Ventra

Name: Ventra
Rating: 1.7205 (805 reviews)

Travel

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Ventra

Travel

1.7

805 ratings

Age Rating

Seller

Chicago Transit Authority

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User Reviews for Ventra

So much worse than it used to be

I don’t understand why Ventra created an app from the ground up rather than using the old app as a model. This new app is impossible to use. The bus times are no longer accurate, trying to establish a favorite stop is virtually impossible, and needing to go to a train stop just to reload my card. For someone that uses the bus, this is EXTREMELY inconvenient. So I have to walk 10 blocks to the train station and 7 blocks back just to use a bus that is only 3 blocks away? I wanna be patient and supportive but it appears as though the designers of the app are in over their heads, never use public transportation, and never used the the old app outside of sitting in an office so have no “real world” understanding on how people use the app.

100K annoyed users & counting, Feb 04, 2021

Pretty useless

-starsThis had to be developed by a team that never used public transportation. It’s not convenient and trying to navigate quickly is impossible. I liked the past app had the drop down menus, and I could see all the stops the train was going to make so I could also decide which was express. That also allowed me to see which stop I might use if I was walking in the city. I also don’t like that it automatically gives me the metro I’m closest to at that point. That makes me have to navigate around to the stop or line I actually want to use. There’s a lot of unnecessary information presented to me that I have to process and that’s not what I need to be doing when I’m trying to not miss transportation. I don’t want to have to add favorites because I don’t always know where I’ll be. So trying to find a metro line on the fly is not intuitive. I can’t help but think this development was created by some company owed a favor or vs versa in typical Chicago corruption style.

5kully74, Jun 13, 2021

Visiting for a Day

Reading all of the reviews online I definitely took more than a few pauses before downloading this app. I was trying to plan a weekend trip for my family and wasn’t sure the most effective way to be able to get around. After spending some time to learn about the CTA system, I decided to download the app. Turns out it was actually pretty easy. I was able to purchase Metra tickets for the whole party easily through the app and it works seamlessly. I was able to purchase a one day CTA pass for myself and all I had to do is simply set my phone next to the turnstiles and it worked perfectly letting me through. I understand if there are some daily commuters that have some problems with the app about transferring over to the Apple wallet, but for me it was a pretty smooth process. Would encourage people in the future that are visiting for a weekend to check it out. Only feedback I would give is that it would be nice if I could combine passes for several people to get through the turnstiles. It would have made it easier when travelling with my wife and kids. Instead, my wife has to download the app herself to get her own daily pass.

BrandonR85, Apr 03, 2022

Unacceptable

It’s unacceptable that you can’t use the app if there’s an update. So if I’m in a rush and can’t use it until I update, I just miss my train because I can’t get in until update is done? I have never seen that with any other app ever in the 12ish years that I’ve been using an iPhone.*update* I received this reply from the developer:“Sorry for this unavoidable inconvenience—we definitely don’t like to force an update to occur, but it has been necessary both in retiring the old app (which is no longer supported by its makers after several weeks of transition), and sometimes in updating to a new version for security and/or stability reasons. Though we, like others, do plan to keep this very rare, it’s occasionally necessary require an update sometimes in apps like this or a banking app, where you can manage money stored in an account, to ensure stability and/or account security."I did not have the old app, I had already upgraded to the new app and this still happened. I also don’t believe I have ever been forced to update to use an app. An email or notification should have proceeded this forced update so we users/customers could have updated when convenient instead of being surprised and caught off guard. This reply does not convince me to change my review.

Gspederson, Jan 21, 2021

Almost missed my train

I use this app every day. It hasn’t logged me out in a year- I didn’t recently update it, I did not restart my phone - all I did was buy a Metra ticket and as I went to show my ticket to the person outside, before the tracks, it decided to log me out. Now, we all know that we have multiple log ins over the years, endless passwords and being logged out as I’m trying to catch a train is infuriating. Tried 3 different usernames and passwords only to have my phone rescue me because the info was saved elsewhere. Ventra doesn’t have a “save log in” function so it would’ve missed my train if not for my phone OS. Please fix it and if you need the name of a good programmer, I know several.

Hrkjjr, Apr 27, 2021

Do not put your Ventra card on your phone. It's a broken mess.

