About Us

Hey, I'm Ali.

I'm a guy from Brooklyn with a bit of a developer background and a long commute on the subway. For years, my morning routine was the same. Keys, wallet, phone out, open the MTA app, wait for it to load, squint at the tiny arrival times, then sprint out the door anyway.

One day I just thought: why am I doing this? Why isn't there just something on my wall that tells me when the next train is coming?

So I built one.

I threw together an LED panel, a small microcontroller, and wrote some code that pulls real-time data straight from the MTA's official feeds. Mounted it in a walnut frame, hung it by my front door, and honestly it changed my whole morning. Just a glance on my way out. No phone. No app. No loading screen.

Then my coworkers saw a photo of it. And they all wanted one. Then their friends wanted one. And that's basically how Next Train became a real thing.

How It Works

Every display connects to your home WiFi and gets live arrival times from a custom data pipeline I built from scratch. No third-party apps, no scraped websites. The server does the heavy lifting so your display just shows clean, accurate times that update every few seconds.

Designed for Your Home, Not a Subway Platform

I wanted this to look like something you'd actually want in your apartment. Each display is housed in a handcrafted walnut wood frame, 13" by 7", and it fits right in on a shelf, entryway table, or mounted on the wall next to your photos and plants. It's home decor that happens to be incredibly useful.

No Subscriptions. Ever.

Plug it in, connect to WiFi, and you're done. No monthly fees, no hidden costs. You buy it once and it just works.

Still Made in Brooklyn

I design, assemble, and ship every display from Brooklyn. 

Got questions? I'd love to hear from you at support@nexttrain.shop.