Ventra App Reviews

Poor customer service and support. Why digitize the public transport system if you’re going to have terrible customer service. Because of my digital bus card not working I’ve been spending money from my debit card which I should not have to do when this ventra card is supposed to link to a benefit card. It’s so frustrating to deal with looping. The digital version of the card has all of a sudden stopped registering at train stops or on busses… it’s definitely from an update just not sure what?! Tried to download again and still same issue… back to the hard copy of the card!

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.

It technically works, I guess. My favorite thing about this app - aside from it showing me the times of busses that don’t exist - is that I will mark a particular stop as a favorite, then at some point that stop that I bookmarked will no longer show any date (it’s essentially a dead link), so then I have to find the stop again and re-add it to my favorites. However, because the old stop “no longer exists,” I can’t remove it. I have 14 stops in my favorites tab. I want about 3 of them, but I can’t remove stops after they’ve been glitched into not existing. The UI on this app is a disgrace…

Still Unstable and borderline unusable. I routinely travel the country for work but call Chicago home. So, I have a lot of exposure to what other cities have to offer. We’re fortunate to have a fairly comprehensive transit system, compared to other metros. But, undeniably, the absolute worst technology to support riders of that transit system. This app is 50/50 at best when it comes to stability, meaning if I need to open the app on any given day, I have a 50/50 shot that it will open to purchase a ticket or show my purchased ticket to the conductor. The underlying logic regarding how I purchase a ticket or view routes is also garbage. But it’s not even worth wasting wasting pixels on articulating those challenges until they can get the app to actually reliably open. Shameful and embarrassing that this is what Chicago, one the best cities in the world, has to offer its travelers and/or commuters. If this is application is actively being funded, someone should open an investigation to see how those funds are being used. No way it’s going toward development, it’s been this way for far too long.

Have to re-log in periodically. App crashes occasionally (I understand, it happens to all apps) and have to re-log in using user name and password instead of the Face ID it has already collected and been enabled. This is especially inconvenient (and embarrassing) when the app crashes right after the conductor shows up and asks for the ticket. I’ve seen lots of people including myself scrambling to type in user name / password after multiple failed attempts while the conductor has to wait on the side. Please do everyone a favor, just enable the Face ID so people can easily access the ticket or fix the bugs so the app won’t periodically log itself out.

How do you remove a Ventra card?. Great app. Works as intended. Has a few nice features. I wouldn’t change much about it if not anything. But I am wondering how do you remove a Ventra card you’ve added onto the app? P.S. Whenever you pull up a Metra ticket to show the conductor it’s very hard to press the X in the top right corner to close it. I usually just close and restart the app after showing them instead of fiddling with it trying to get it close. That’s something I would change. That and favorites get reset a lot randomly. But besides that, Ventra is a really great app :)

Developers need to hear out Users 😒. Horrible customer service and bugs for this app never get fixed . If commuters didn’t have to use it to travel and need it for the convenience it serves this would’ve been a washed app . Still many upset users . This app will sign you in and out as it pleases . Has crazy freezes and then again customer service is slower than dying from obesity. It’s millions using this why are we being told to email it need to be a number always available with agents . The CTA and metra are always making profits round the clock so why should are our questions /problems not always resolved in a timely fashion

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.

Horrible, frustrating app. I’d give it zero stars if I could. Wanted to take advantage of the daily pass rate so tried to set up my account. Won’t let me add payment, so Ventra rep had to manually add and it still wouldn’t let me purchase a ticket. Tried making purchases, but didn’t go through - however my credit card was charged each time with pending charges and thankfully reversed. Ventra said it was my credit card, but it wasn’t. All on their end. Rep wiped my account, started over and same issue persisted. Was supposed to escalate my issue and guess what, I never heard back. Absolutely ridiculous that this can’t be fixed and function properly.

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.

Favorites constantly get erased. My favorite transit tracking app no longer works so I’m forced to use this one. I take the CTA daily so I “favorited” my regular stops and at least once per month, my favorites list will say “no information available” for every single stop and I have to search for the stop again, and favorite it again. But for some reason, the original one I had favorited is still there?! This makes no sense and it’s the most obnoxious glitch that could possibly happen. What’s the point of the favorites list if it never functions properly?

