ECan's trial of its new public transport system in Timaru has seen 150 people sign up.

Environment Canterbury's trial of a new "on demand" public transport service for Timaru has progressed to the next stage, with 150 people signing up for a trial period.

The regional council is seeking to overhaul its current system of bus routes by replacing it with a system called MyWay, where users call up the service via either an app or call centre.

﻿After a short trial involving 30 staff from Timaru District Council and ECan, the regional council began its public pilot on Monday.

ECan community engagement advisor Isabelle Bromham said although it was clear the public are keen to try the service out, the structured testing period was crucial.

"While it bodes well that people are so eager to use the service, the pilot has been designed to fully test all our systems, from the app's functionality to our customer service and vehicle operations," Bromham said.

"Our pilot participants are detailing every aspect of their journey and providing this information back to us so that we can make any changes before we open the service to the public at the end of April."

Bromham said the 150 participants in the pilot represented a cross-section, including those with physical or learning disabilities, elderly, migrants, school and tertiary students, commuters and families.

"We spend a lot of time talking directly to community groups about their needs, because the rationale behind MyWay by Metro is that we are opening up accessibility around and across Timaru, outside of the traditional bus routes," she said.

Bromham acknowledged there were a few "teething issues" with the system's routing which were quickly identified.

This included the technology specifying routes which were not the natural way a driver would usually go, or not using the obvious bus stops outside key locations as drop off points.

"This is why we are running the pilot – this feedback enables us to explore options and update the technology so that it is working effectively when we launch to the public towards the end of April," she said.

When the system launches to the public in April, the Grantlea, Watlington and Gleniti routes will be replaced by the on-demand public transport service for the 12-month period.

The popular Timaru link service could also be removed at a later date.

The total project cost is $2.18 million. This includes the cost of continuing to run the existing service and a 15 per cent contingency.

An ECan spokesperson said although people can download the MyWay app, it would not become operative until April.