Palmerston North's bus fleet will be stuck on its old ticket system for a while yet, with the launch of a new one once again delayed.

The introduction of a delayed and over-budget bus ticket system to the wider Manawatū region has again been delayed.

Horizons Regional Council has been working with other councils on a new ticket system that would enable one payment card to be used in Manawatū, Whanganui, Horowhenua, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Northland, Nelson, Otago and Invercargill.

The card, called a Bee Card, could be topped up online, share one balance between multiple cards, and be used to tag on and off rides like Auckland's Hop card or the Snapper card in Wellington.

The Go Card used in Manawatū, Horowhenua and Whanganui is only used to pay when people get on, meaning Horizons cannot easily collect data about where people get on and off buses.

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That data would enable the council to better plan its routes and timetables.

Bee was launched in Whanganui in December and was supposed to roll out across the whole Horizons area, which includes Manawatū and Horowhenua, in mid-January.

But Horizons transport planner Kelly Curry said that would not be the case.

The launch in Whanganui went well, with no major problems, and the customer-facing side of the new system was good.

But the back-end system needed more testing and development before Horizons would be confident enough to introduce it across the entire region, she said.

The jump in use would be large. Whanganui records 100,000 bus trips per year, while the rest of the region accounted for more than 1 million, she said.

Getting those fixes done during the festive season and summer break meant the mid-January deadline could not be met.

"We need to make sure it is water-tight before pushing it out."

The Whanganui launch had helped Horizons figure out ways to ensure the introduction to the rest of the region was smooth, she said.

Nearly 3000 Bee cards were given out beforehand and people went to rest homes to teach older bus users how the cards worked.

But the most invaluable thing was having people on the buses to explain the system, make sure people tagged on and off, and sort out problems, Curry said.

That enabled staff at the Horizons office to fix problemsas they were called in, rather than passengers having to go to an office or bother with calling someone.