Shockingly Useful. Came to Chicago for two days, and haven’t dealt with CTA in probably a decade. Downloaded the app, was prepared for some bureaucratic nightmare hellscape, but all we needed was a one-day CTA pass and it was so easy to get it and then use it. I quite enjoy the “Help plan a trip” feature, as I’m not from Chicago and need lots of help being Timmy the Touristo. I didn’t get lost, and given enough time and battery life, I think I could get around thanks to this system. Thank you.

No surprise after NOT using it for 8 years. the last time I used this awful app was in 2016. It was buggy, slow and just an awful user experience. Thankfully I no longer needed to use it for almost a decade until I moved and got rid of my car, walking to most places or Ubering. However, on the rare occasion where I need to go to the suburbs the Metra is the best option. So I resurrected the app on my phone thinking the bugs have to be ironed out after 8 years right? After updating it I chose a ticket for my route, got to the cart…and the ‘Purchase’ button was so low on my phones screen that it interfered with the slide out drawer of my iPhone. The developers placed their only means to purchase their product below another form of UI interaction. The FOCUS of the app completely rendered useless. Clicking on the button does absolutely nothing. For all I know it could be because it’s just broken in general and maybe not because it was implemented and designed in an awful spot. Metra must be receiving kickbacks for riders purchasing physical tickets at the booths. The Metra must be thinking “Let’s make the app completely irrelevant our passengers can thank us 8 years from now.”

Three usability issues with password reset. 1. On iPhone XS (ie not the smallest mobile breakpoint), the security question about street cuts off at the end instead of wrapping, so users must guess which street is referenced 2. Email with temporary password doesn’t highlight or make the pw a larger font. If it’s hard for digital natives to copy out of the email in order to paste into the app, it’s hard for everyone. 3. Creating a new password requires duplicated entry into two fields. That’s normal but the error that displays when special characters are missing is that the pw don’t match.

Constant Server & Payment Issues. For an app that is mainly used to purchase Metra tickets, it is so unreliable. It constantly has “server/network” issues and that often leads to payment problems. Literally this morning when the employee asked for my ticket, I had to say the app was not functioning. To which he said “okay, I’ll be back.” He never returned because other people are having issues with the app too. It also has a hard time giving accurate train times (in terms of the live updates/estimated arrival times). The app, in theory, is useful but its functionality is not good.

Imoroved but needs more work. Apart from the constant NO INFORMATION AVAILABLE when you try to track a train or bus. This app, old and new cannot correctly tell how much money you have on your card. I continuously get insufficient fare when I have money on my card. The app does not even update and correct itself when you switch between cards. I had $5 on my card today and it kept ringing insufficient fare to my embarrassment, so I exited the bus. I addd $20 and it showed I had $25. You cannot trust the app to tell you the correct balance your card. Old and NEW It also tells you error occurred and it cannot add Funds at this time and to try again, only to add more money and realize the failed attempt was successful. This continuous signing in within the app after I have signed into the app to perform actions within the app is ridiculous, waste of time and horribly annoying. I do like however the train/bus tracker is within the app although I would recommend an ‘Update/Refresh’ button be added to make it more useful and give travel times like the tracker sites. Update. 12/5. I officially hate this app as it gets worse and worse with zero improvement. Today i delete it and go back to bustracker. This app freezes all the time, or has no info available and consistently gives inaccurate bus times and keeps switching my location when i update. Today my bus was due in 10 min, 6 min and 2 min all within 5 min. Got to the bus stop it said due then immediately changed to 17 min, then bus showed up 3 min later. Does not seem that the developers give a flying fig about improving this app’s efficiency.

Broken. This app is completely useless now. Chicago is too big of a city for this to be a problem and someone needs to revamp the entire app. Can’t load money onto your card through the app. Payment fails every time no matter what. Use Apple Pay? Fail. Use debit card? Fail. Uninstall and reinstall app? Fail. Autoreload? Fail. Remove card and try to put it back on? Wont even connect my card again. Something so prevalent in a lot of peoples LITERAL everyday life shouldn’t be this bad. I need to get to work and back home and I can’t even load money on my card. It take a few minutes to do it from the website but save yourself the headache and use the website until you see people making better recent reviews for this app.

