Originally Posted by
eng3
When I bought my metra ticket, I simply used a credit card saved in the app.
Apologies, didn't mean to suggest that using Ventra card transit balance is the only option when using the Ventra app to buy Metra tickets. I also use a credit card to buy Metra tickets in the Ventra app, and I usually buy a 10-Ride ticket, as it's cheaper than buying 10 individual tickets. There's also a Monthly Unlimited Ride Pass, but it only makes sense for daily commuters.
Originally Posted by
eng3
As for buying the ticket, I noticed that after buying the ticket, you have to "activate" the ticket once you board. I assumed that this was like validating a ticket with other train systems meaning that you are forced to "use" the ticket even if the conductor doesnt check because if he catches you with a ticket that is validated late, you get fined or at least have to pay the on-board ticket buying fee. I guess this isnt the case with metra.
Never seen that happen; but I have often seen people not have their ticket purchased, let alone activated, by the time the conductor arrives. Sometimes the conductor will stand over them until they get it figured out. Other times the conductor will come back (or say they will and then don't.) Sometimes people just give up and pay the conductor cash. It's more expensive to buy a ticket on the train if there was someone at the ticket office; but I've often also seen conductors give people warnings, and tell them to buy at the station next time without charging them the extra amount. As previously mentioned, sometimes the conductors fail to ask someone period. Even after checking your ticket, a different conductor may check your ticket again. Sometimes the same conductor forgets and checks your ticket a second time. The whole process isn't very consistent; and I think they'd do better with a tap on and and tap off system, perhaps with random audits to ensure that people are actually tapping on.
One thing that is particularly annoying is they make announcements to please have the Ventra app open and ticket activated. It usually takes them a while after that to arrive, and by that time people have started using their phones for other things, or the screen has turned off; and the Ventra app doesn't open directly back to the screen with the activated ticket, so the conductor waits for people to click back through and show them the screen.
Originally Posted by
eng3
Yes the whole transit system seems to be designed to be more difficult to use that it has to. My father recently had an accident and is now in rehab downtown so my mother is taking metra in as she doesnt like driving downtown. She is a senior but is forced to apply for a senior pass thru RTA which takes 3-4 weeks in order to buy a reduced fare metra ticket when they could just as easily look at ID. My father will only be in rehab for 3-4 weeks so I'm sure it will arrive just in time for her to have no more need for it.
Sorry to hear that. I have a good friend who rides free due to disability, and I know it's much less convenient than it could be.
The CTA, Metra, and Pace "service boards" are all part of RTA; but RTA itself is interesting. It's a regional transit planning and financial oversight agency for northeast Illinois; but with different board members appointed by the Mayor of the City of Chicago, the President of the Cook County Board, Cook County Board members outside Chicago, and the Chairman of the County Board of each of the five collar counties, it's a very political organization, and there always seem to be a lot of compromises.