When I heard Ventra would be updating and you'd finally bw able to have your Ventra card in your Wallet app, I was excited. That excitement dissipated the minute I set it up. For starters, once you put it in the Wallet app, your physical Ventra card will not work anymore, which is idiotic considering how buggy and half tested the digital card is. There were times where it would take way too long to read my card, and now it just flat out will not work. I've had several people tap me onto the train today because I was standing at the turnstile just aimlessly trying to get the reader to sense that my phone was right on top of it. I remember when Ventra was first announced how excited I was to have a contactless card instead of the old magstripe bus cards of the past, and when it worked seamlessly, I knew Ventra was gonna be the way of the future for traveling on the CTA. This new way to use Ventra needs to be worked on some more before I recommend anyone try it.

Ira Jeter, Apr 13, 2021

Impossible to Get Reliable Info

I’ve been using this app pretty much since it launched in Chicago and have never had as many issues as I’ve had recently. The “trip tools” tab meant to give upcoming buses/train arrival times is consistently in error and shows no information at all. You can get arrival times from the home screen but it is always behind by a few minutes and doesn’t seem to refresh itself, causing regularly missed buses. The only reason I’m giving 2 stars and not 1 is because the payment features reliably work, but it’s very frustrating to have to use two apps for transit.

LN1087, Dec 06, 2021

better than yesterday, hopefully worse than tomorrow

updates to include the transit card in apple pay are great.... that’s about where the helpfulness of this app end. the favorite stops section is buggy showing an “no information” for some stops… this would be the fault of the CTA if it were a breakdown between ventra and CTA however a simple search of a stop outside of the favorite section yields accurate arrival times. why the discrepancy? the use of two different “favorite location” and a “favorite stops” section is.... pointless adding to the confusion of the app. eliminate the “favorite location” section.

philunchained, Jan 21, 2021

Can't use card after connecting to Apple Pay...

This app has always worked fairly well for me (the bus/train times are usually far more accurate than google maps). However, I recently decided to add my ventra card to my apple wallet, just in case I ever forgot my physical card. Lo and behold, as soon as the card was added my physical card quit working. I even tried disconnecting the card from my wallet, and the physical card still didn't work. This has made my attempt at convenience very inconvenient (it takes more time to open your phone then just pull put a card). It seems like if linking to Apple wallet is going to have such an effect that ventra should at least warn you before you do it (how hard is it to program a pop up?). The fact that they essentially just made my card useless without my knowing such a thing would happen is shady as well as inconvenient (and totally unnecessary). Hopefully they fix this, but if you haven't yet connected your card to your apple wallet, be forewarned!

ruffianbandwidth, Mar 03, 2022

Logged me out of guest account mid train ride

This dumb app logged me out mid train ride in the city and caused me to miss my stop. I had a guest account and was automatically logged in before I got on the train ride. I didn’t have a password because it was a guest account and I didn’t realize I had been logged out until the conductor was at my neck yelling at me for my ticket. I went to retrieve my weekend pass and all of a sudden it told me to buy a new ticket and logged me out of my guest account. I went to find my password but realized I never created one. The conductor waited on me for about 10 minutes to create a whole new password and reset my app and log back into my guest account, and didn’t let me off the train so I missed my stop. THIS APP IS GARBAGE DO NOT USE.

VentraIsAwfulDoNotUse, Jul 16, 2022

Description

Ride CTA, Metra & Pace with Ventra: Manage your fares, buy Metra mobile tickets, get arrivals and add your Ventra Card for riding CTA and Pace to iPhone and Apple Wallet. Use transit in and around all of Chicago: It's easy to manage and pay your fare on CTA, Metra and Pace buses and trains with the Ventra app. Find all the features you're used to on the Ventra website and more, including mobile ticketing for Metra trains!

With the Ventra app, you can: • Check your balance and available passes in your Ventra Card's transit account. • Instantly load value or passes to your Ventra Card's transit account. • Switch autoload for transit value or passes on and off. • Buy and use Metra mobile tickets to ride any Metra train. • Use transit value you've loaded to buy a Metra ticket. • Get real-time account notifications so you know when it's time to load more fare or buy more tickets. • Get real-time arrival/departure information from CTA, Metra and Pace all in one app—by picking a stop, using favorites or looking at service near where you're standing.

Ventra

Ventra

Age Rating

Seller

Price Intelligence:

Grow your in-app revenue

Price Intelligence based on:

In-App Purchase Price (Subscription or Non-Recurring)

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User Reviews for Ventra

So much worse than it used to be

Pretty useless

Visiting for a Day

Unacceptable

Almost missed my train

Do not put your Ventra card on your phone. It's a broken mess.

Impossible to Get Reliable Info

better than yesterday, hopefully worse than tomorrow

Can't use card after connecting to Apple Pay...

Logged me out of guest account mid train ride

Description

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