Mobile Ventra App Announced at CTA Meeting

Lee Edwards | As of Thursday, October 23, 2014

A new Ventra mobile app for smart phones, developed to enhance the experience of CTA, Metra, RTA and Pace transit riders, was announced at the Chicago Transportation Authority (CTA) monthly board meeting at CTA’s main offices in downtown Chicago, 567 W. Lake St., on Oct. 15. (Ventra is the name of the new, joint fare system for CTA and Pace which launched system-wide July 1, 2014. Ventra replaces all of CTA & Pace’s old fare media with one card and system that does everything.)

The intergovernmental agreement with CTA and related agreements regarding the app are subject to Metra board approval. The Ventra app is tentatively slated for release free of charge as a mobile download by May 2015 on Android and Mac OS products.

“CTA, Metra and Pace have been working together closely to develop an app that will improve the customer experience and give transit riders new ways to pay fares that were impossible before the CTA implemented a modern, open-fare payment system,” said CTA President Forrest Claypool.

Claypool, along with Metra Board Chairman Martin Oberman and Metra Executive Director/CEO Don Orseno, appeared before the CTA Board on Oct. 15 to discuss the mobile app.

“This new app is a major enhancement for Metra riders,” said Metra Executive Director/CEO Don Orseno. “It not only will offer our customers a fast and easy way to buy and display Metra tickets on their smartphones, it will also give them the option of using a Ventra account to do it.

The Ventra app will allow Metra riders, for the first time, to purchase and display tickets on their smartphones using a Ventra account or personal credit or debit card and will provide all recognized transit riders a “one-stop shopping” experience — allowing users to add transit value and load passes on their Ventra card, check account balances and receive real-time account alerts.

“We provide connections to CTA and Metra service at so many locations throughout our service area, so this is a major step forward for customers who transfer between our services,” said Pace Executive Director T.J. Ross

The new app, will be subject to rigorous testing prior to its debut, according to CTA Director of Revenue and Fare Systems, Mike Gwynn, and CTA spokesperson, Brian Steele, and will be rolled out in three phases, starting in the first half of 2015.

The first phase will allow users to:

Add transit value and passes

Check account balances

Manage funding sources

View transaction history

Sign up for customizable account notifications and alerts for account balance, low balance, expiring passes

Use Metra mobile ticketing, using a Ventra account or personal credit/debit card. This will be visual proof of payment—showing a ticket/pass on a mobile screen instead of presenting a paper ticket/pass to a Metra conductor.

By early 2016, the app will allow customers to download a virtual Ventra card onto their Near Field Communications-compatible mobile devices, which will allow them to access their Ventra transit accounts to pay for rides on trains and buses directly from the Ventra app by touching the phone or device to a Ventra reader.

When asked by the Chicago Citizen Newspaper about the possibility of security breaches to Ventra via the app Claypool responded, “We take the security concerns very seriously. We will be doing real solid testing of all of that built on the existing system and all of the protections that we have under Ventra right now. It’s something that we will always be mindful of and be working to make sure that it’s secure and people’s data is safe.”

For more information about the Ventra mobile app visit CTA’s website, http://www.transitchicago.com/.

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