The new Bee Card bus ticket system is due to launch across Manawatū in January.

A much-delayed and over-budget transport payment system, to be shared between nine regions, has met D-Day, and wider Manawatū bus passengers are set to be the guinea pigs.

The Regional Integrated Ticketing System would allow public transport users to have one payment card across nine council areas.

The card, called a Bee Card, could be topped up online, have one balance shared between cards, and used to tag on, tag off like Snapper in Wellington or Hop in Auckland.

The new system has been given various launch dates, but is yet to take off.

READ MORE:

* Increasing bus use lands new routes a longer journey

* One bus card to rule them all: Auckland joins national ticketing system

* Public transport tag card coming for wider Manawatū region

There have also been budget issues, with the original cost of $11.1 million climbing to $14.6m due to additional testing.

But Horizons Regional Council transport planner Kelly Curry told a council meeting on Tuesday that Wednesday was the day to either go with it or not.

While testing was going on in Northland and Waikato, the Horizons region would be the first to roll out the system.

The cards would first go live in Whanganui in December, before moving to the rest of the region in mid-January, Curry said.

Whanganui would be a good testing ground as there were about 130,000 bus passenger trips in the past year, while Palmerston North had more than 1 million, she said.

Work was already under way telling people about Bee Cards, including marketing plans and discussions with tertiary providers.

The new system would provide a lot more data to Horizons than it could get with its GoCard system, she said.

Passengers currently pay one fair for a route, no matter how far they travel, and do not have to tag off at the end.

But the tag on, tag off system would let council staff know where people got on and off the bus, giving better information to plan bus routes, Curry said.

GoCard users would be able to transfer their balance to Bee Cards, while free cards would be given to people to make sure they were ready to go on launch day.

Passengers could still pay by cash if they wanted, Curry said.

Councillor Sam Ferguson raised concerns about older residents moving to the new system.

"We still have people who like to use chequebooks."

On the other hand, councillor Fiona Gordon wanted to know what was being done to make sure students of all ages would be on board.

Curry said groups such as Grey Power were valuable in reaching older people, while staff had already gone to rest homes in Whanganui to hand out information.

Schools were also being talked to, while tertiary students could be targeted throughout orientation weeks on campus, she said.

The new card will also be used in Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Northland, Nelson, Otago and Invercargill.