Tickets get lost. 10-ride tickets expire or are not found. This has happened twice. Most recently today. I have a 10-tide purchased a month ago that should have 6 rides to use the app updated overnight and my tickets are gone. The link “what happened to my tickets” states the tickets should upload immediately or after a few minutes. I’m 20 minutes into my commute and they still haven’t refreshed. Last time tickets disappeared the app had a server error. When it came back online two tickets were used. Customer support is worthless and they do not provide refunds!

Pretty useless. -stars This 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.

Tracking????? And other sad stuff 😖. I use this app everyday, and everyday I’m disappointed all over again 😭😭😭😭 I’m always getting bus ghosted because the tracking system they use to monitor buses is very unreliable :( Also the interface is not great. It would be nice if it allowed you to favorite lines, but it only allows you to save one specific stop rather than the whole line. Additionally, the favorites feature is buggy - I find that I have to delete my favorites every few weeks and resave them because they glitch, and they start to say “No information available“ after a bit. CTA service is already unreliable enough, and this glitchy poorly designed app only makes the experience worse.

Why even bother. I’ve had this app since the longest I could remember I’ve always used it to get to work and I’ve had minor problems with it until now. No matter how many times I delete and reinstall I can’t add fair to my card I’ve removed it from my apple wallet and added it back still won’t work tried to add passes definitely a no go idk what to do anymore besides delete the app and just purchase what I need at a station I don’t always have time to go to a station and I loved that the app showed me my balance and when it was close to negative or when a pass would expire but now I can’t even do that honestly it’s a waste of storage space at this point.

Irritated. I don’t know who else is going through the same problem I’m going through, but I just got a new iPhone 13 Pro Max couple days ago coming from a iPhone 8 Plus, did what I had to with everything and soon I get to the wallet and start adding my cards and stuff in there and I get to my Ventra card, I get to a turnstile and try by tap on like 15 times and it act like it couldn’t ready the card on my phone, I had to be tapped on countless times from the people In the kiosks or they let me through the handicap gate and it feels like I wasted money on getting a 30 day pass I can’t use if I hogwash of a app don’t let me tap on

Not Reliable for Arrival Times, etc. The CTA webpage has reliable arrival times but this app doesn’t. Some stations (I’m looking at you Sheridan Red) don’t show live arrival times at all on the app. Favorite bus stop moved or doesn’t show arrival times anymore? Good luck deleting it without uninstalling/reinstalling the app. Want to split payments with transit benefit account and credits already on your account? Too bad, it doesn’t work (it does work with transit benefit money and card payment). Interface is okay but arrival times and other features need fixes/improvements.

Convenient!. It’s been very easy and convenient to use for me so far. Having the card on my phone is even better. I ride the CTA, Metra, and Pace every day right now. Sometimes all three in one day, and paying for all three with the exact same method make it seem effortless. No having to carry quarters, or loose dollars for a ticket. I also like the quick access recent ticket history so you will no longer have to input your travel destinations. Have to give credit where credit is due. Great job on this one.

Five stars for Ventra. I use Ventra regularly, for years now, and was surprised to see such an overall low rating for the app here. I have lived and worked in Chicago for 25 years, most of that time totally car-less. So I am depending on CTA (plus my two legs and bicycling) fairly regularly. I don’t remember when the Ventra app was created, but I find it to be super reliable and easy to use. For Metra trips, too, the suburban commuter train. If you’re considering the app, and it’s 2025, go for it. Let’s get these Ventra reviews up to five stars like they deserve.

Works great. I was a tourist and signed up using the app. I made an actual login and did not do guest. It worked great. I got a seven day pass and it worked perfectly. My family did the same with no issues. When signing up, Just double check on the registration process and the process will be smooth. I was actually worried to use this app after seeing the bad reviews. Glad I used it.

