Commuters on South Africa’s Gautrain and GauBus transport service can now access an application that tries to inform them of real time train and bus times in a slicker way.

The app dubbed the GauRider 1.0 was launched today for commuters who make use of the railway system.

The Gautrain is South Africa’s rapid rail and bus service system that was launched in 2010 in the Gauteng province. It links Johannesburg, Pretoria, and OR Tambo International Airport.

Currently, more than 50,000 passengers use the Gautrain daily, according to officials of the train system.

And the GauRider 1.0 app is available on Apple iOS devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The app can be downloaded on iTunes for the price of $3.99. It is the first Gautrain app running on Apple’s latest mobile operating system iOS 7.

“I looked at train and bus apps, locally and abroad. I saw that they were similar in their functionality, but they were not the most intuitive designs with great user experience. I wanted to rethink how navigation works to make it easier for the user and make it enjoyable,” the app’s iOS developer and designer Litha Soyizwapi told ITWeb Africa.

"GauRider is the first universal app for iOS you can access the train time from any direction with a single drag and drop on a single screen. You also get the trip fare amount as well,” he added.

However, Soyizwapi’s app is not the only Gautrain app available on the market to commuters, as others supplied by the likes of the train service itself do exist.

But he explains that his app different because it is the first iPad ready app.

“I think there was a gap in the market for an iPad ready app. As a commuter I saw the delightful response from random commuters when I showed them the app. Most of them had iPads,” he said.

Although the app is currently only available on iOS, plans for an Android port have started.

“I want the experience to be authentic and native to Android,” Soyizwapi concluded.