After an overwhelming response from bus riders in Waterloo region, Grand River Transit (GRT) had to close their application to be a beta tester for the upcoming EasyGO fare card.

On Jan. 25, GRT asked for 100 frequent bus riders to become a fare card beta tester.

In less than a day, GRT received 185 applications. The application is now closed.

"We are really excited and happy that people are that into it and that interested in working with us," Gethyn Beniston, project manager for electronic fare systems for Waterloo region told CBC News.

Wow, that was fast! Thanks to everyone who applied to be a beta tester. Due to overwhelming response, the survey is now closed. We'll select the beta testers in early/mid February, and notify all applicants by Feb. 19 at the latest. <a href="https://t.co/YMjP4JR6DO">pic.twitter.com/YMjP4JR6DO</a> —@GRT_ROW

Recreating 'unusual situations'

Volunteer beta testers are tasked to use the EasyGO fare card for a month and provide GRT staff with feedback.

"If I have 100 people riding on buses, I'm going to recreate all of the unusual situations that I can't do here in the lab or in the garage," Beniston said.

"If there's some strange thing going on in our system that I haven't seen, these people hopefully will find it for us before we roll the system out further."

This beta testing is one of the last tests before GRT hopefully launches EasyGO in June, said Beniston.

However, not all the EasyGO fare card features will be available during beta testing. For example, beta testers will only be able to reload the fare card at the Charles and Ainslie Street Terminals.

All GRT buses have the new fare boxes installed and if all goes well, GRT will do a second beta test in March, where beta testers will be able to load their fare cards online.

For this round of beta testing, GRT will notify chosen volunteers by Feb.19.