A: We send you email alerts when there are disruptions on your chosen Tube or Overground lines, during the times you care about. No app to download, no notifications to manage - just a quick email when it matters.
A: Visit our main page, select your lines, set your alert window times, and enter your email. You'll receive a confirmation email - click the link to activate your subscription.
A: Email confirmation (double opt-in) ensures that only you can sign up your email address. This protects against someone else signing you up without permission and helps our emails reach your inbox rather than spam.
A: Yes, completely free. We don't charge for alerts and there are no premium tiers.
A: We poll TfL every minute and email you straight away when a disruption is detected. In our experience, alerts tend to arrive faster than alternative apps. For the quickest results, turn on email notifications on your phone.
A: By default, you'll be alerted for Minor Delays, Severe Delays, Part Suspended, Suspended, Part Closure, and Planned Closure. You can filter these in your settings if you only want to hear about major issues.
A: No. We use multiple layers of protection to keep alerts useful without spamming you - including double-check confirmation, escalating cooldowns, and oscillation suppression. See the box below for full details.
A: Yes! When signing up, tick "Notify me when good service resumes" and you'll receive a recovery email when your lines return to Good Service. We wait 5 minutes before sending to avoid false alarms from temporary status flickers.
A: If you were alerted about a disruption and the line recovers within 4 hours, we'll send you the recovery email even if it falls outside your time window - so you know the issue is resolved. We won't send recovery emails between midnight and 5am. If more than 4 hours have passed since your original alert (for example, you were alerted yesterday evening and the line recovers the next morning), we silently reset your alert state without sending a late recovery email.
A: Your alert window is the time range during which you want to receive notifications. For example, if you commute between 7:00-9:00am, set that as your window and you will only be alerted during those hours. Unlike most alternative apps that limit you to fixed rush-hour slots, London Underground Alerter lets you set any start and end time. This makes it ideal for shift workers, nurses, emergency workers, and anyone whose schedule falls outside the typical 9-to-5.
A: Yes. Click "Add another time window" when signing up to add a second window. This is perfect if you want alerts for both your morning and evening commute, or if you work split shifts.
A: Absolutely. By default, alerts are sent every day, but you can select specific days. Most commuters choose Monday to Friday to avoid weekend alerts. This is also useful if you work from home on certain days and only need alerts on the days you actually travel.
A: All times are UK time (GMT in winter, BST in summer). The system automatically adjusts for daylight saving.
A: Yes. Using the severity filters in the advanced settings, you can exclude specific disruption types. If you only care about severe issues, uncheck "Minor Delays" and you'll only hear about the big stuff.
A: Every alert email includes a "Manage my alerts" link. Click it to update your lines, times, days, or severity filters. You can also add or remove time windows.
A: Yes, select as many lines as you like when signing up. You can monitor both Tube and Overground lines in a single subscription.
A: You can create multiple subscriptions with the same email address. For example, one subscription for your morning commute lines and another for evening.
A: Yes. When you select a Tube line, you can optionally set a route filter to only receive alerts for disruptions between two specific stations. This is useful on long or branching lines where you only travel a short section. See the Route Filtering section below for full details on how it works.
A: Yes. In the advanced customisation settings, toggle "Skip bank holidays" and you won't receive alerts on UK bank holidays (Christmas, Easter, and other England & Wales public holidays). This is off by default, so you need to opt in.
A: Yes. Every alert email includes a "Pause for today" link at the bottom. Click it to silence all alerts for the rest of the day - useful when there are lots of disruptions and you've already decided to take the bus. You can also pause from the "Manage my alerts" page with more duration options: rest of today, 3 days, 1 week, or 2 weeks. Alerts resume automatically when the pause period ends.
A: Yes. Go to the "Manage my alerts" page (linked in every email) and choose a pause duration that covers your trip - up to 2 weeks in a single click. You don't need to unsubscribe and re-subscribe. If your holiday is longer than 2 weeks, just pause again when the first one expires, or adjust your active days so you're only alerted on the days you actually commute.
A: Alerts resume automatically - you don't need to do anything. If you change your mind and want alerts back sooner, visit the "Manage my alerts" page and click "Resume alerts" to end the pause early.
