requires that acceptance.

19. Intellectual Property

All content, features, and functionality of the Service are owned by GhostRail and protected by intellectual property laws, except for transit data, which belongs to its sources, and third-party components, which remain the property of their authors. You may not copy, modify, or distribute any part of the Service without permission.

If you believe something on the Service infringes your copyright, contact us with enough detail to identify the material and we will review it.

20. Feedback

If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them to improve the Service without obligation or payment to you. You keep any rights you already had — you are simply not owed anything for the suggestion, and telling us something could be better does not create an obligation on either side.

21. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms. When a change is material, you will be asked to review and accept the updated Terms the next time you sign in, and you will see a short plain-language summary of what changed. Minor corrections that do not affect your rights or our obligations may be made without requiring you to accept again; the version number and date at the top of this page will still change.

If you would rather not accept an updated version, you can continue to use the parts of the Service that do not require an account, or ask us to delete your account.

22. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or terminate your account for violation of these Terms, or where we reasonably believe it is necessary to protect the Service or other users. Where circumstances allow, we will tell you why and give you an opportunity to respond.

You may stop using the Service at any time. To have your account and its data deleted, use the Account page while signed in, or email privacy@ghostrail.app from the address on the account. Sections 14, 15, 16, 19, 23, 24 and 25 survive termination.

23. Notices and Electronic Communications

We may contact you at the email address on your account, at an address you provided when joining a mailing or beta list, or through the Service itself. You agree that electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that a notice be in writing.

If you have an account, keep your email address current — it is the primary way we reach you regarding account security. If you joined an email list, every communication will contain an option to unsubscribe or remove your address.

24. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any disputes shall be resolved in the courts of Cook County, Illinois.

25. Dispute Resolution

Before filing any legal claim, you agree to attempt to resolve the dispute informally by contacting us and allowing a reasonable period to respond. Most problems are settled faster that way than through any formal process.

If informal resolution does not work, the dispute is decided in court, in the venue set out in section 24. There is no arbitration requirement — neither you nor we are required to arbitrate, and nothing in these Terms waives your right to go to court or to bring a claim in small claims court.

26. General

• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in effect.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, that is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms. We may transfer ours in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, and will say so if that happens.
• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and GhostRail regarding the Service.

27. Contact Information

General and security: support@ghostrail.app
Privacy and account deletion: privacy@ghostrail.app