Poorly designed and buggy. App has issues connecting to servers often. If your connection is bad when you open the app (which is common while in the tunnel), it just logs you out instead of re-attempting. A few times it would just show the splash screen then crash after a minute. Safe area wasn't used while developing the app so some buttons go into your status bar on the top of the screen. The show your ticket and tap on your screen flow is kind of weird and I think could have been better thought out. Overall very unprofessional and sloppy especially for an app that has to be reliable every single time.

Bad Design and Unreliable Information. In my “favorites,” on my Home Screen, I have two Metra routes, the inbound and outbound for my daily commute. The visual design fails to make it clear which one is which. It should be as simple as: Rogers Park >>> Chicago OTC (and the inverse Chicago OTC >>> Roger Park). I have also found that the schedule sometimes lies. A delayed train will sometimes list as “departed.” Perhaps, if the delay is long enough to overlap with the next train, they think they can save face by pretending the earlier one didn’t exist. I just can’t help thinking how genuinely valuable this app could be, which only makes me more disappointed with how bad it is.

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!

Update App. This app needs to be updated to where you can receive notifications by phone and not just email. Everyone isn’t always checking their email. Due to this feature I forget to check when my pass expires and end up being charged for rides only to turn around and have to buy another weekly pass because I use public transportation to go to work and get around. I believe the company does this to get more money from its customers. It’s 2024 and there’s other systems that give it’s customers the option to be notified by email or text. Update your app!

The worst. If you accidentally double tap when you have a pass which I have no idea how that could have even happened so clearly their system is glitchy it will give you negative balance without telling you and then when you buy a new pass, it again won’t tell you that the pass will stop working until you pay the negative balance so then the pass is ticking down while being held hostage until you pay the credit they gave you without telling you they were giving you and without any option to turn it down. This automatic credit without notification can also not be turned off and they seem to think it’s a feature not a bug. In my book it’s a scam and extortion.

Great when it works…. Helpful when the app works and the tracking is actually accurate. I appreciate being able to reload my fare via Apple Pay. That said, the “Favorites” seem to be reset anytime there’s an update or something…they never stay for longer than a few weeks. There’s also seems to be connectivity issues where the app can’t reach the server (even tho I have service and/or Wi-Fi). Decent app for a public organization but plenty of room for improvement

This app is still broken and no one wants to fix it.. Once again, Ventra has a new issue that needs to be fixed. I haven't been able to reload my Ventra card via the app for the last two days despite updating the app in between tries yesterday. What makes it worse is every time I tried to load it, my cards were charged without a single cent being loaded onto my card. What makes it even worse is the app is NECESSARY to have because there is no alternative for loading your Ventra card outside of a station or store. This app needs a major overhaul before I rate it anything over one star, and I don't even want to give it that. FIX THE APP!

3 day bus/“L” pass. This app made taking public transportation so easy and cost effective. We bought a 3 day pass for $15 (it’s good for 72 hours from first ride, so we actually used it over 4 different days). It worked on all city buses and elevated trains (blue line to O’Hare). After purchasing your pass, simply add to your Wallet. Then, click on the card to “pay” until you see the “hold near reader” icon. I will definitely use this again when visiting Chicago

It works (limited). Technically, the app works. Functionally, it feels like it was built by people who don’t use transit or iPhones. I only use the Ventra app to add money to my Ventra card, and that’s it. Routing, arrival times… usability is terrible. Just trying to set ApplePay as a preferred payment method is weird because there’s a Save button that’s a bar across the very bottom of the screen?? Who looks for a Save button down there? When your account gets low, Ventra sends you an email, which is great. But it’s teensy tiny text that’s impossible to read on a phone screen, hard-line-wrapped on what looks like a letter-sized piece of paper, like they think you’re going to print it?! All they have to do is less. Let the text be normal size for a phone and soft wrap. Let your emails be useful, Ventra. Again, designed by old executives who don’t read their own email and don’t use transit. Or iPhones.

Might be the worst. Whomever built this app should be fired. It’s not intuitive and not easily accessible. I have been trying to get new password for two months because all of the sudden they require a security question. This would normally be totally fine (added security is appreciated as I’d be glad to simply assign a question and change my password) - but no. They literally won’t let me in to the system online and when I call, they have an influx of calls so I request a call back that sometimes/sometimes does not come.