A: Every email includes an "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom. One click and you're removed - no hoops to jump through.
A: Your subscription is deleted immediately. We don't keep your email address after you unsubscribe.
A: No. We never share, sell, or use your email for anything other than sending your requested alerts. See our Privacy Policy for details.
A: Our philosophy is simplicity. Email requires no app download, no account creation, no storage on your phone, and works on any device. You don't need to grant notification permissions or worry about battery drain. Many people already have email open at work, so alerts appear on your screen without having to check your phone. In our testing, email alerts arrive just as fast as push notifications from other apps. And emails are easier to search if you want to check past disruptions.
A: Not in practice. Some apps batch notifications to save battery, and others may not send alerts if you haven't opened the app recently. We poll TfL every minute and send straight away, so alerts tend to arrive as fast or faster than alternatives. If you turn on email notifications on your phone, they work just like push alerts - you see them on your lock screen the moment they arrive.
A: Enable email notifications on your phone and our alerts will appear on your lock screen instantly. If you'd prefer traditional push notifications instead, we offer that too - see the Push Notifications section below.
A: Yes. If you'd prefer traditional push notifications on your phone, you can enable them through our lightweight web app. There is nothing to download from an app store - it uses a Progressive Web App (PWA) that you add to your home screen. You'll find the link on the confirmation page after activating your subscription, or on the "Manage my alerts" page.
A: After subscribing, look for the "Get Push Notifications" link on the confirmation page after activating your subscription, or on the "Manage my alerts" page. Tap it, then follow the short instructions to add the page to your home screen. Once you open it from your home screen, tap "Enable Push Notifications" and allow when your browser prompts you. That's it - you'll start getting push alerts alongside your emails.
A: Yes. Once you've enabled push notifications, you can mute email alerts from the "Manage my alerts" page. You'll find an email toggle in the Notification Preferences section. You can switch back at any time.
A: Yes. Both email and push alerts are triggered from the same system at the same time. When a disruption is detected, we send both simultaneously, so you'll receive them within seconds of each other.
A: We believe the simplest option should come first. Email works on every device without any setup beyond entering your email address - no app, no permissions, no home screen steps. Push notifications are a great option for those who want them, but email gets most people up and running in under 30 seconds with zero friction.
A: Our main page displays live updates for each Tube and Overground line with colour-coded status cards. You can also visit individual line pages for detailed history.
A: We use data directly from Transport for London (TfL) via their official API. This information is refreshed every minute.
A: All 11 Tube lines (Bakerloo, Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, Waterloo & City), the Elizabeth line, DLR, and London Overground lines (Liberty, Lioness, Mildmay, Suffragette, Weaver, Windrush).
A: Yes! We cover the Elizabeth line and DLR in addition to all Tube and Overground lines.
A: Yes! We offer a free embeddable Tube status widget that you can add to any website or intranet. Just enter your domain, copy a single line of iframe code, and paste it into your page. It updates automatically every 60 seconds, covers all Tube, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR, and Tram services, and requires no account or coding skills. It is completely free with no usage limits.
A: Visit our Network Dashboard to compare reliability across all lines. You can view data for the last 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days.
A: Station closure alerts notify you by email when one of your selected stations closes or partially closes. This is separate from line disruption alerts - a station can close (for example, due to overcrowding or a security alert) even when TfL reports "Good Service" on the line itself. You can monitor up to 5 stations.
A: They are particularly useful during rush hour. Stations like Oxford Circus, Bank, and King's Cross occasionally close due to overcrowding at peak times - sometimes for just 10 to 20 minutes. Getting an email before you arrive means you can walk to a nearby station instead of being turned away at the gates. They also cover planned closures for maintenance or engineering work.
A: When creating or editing an alert, open the "Advanced customisation" section on the homepage. You will see a "Station closure alerts" picker where you can search for and select up to 5 stations. These are added to your existing line alert subscription.
A: No - station recovery emails are always sent regardless of your time window. If you received a closure alert, we think you should know when the station reopens, even if it happens outside your normal alert hours.
A: Visit the station closures tracker to see all currently closed or partially closed stations across the network. You can filter by time range and by individual line.
