New App Will Allow Ventra Users To Manage Account On Their Smart Phone
(CBS) -- Testing will begin in February on a phone app that may finally allow commuters to use one fare-payment system to ride public transportation anywhere in the six-county area.
The technology is similar to what is already used by the airlines. Despite the optimism of transit officials, some riders are skeptical.
The Android and iPhone app won't replace paper ticket, Ventra cards or cash. But CTA, Metra and Pace officials said Wednesday they expect many riders to leave their cards and tickets at home and go with the phone app, which will bear the Ventra name.
And that's where some of the image problem begins.
One rider, named Tiana, who said categorically that she would use it changed her mind as soon as the Ventra name came up.
"I don't like (Ventra)," she said. "It probably won't be a good idea to me."
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The CTA personnel heading up the project say the app will undergo a 3 1/2 month test phase before being opened to the public, but that was not long enough for CTA rider Ben Senter, who said while waiting for the 146/Inner Drive Express bus, that Ventra is "still messed up" and that he would wait until he saw many other riders using it successfully to sign up.
Not everyone shares the reservations. Tyler Forstman of Andersonville asked where he could sign up, and said the risk of a dead phone battery was one worth taking.
"I think it sounds great. I love to use my cell phone for everything," he said when entering the Addison station to ride the Red Line. "If I could do that to ride Metra or the CTA, that would be great, too."
The Ventra app is the transit agency's answer to a legislative mandate that one universally-accepted fare payment system be put in place. Many grandiose proposals have come and gone over the years, many with huge price tags, but none has proven workable.
The app will allow riders to tap a phone instead of a Ventra card on a turnstile or bus farebox, or punch a few buttons to purchase any ticket Metra cells, which will then appear on the screen for conductors to see. The CTA's Mike Guinn said the app will allow easy Ventra account management and even plan out trips, telling users what tickets they must buy, if any, which can then be purchased with a mere punch of a button.
Testing is to begin in mid-February, but CTA President Forrest Claypool and Metra Chairman Martin Oberman said they did not expect to roll it out to the public until the end of May. At that point, it will be good for purchase of Metra tickets but not to pay CTA fares. That should be in place by early 2016, said CTA spokesman Brian Steele.
Ventra developer Cubic Technologies will work with the firm Globe Sherpa, which has successfully launched similar transit apps on Tri-Met in the Portland, Ore., area; for Virginia Railway Express in suburban Washington, D.C., and for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority.