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.

Functional, but should be a lot better. Given this app is used by the CTA, Metra, and Pace you would think it would be a lot better. The UI is decent, the real-time info is very handy, and is functional. However, it still is lacking some general polish. One obvious complaint is how poorly the Metra ticket “X” button is placed. Why is it all the way in the top right of the screen where the notch cut out exists on the iPhone? Every update I hope they address such an obvious issue and it isn’t. I can barley get the ticket to close unless I spam my finger multiple times there or just give up and force close the app. The app is passable, but as soon as you compare it to an app like Transit (which I pretty much use all the time in place of this, unless I need to display my Metra ticket) you realize how much better this app can and should be.

Poorly designed. No explanation of how to use the app. I added money & I couldn’t use it to get on a train or bus for a week!? I went to at least 5 different stations & asked the attendant, none of which knew how to do it. except the last guy that told me I needed the wallet app which I’ve never used before. So I downloaded another app just to use this one. It finally worked but then I tried to add money & it asks for the app password (dumb) I don’t even remember what it was since it’s been a week. So I stood there missing trains trying different passwords until I finally had to reset it. Then I have to log into my email. Which one? Who knows? Copy the temp funky password. Go back to the app, paste the weird password, reset a new password. Relog In with the new password. SO DUMB!!! The whole time I’m standing at the ticket machine which won’t give me change for my $5 bill. And they say technology will make our lives easier. What a joke! Just take cash like we did for hundreds of years. Analog > Digital

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.

Awful app, doesn’t work and deceitful. This app works maybe 50% of the time. For something as critical as a commuting tool, that percentage is abysmal. You bring it up and the app just doesn’t load. Or you try to buy a ticket and the app hangs. Also, the layout of this app is made to dupe you out of money. One example is that you can’t re-buy a day pass, which is a discount to a single way ticket. You have to navigate through a very deep set of screens to buy another day pass, rather than a single tap, which is how a single ride ticket works. Another example is that it defaults you to your credit card, even when you have a transit benefit. I’ve had multiple instances where I used the default payment of a credit card when I NEVER want to use that. You can’t change a setting to make this happen, though. Questionable scruples from the creator of this app.

On a base level, this app is horrible.. And it's funny because I can accept that your physical card stops working after adding to Apple Wallet but imagine trying to add your monthly pass and you can't because "service error." And I can't add it at the kiosk because my physical card no longer works. So now I have to either pay an additional 5 bucks for a new card or buy a disposable pass, which are so flimsy that they can't hold up in my wallet past two weeks. If you're going to offer an "Add to Apple Wallet" feature, make sure the app and your servers are functional. Because a lot of people rely on CTA and what I'm experiencing right now definitely ruined my day.

Very reliable and easy to use app. After reading some negative reviews, my husband and I were worried about using the app during our recent visit to Chicago. However after speaking to a CTA employee upon our arrival about it, we decided to give it a try. We were each able to easily make an account and buy a 7-day pass for the time we were there. Once that initial setup was done, we just needed to open our Apple Wallet where our online pass was located and put our phone on the scanner when entering an L station or boarding a bus. It was so easy and ALWAYS worked. We felt like locals using the public transportation with such ease. I highly recommend getting this app to manage your pass more efficiently!

Still lacking. So, after all this time, they added the feature I’ve been wanting for. There is now a “recent purchases“ with a “buy” option on the Metra buy tickets screen. So, it should be quite useful to be able to buy the same ticket every day, and not have to go through the same 7 click process of selecting the line, stations and payment option, right? Wrong!!! The previous purchase gets removed after just a few hours, so you can’t even use it in the evening after a morning trip, much less the next day! Why did you even bother Metra? Completely useless and disappointing. Does no one at Metra even read these reviews and feedback or even use the app? After not even having a “recent purchase” list forever, you finally add one, and bungle it so badly.

