Launching today
Tunnel Rat
Navigate New York’s subway with realtime info and alerts.
19 followers
Navigate New York’s subway with realtime info and alerts.
19 followers
Tunnel Rat is New York's underground expert—a fast, native, and private app for riding the subway, built specifically for those who rely on it every day. Totally free, no ads, and no tracking. Unlike other transit apps, the ambition is narrow: cover the NYC subway in depth—just this system, just this city. Realtime countdowns, live train tracking, summarized alerts, trip planning, reminders, precise entrances widgets, and more, each designed with care and precision.
Since the app is totally free with no ads, how are you planning to keep the servers and development funded long term, especially if real-time MTA data costs start adding up?
@yeterarsladz0a Great question. A few things for you below, but the short answer is that it's actually pretty inexpensive to run. I'm covering those costs myself indefinitely—really just to provide a utility for New Yorkers.
Fortunately, the realtime MTA feed is free, and has been for awhile. So the only real costs around that is the CDN layer, which scales pretty cheaply.
I use Claude Sonnet to summarize and tidy up service alerts, which carries the biggest risk of cost bumps. But I'm also playing with Haiku and other cheaper models now, and finding they do a solid job for fractions of a cent per alert.
I'm gonna add a few paid, optional bits down the road—mostly aesthetic or power user features—to help support things, but not imminently.
The singular focus on just the NYC subway shows real discipline, and the precise entrance widgets sound genuinely useful for daily riders who know how much a missed staircase can ruin your morning.
finally an app that gets NYC and only NYC. love how clean the live tracking is, no clutter or weird upsells popping up between stops. the widget for station entrances is genuinely useful for late nights when you need the closest exit fast.
How are you handling the MTA's data feed reliability when the realtime updates lag or go down during service changes?
how does the live train tracking actually work under the ground, is it pulling from the MTA feed or something custom you built?
Finally gave it a spin on the 6 train this morning, and the live countdown matched what I saw on the platform to the second. The no-tracking promise actually feels genuine, which I appreciate more than I expected from a free app.