Railway Meal Calculator

About

A completely free, unofficial tool for Canadian railway employees (CN, CPKC, VIA Rail, and 25+ other railways) to track trips and calculate meal entitlements for TL2 tax claims using the CRA simplified method ($23/meal).

Not affiliated with any railway company, union, or the CRA. You are responsible for your own data and calculations.

Multiple Ways to Add Trips

• CATS Auto-Scraper (CN) — scrape an entire year of tickets automatically
• QuickFill — paste ticket text from CATS or CPKC, form auto-fills instantly
• OCR Scanner — photograph a paper ticket or screenshot, auto-parsed
• VIA PDF Upload — upload VIA Rail trip reports directly
• Manual Entry — type trip details by hand, always available

Features

• Dashboard — year-by-year summary of trips, meals, and claimable amounts
• Calendar View — see your trips on a monthly calendar with color-coded bars
• Excel Export — audit-ready meal spreadsheet for your accountant or CRA
• AI Help Chat — get instant answers about how to use the app
• Community Stations — look up station codes and names

Support This Tool

Railway Meal Calculator is provided at no cost. Hosting and development are covered by the developer. If the tool proves valuable to you, voluntary contributions via PayPal or Buy Me a Coffee are greatly appreciated.