App failed to load a 3-day CTA pass and Ventra refuses to refund.. Downloaded the VENTRA app and should have noticed the 2 stars that the app had. Great concept if it worked. Poor execution as they charged me for the CTA pass but didn’t load it onto the Ventra account. The pass is shown in the app as “In Queue” and has remained in this state for almost a week! I was forced to purchase a paper CTA pass to travel during my stay in Chicago. Called Ventra Customer Service twice and was looped into the endless phone loop. Finally got a person to answer the phone and was told they will NOT refund the pass fare and would only transfer it to a physical Ventra card. I explained that I did not live in Chicago and would have no need for a Ventra Card. She told me that they WILL NOT issue refunds to NON-ILLINOIS residents. What?! When I told her that the CTA agent told me to purchase and paper pass and ask for a refund from Ventra, she replied “Don’t ever listen to a CTA agent.” She refused to escalate the call and basically did nothing to help even though the problem was with the Ventra App. Beware.

App won’t accept any payment method. Occasionally the app won’t let me purchase fare or passes. It will say every card I have is declined even though they all have money on them. And it also takes the money out of my account despite claiming the card is declined. And STILL DOESNT GIVE ME THE PASS. Monthly passes cost $105. This last time it charge me for two monthly passes after saying it was declined and never gave me the passes. It hasn’t let me load fare in a week now so i keep having to walk all the way to the nearest station to just load money… That on top of my money floating around in no man’s land..

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.

Glitchy app but good costumer service. I got the app for an out of town visit and was very nervous to rely on it due to some of the reviews. I tried getting a 7 day pass and my payment was processed on my card, but I didn’t receive my pass. I was able to call customer service the next day, and I was on hold for 10 minutes tops. They were able to help me and were very nice. It seems the app regularly has glitches, but it was resolved and my money was returned to me. Since then, the app has worked great and my pass through the app has been very helpful on my trip.

Headache. This app, while very promising, is an utter failure of the developers. The proof that failing to regularly update apps leads to disaster. There have been several times over the last couple of months where I was nearly out of luck being on the metra and not being able to purchase or display a ticket because the app was crashing and attempts to reset my phone and redownload the app were seeming futile. I am currently fighting with this “updated” app to buy tickets now. Luckily I purchased a bulk order last week or I would have had a hard time getting to work today as I don’t carry cash because the app is supposed to be the one stop shop for my transit needs. This app needs a large overhaul and not just cosmetically. It’s useless if functionality isn’t working!

Unclear. Purchasing the tickets was confusing because when I bought the cta day pass it was not clearly stated what the difference is between cta and the pace buses. I was charged an additional $2 because I didn’t understand that pace buses were different for some reason. Purchasing a pace pass was nonsensical because I was only in the city for 2 days and you can only buy pace passes for 30 days at a time. At one point there was a huge delay with the buses but I was not notified through the app. Other cities seem to have these kinds of features figured out. It makes me hesitant to use this city’s public transportation again.

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Works almost as often as the Ventra card. If you've ever used Ventra to get around Chicago you'll know exactly what I mean when I say this app is the perfect companion to the Ventra card.

Unusable without a US cell number. If you are a visitor the save yourself the time. This only works with US cell number.

Useless. Why is this app available in the Australian App Store when to start an account you need a US phone and address?? Waste of time making it available. I guess tourists can ride the metro for free since you make it so hard to buy tickets!

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0/5 just terrible. This app is so trash it charged me an hour after i tried paying and it had initially said payment failed. Ended up paying once on the app and once in person. Wish i could give 0/5

Good enough app, some major flaws. It’s fine if you’re using the L but if you want to figure out what track your train is on at union station good luck. The signs there were also showing some message about how long metra has served Chicago, which is cool, but I really like knowing what track I’m supposed to be on without having to ask someone.

Cdn's can't use. I altered the address to sign up bc CANADA is not an option. Can't enter Cdn billing address for cr card though. Probably a simple fix for app designer/creator

U.S. billing addresses only. Disappointed that only U.S. residents can create accounts and only credit cards with U.S. billing addresses can be used for payment in this version. Would definitely use when visiting Chicago if/when this changes.

