An Aussie bloke who came up with a wizard iPhone application to monitor Sydney train and other public transport has received a cease and desist notice from RailCorp.

Alvin Singh's Transit Sydney iPhone application has been selling like hotcakes for the past two weeks. But Singh recently received a threatening email from RailCorp advising him that if he did not remove the application he would be sued for copyright infringement, as RailCorp owns all of its timetable information.

The problem is that the application, which displays train and ferry timetable information in a format similar to the computer monitors found at train stations, is based on the fixed schedules provided on the CityRail and other public transport websites. His legal eagles have told him that it will cost a lot to take the government to court and he would probably lose anyway.

RailCorp would not comment on whether or not it was developing its own iPhone application. Although the iPhone application can deal with a fixed timetables does does not take into account for service delays.

Singh said he was not looking to profit from the application and sold it only to cover his costs. He said he would give the code to RailCorp for free if it wanted to build its own version.