BATON ROUGE — The Capital Area Transit System celebrated a milestone Wednesday afternoon with the announcement of a new app that promises to enhance riders’ experiences.

The app, MyStop, provides users with real-time updates about the location of their bus, estimated travel times, service alerts and more. Riders can select routes across Baton Rouge that they wish to track.

“They’ll be able to literally look at their phone, and know when it’s time to walk out to the bus because their phone will tell them when the bus is approaching,” new CATS CEO Theo Richards said at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting.

All CATS buses are now equipped with a data box located by the driver which sends information to a dispatcher who communicates to the app when there are issues. Things like construction, traffic or breakdowns along a route will be sent as a “service alert” notification to users.

The previous bus tracker app utilized by CATS—Route Shout—was launched in 2014. Numerous issues were reported by users, causing CATS to not renew their contract with the company in 2023.

The MyStop app deal cost CATS around $3.5 million. In comparison, the transit system spent $1.9 million on the former app.