Nov. 13--Starting next week, a long-awaited Ventra app will allow transit users to use their mobile devices to pay for fares and passes and, in Metra's case, use them as actual tickets.
While hardly the seamless "universal" fare card that transportation experts have been envisioning for years, the free app represents perhaps the most significant technological step Chicago transit users have seen since the rollout of the Ventra card in 2013.
It also marks the advent of paperless ticketing for Metra's 150,000 daily riders.
Metra, CTA, Pace and Regional Transportation Authority officials announced Friday that transit users will be able to download the app starting Thursday. That's the day before Metra will put its December monthly passes on sale.
"This is truly moving us into the 21st century," Metra Executive Director/CEO Don Orseno said at Millennium Station as throngs of rush-hour commuters passed by. Transit riders "will never, ever have to stand in line to buy a ticket again, unless they like standing in lines," he said.
The app also will provide "door-to-door" trip planning, CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said.
Carter acknowledged that there is no timetable yet for the app's next generation, one which would allow CTA and Pace customers to use their smartphones as a virtual Ventra card with so-called Near Field Communication technology.
RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden, who tested the app on her daily Metra commute, related how a conductor once held up her phone and announced to other passengers: "This is the future."
The app will be available for iOS and Android smartphones, laptops and tablets. Metra customers will still be able to buy traditional paper monthly passes and tickets.
The app will enable customers to use their phones or mobile devices to pay for rides using credit or debit cards on all three Chicago-area transit systems, check account balances, and receive real-time travel and service information.
Users will be able to add money to their Ventra accounts in increments from $5 to $100. CTA and Pace riders will be able to purchase one-, three-, seven- and 30-day passes. Metra riders can buy single tickets, 10-ride tickets or monthly passes.
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