Gautrain is an 80-kilometre (50-mile) higher-speed express commuter rail system in Gauteng, South Africa, which links Johannesburg, Pretoria, Kempton Park and O. R. Tambo International Airport.

The Gautrain is mainly aimed at providing and optimising an integrated, innovative public transport system that enables and promotes the long-term sustainable economic growth of Gauteng.

It is also part of a broader vision to industrialise and modernise the region, including a commitment towards creating and sustaining an integrated culture of public transport use.

The Gautrain is implemented as a public–private partnership (PPP) in terms of Treasury Regulation 16 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

The concession also includes the operations of the Gautrain and the Concessionaire is responsible for delivering all the services as defined in the CA to specified levels of performance.

These include the services related to the train and buses, safety, stations, revenue collection, marketing and passenger communication.

In 2006 the Province signed a 20‑year PPP contract with the Bombela Concession Company, which included Murray & Roberts, empowerment organisation Strategic Partners Group, Bombardier Transportation, Bouygues, and various minority shareholders.

The TBM, named Imbokodo (meaning "rock"), installs pre-cast concrete tunnel lining segments behind it as it moves forward.

The first public passenger trip was made on 3 February 2009 by 150 people on a 3 km (1.9 mi) test track at the depot.

The first part of the System, between Sandton and O. R Tambo International Airport, opened to the public on 8 June 2010, in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

For the first time since its opening to the public in 2010, the Gautrain system had been put to a halt since 27 March 2020 as part of the lockdown measures taken by the South African government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The method of payment on Gautrain buses uses the same personalized electronic ticket as for train travel, requiring a minimum balance of R20.00 for boarding a bus.

According to the Gautrain planning and implementation study, this is done for several reasons, including that a broader gauge is safer and more comfortable for passengers.

Rosebank and Johannesburg Park stations were designed by Atkins – Urban Edge architects joint venture.

The additional train project was expected to have a significant and positive socio-economic impact in the Province as the Gauteng Provincial Government said it would insist on at least 65 percent local content by the successful bidder.

However, supporters maintain that the train was never meant to be an alternative to mass public transport; instead, it was intended to reduce pressure on Johannesburg's overloaded highway system.

[16] Leftist political groupings like the SACP and labour movements like COSATU branded the Gautrain as a train for the rich and called on the government not to proceed with the project.

A national parliamentary oversight body, the Transport Portfolio Committee, held public hearings in November 2005 and subsequently advised Cabinet to scrap or postpone the project.

Critics alleged that options like rapid bus transit could achieve similar levels of service at a fraction of the costs, however, the estimated 62,000 daily riders require a capacity unfeasible by BRT.

In March 2008, Jeremy Cronin, chairman of the National Assembly's transport portfolio committee and deputy secretary-general of the SACP, complained that the cost had quietly crept up to R35 billion.

[22] Cronin has long opposed the project and told the SA Parliament's lower house during a budget debate that his information was that the project's cost was escalating "quietly and below the radar screen", though MPs "were told, hand on heart, here in Parliament just a few years ago, what the written-in-stone absolute upper limit was [R20 billion]".

The Gautrain management agency CEO, Jack van der Merwe, has subsequently denied this, stating that the project is a fixed-price, fixed-scope and fixed-period contract and that the price will only increase if the consumer price index increases above the South African Reserve Bank's prediction, if the Gauteng Province were in breach of contract, or if the project's scope were to change.

[30] In August 2024, the Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced an R120 billion expansion of the network to extend service to Soweto, Mamelodi, Atteridgeville, Lanseria, and Springs.