Ventra

When it works. It works great. But they seem to do updates over night and it crashes frequently for the morning commute. So like morons we keep trying to make it work. Nobody says anything. Nobody cares. We are just left to wait until it starts working again. And why should they care? They are the chosen app. They have no competition. No alternative. Cash transactions are all but gone. Its use the flaky app or drive

Edit: it's been months now, and the "favorites" section still fails to show any times Do you need something convenient to buy transit fare with? This is a pretty good option. I prefer it to using Google pay or the actual website. Do you need something to check bus/ train routes and statuses? There are so many better apps. Like, actually don't get this one unless it's for the first option. It's slow, it's glitchy, and the bus/train information can be inaccurate more times than not.

Bus and train times are basically always accurate if you only pay attention to the ones that have the tracking (🛜) symbol, times that lack that symbol are just scheduled runs which are rarely accurate. Confusing for new users though. When you 'favorite' a stop, it appears on your home menu, but if the route changes even temporarily, the 'favorite' says "no information available" and you can't remove it from your favorites. These build up fast and drown out the stops you actually need to check.

The app is okay, used to work so well, for the past 3 months now, I can't see the new card that I registered weeks ago, I can only look up it's ballance. I can no longer add passes to my card- it keeps complaining of network error, but I have unlimited 4G LTE Data, even when my phone is connected to fast WiFi. I was left stranded several times because this app failed me and I couldn't add fare to the card. It let's you acumulate negative Ballance even when you have a pass ending in a few hrs.

International visitors are unable to use the app, because it is tied to the United States Google Play Store setting. If your card balance gets too low, your card gets "suspended" until you recharge it, so you can't even use any remaining balance as partial payment for Metra tickets. Indeed, for simple tickets, good old-fashioned cash beats this hands down.

LITERALLY DOES NOT WORK. It suddenly refused to charge the card it's used for the last 3 years. The card isn't expired or at its limit. Ventra just doesn't work. Which is fine, I'll just keep jumping the turnstile. I don't understand how the app & website are SO nonfunctional when it's 2025. It's clunky, constantly encounters errors, and typically requires you to call in to accomplish anything that SHOULD have been an easy task in the app. It also randomly turns off my auto load for no reason.

THIS APP STEALS YOUR MONEY. If you try to reload on the app, it'll say your payment is declined..but still take the money from your account. (And not put it on the card) tried calling customer service, they said to wait 3-5 business days for it to go back to your card. Waited, nothing showed up. Had to call my bank and dispute it. This happened multiple times, so I purchased a new card, and made a new profile hoping that would help. It didn't. The problem is still occurring. AVOID THE APP

2019: I've been trying to create an account for the past hour without any luck, but serious frustrations. I have a good phone, great internet, and yet I'm getting grey screens that freeze, drop down menus that don't drop down, unnecessary and privacy invasion questions and bugs over bugs. Urgh... Love the Metra system, but the app is one of the worst I've ever encountered! EDIT 2025: literally the worst app. 6 years later and it's gotten WORSE! Can't log in, can't reload card, can't use at all.

Borderline Useless. Times are often incorrect, saying one thing when you initially check and another once you actually arrive at the stop. Also doesn't tell when busses aren't going the full route, or just don't show up. Without these essential functions, the app essentially is just a wireless boarding pass and that's it. Google Maps does pretty much everything else significantly better, having far more accurate times and informing users when a bus is running late.

Had to walk for 45 minutes, after my 8 hour work shift, in the cold, because suddenly this app won't stay open for more than 5 seconds before it crashes. Couldn't get it to stay open long enough to put money on my card, so no bus ride home. I used this app just the other day with no issues! Not that I'm surprised, reliable isn't exactly the first word that comes to mind when one hears "Ventra" or "CTA".

The Ventra App is one big pain in the ass!!!! Just purchased a new phone and the app has to be uninstalled and reinstalled on a daily basis!!! Had the same problem with the Ventra app on my old phone. Click on the app and my cell phone screen goes black. Way too much technology!!! Thinking of going back to paper tickets for my commuter rail trips.

More stable than it used to be. Buying and using Metra and Ventra passes is usually seamless (Though it's ridiculous that first-time users can't set up a Ventra account without buying a physical card that they'll never use again). Scheduling is a little buggy - times shown don't always match the signboards at stations, and the "favorites" section will randomly get cleared out for no obvious reason. Very occasionally, won't load past the splash screen.

Lately no matter how strong a cell signal I have or if I'm on WiFi the app takes more than 30 seconds to load and then longer to populate data. Favorite stops eventually say "No information available" but it's not possible to remove them. It's becoming largely unusable. It would be nice to expand the area with the number of stops to see the names of all the stops.

The app definitely needs a beginner popup tutorial to purchase tickets, otherwise it was really useful on my trip to Chicago. I was able to buy a 3 day pass, and used it for a variety of bus and train lines. If you have the app, you do not need the physical card, it will show "no money" on it.

Only useful for online purchase and many times that gets complicated. Pretty much useless for everything else. Unbelievable, all of 2023 connection to server problem for me and several people I know. When you can make a purchase you have to wait on the phone for an agent or go online and have to do an auto load. SMH. The rating is now 1 star instead of 2.

App crashes every. Single. Time. I open it. I can't even log in. I'm currently on the train and I have no cash to pay my fare, nor can I log into your app to use the tickets I've already paid for. To he completely honest, I expect this to be fixed and any extra charges incurred to be reimbursed by Ventra. Please test your changes before deploying to a production setting in the future.

Frequently unable to purchase tickets (on Wi-Fi or cell data). App will randomly freeze requiring a complete restart of phone (you cant force stop or kill). In the rare instances you can buy a ticket it again prompts for your password but it doesn't use your default board and it doesn't let you verify what you typed, which if someone is typing a password on a phone is kinda necessary. This app is a great example of what not to do when building a UX experience.

App was working fine for a year. Now all of a sudden the app starts crashing. I can't even pull up my tickets. Uninstalled and reinstalled it and I can't even get to Login. Very disconcerting as I didn't have any cash on me and this was the way I was buying my tickets. Figure it out please. I even did a factory reset and reinstalled it and it still didn't work. Get it fixed!

So I finally managed to log in... and it's just okay. The constant demand for location to be on is still stupid, unnecessary, and annoying. The favorite stations/stops tracker is cool. But you can't view each L line as just a list of stops... you have to SEARCH for it, and hope you type things juuuust right. Otherwise it just tries to guess (horribly) what's nearby based on your location. Which, if it's off, still guesses anyways and isn't terribly accurate or helpful...

Bare Minimum, Unreliable, Non-Existent customer support. Very Buggy, if you do not have data on, and you open this app, an alert will repeat itself 3 times. My benefits card just stopped working. I called Metra multiple times for support, only to be stuck in a loop of automated prompts. Never was able to speak to a human. Had to go to a kiosk and pay for a paper ticket with the same card, but could not ask for assistance bc there was 1 kiosk open, 20 ppl in line.