A: Route filtering lets you narrow your alerts to a specific section of a Tube line - for example, "Hammersmith to King's Cross on the Piccadilly line". When TfL reports a disruption and specifies the affected area (e.g. "between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Uxbridge"), the system checks whether your route overlaps. If it doesn't, the alert is suppressed. This means fewer irrelevant emails about problems on parts of the line you never use.
A: Many Tube lines are long and branch in multiple directions. If you only travel between two stations in central London, you probably don't need to know about a closure affecting the far end of the line. Route filtering cuts out that noise so you only hear about disruptions that could actually affect your journey. It's especially useful on branching lines like the Northern, District, Metropolitan, and Piccadilly lines.
A: When creating or editing a subscription, select a Tube line and you will see an option to filter alerts for part of that line. Click it, then choose your "from" and "to" stations from the dropdowns. Your route is saved with your subscription. You can set a different route for each Tube line, or leave some lines unfiltered.
A: Route filtering is available on every line we cover, including all Underground lines, the Elizabeth line, DLR, and all London Overground lines (Liberty, Lioness, Mildmay, Suffragette, Weaver, and Windrush).
A: No. The system is designed to always err on the side of sending the alert. Route filtering only suppresses an alert when all three of these conditions are met: (1) TfL explicitly specifies the affected section in the disruption message, (2) your route clearly does not overlap with that section, and (3) TfL confirms "Good Service" on the rest of the line. If any of those conditions are unclear, the alert is sent anyway. In practice, this means you will still receive some alerts for disruptions outside your route - but you will never miss one that affects it.
A: You get the alert. Many TfL disruption messages simply say something like "Minor Delays" without specifying which section of the line is affected. In those cases, route filtering cannot determine whether your route is affected, so the alert is always sent. This is intentional - we would rather send one extra alert than miss a disruption on your commute.
A: Yes. Go to the "Manage my alerts" page (linked in every alert email) and edit your subscription. You can clear the route filter for any line, and alerts will go back to covering the entire line.
A: Planned closure alerts notify you about upcoming weekend closures and engineering works on your selected lines. TfL publishes these 3-4 weeks in advance. When a new planned closure appears for one of your lines, you receive an email with the dates, affected section, and details so you can plan ahead.
A: Yes. If you have set a route filter on a line (e.g. Hackney Central to Highbury & Islington on the Mildmay line), planned closure alerts will only be sent if the closure affects your section of the line. A closure between Shepherds Bush and Willesden Junction, for example, would be filtered out. Alternative apps don't currently offer this.
A: When creating or editing an alert, open "Advanced customisation" and toggle "Planned closure alerts". This is off by default. You can also enable it later from the Manage my alerts page by editing your subscription.
A: We check the TfL API for new planned closures every 2 hours between 7am and 10pm. You will only be emailed once per closure - if TfL updates the details, you won't receive a duplicate. Alerts are sent during your active time window, so if a closure is detected overnight it will wait until your next active period.
A: No. Each unique closure is only sent once. A typical week has around 10-20 planned closures across the whole network, but you'll only be notified about closures on the specific lines you subscribe to. If you have a route filter set, the number drops further since closures outside your route section are skipped entirely.
A: Yes. Regular disruption alerts fire when TfL reports real-time issues (delays, suspensions). Planned closure alerts are about scheduled engineering works that TfL publishes weeks ahead. The emails have a distinct indigo design so you can tell them apart at a glance. Both alert types respect your route filter if you have one set. You can enable either or both independently.
A: First, check your spam/junk folder - our emails come from alerts@tubenotifications.co.uk. Make sure you clicked the confirmation link when you signed up. Also verify your alert window times match when disruptions actually occur.
A: Disruptions can be resolved quickly. We alert you as soon as TfL reports an issue - if it's fixed within minutes, the status will return to Good Service before you check.
A: Yes, simply sign up again with the same details. If you already have a pending subscription, we'll resend the confirmation email.
A: Confirmation links expire after 7 days. If yours has expired, sign up again and you'll receive a fresh confirmation email.
A: Yes! We offer step-free access alerts that notify you when lifts are out of service at your chosen stations. This is ideal for wheelchair users, parents with prams, or anyone with heavy luggage. You can sign up for both line disruption alerts and step-free alerts independently.