Must have US credit card. omg this is America Even the vending machine requires me to enter credit card zip while I of course don't have

Deserves better ratings. I was worried when I visited chicago recently. Seeing a 1.5 star review average made me think this would be awful. Maybe they’ve updated the app since the bad reviews but this was a close to flawless experience for me. I only used the account creation/add pass/add pass to wallet/top up pass features but it all worked perfectly for me. I was able to get that done on my phone in the time it took to walk from my gate to o’hare station. That’s pretty slick I LOVE having the ventra pass built into the wallet app and not even having to face id to tap onto the bus. I noticed how smooth and quick bus onloads were when everyone, who already had their phones in their hands, could tap onto the bus and keep the journey moving. I can’t speak to the other features of this app but as a 2 week visitor to chicago who transited almost everywhere, this app was great.

Good app. Intuitive, function, simple. Good app for Chicagoland transit.

Crappy app for international travellers. Can't buy tickets through app because I don't have a US address. This is stupid in this day and age! I travel to Chicago frequently and can't buy through the app but can easily do this with New York and New Jersey apps. It's time for Chicago to join the modern age.

US billing addresses only. Please allow your Canadian neighbours to use our billing addresses.

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This is crazy. So the app have been giving me a problem for a who month I have to go all the way to the cat train to put a pass on my card. Because the app is still showing a error. How much long do I have to pay extra just to get to the train when I don’t even take the train to get to work. What was the point of this app if it’s having all these problems. Cat bus drivers aren’t making things any better. Half of them are even aware of riders having this problem.

Bad communication. I normally wouldn’t write a review like this but just had an awful experience. We just wanted to go across town before our flight in the evening after checking out of our hotel. Instead we have to wait at the airport for 5 hours more than needed because bus service was canceled and we had to stand at a stop for almost an hour before we gave up. Poor communication of service and actual bus times. I’m used to taking public transit across the USA and this is the worst experience I’ve ever had with traveling.

Won't read my digital pass. No matter if I take a bus or train, suddenly my ventra card in my apple wallet has stopped working completely. For at least 2 months it worked fine. I could tap my phone and the reader would work. The last 2 months no matter where I tap, it won't register that I'm using it. So I have to dig through my purse in search of cash so I'm not late for work. I decided to just get a new physical card but I still have over $10 on my digital pass that I can't use now. SOMEONE NEEDS TO FIX THIS ISSUE OR GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS A REFUND.

Can’t load money onto transit pass anymore. This app is useless. I’ve reset my passwords, reinstalled the app, added new cards to it, and it won’t process anything. Now I’ve got a card sitting in my Apple wallet I can’t use and money stuck on my account that I can’t use to pay for passes. Thanks a lot Lori for running the only good thing the city had to the ground. So glad you’re finally going to be out of office. Let’s hope the ventra machines work moving forward.

Doesn’t work anymore. I used to have no problems with this app. Two days ago, I was rushing to get on the subway and when I used my phone to tap, it says insufficient funds. I checked on the app, I still have $9.75. The frustration comes next. I couldn’t even reload as when I tried to Add fare, an error message “you have the maximum amount of transit pass products allowed” - What does this even mean? I only have ONE ventra card that I linked to my phone. Please send me a message on how to resolve this error.

Never ending issues. There are bugs on this app that just never get resolved. No matter how many times I select “auto reload” the app refuses to auto reload my account. After a number of trips, I run out of funds. I’ve had this issue for YEARS, and nobody I know can resolve it. Additionally, I’ve been trying to reverse a “favorited” stop for months now. Just endless glitches. I’ve reached out to customer support, we’ll see if they get back. If they do, maybe I’ll remove this review…

Glitches “purchase” button. Generally a good app! But I can’t finish purchasing on my iPhone 15 pro. The final button ‘Purchase’ at the bottom of the screen just doesn't respond! I deleted app and reloaded my phone- it didn’t work. So I suppose it’s something on other side. Please, fix it! 🙏🏻 at least move the button in center! Thank you!

Good when it works. The good : What I like the most about this is the convenience of purchasing a passor adding value before or during my commute. The bus and train estimated times are accurate and give me a The bad: There are times where I was charged twice for a single pass purchase or was met with a purchase error where my pass would not go through. The good thing about this is that the customer service department is helpful to assist with this issue on providing a solution. Future updates? Im not sure if fixes were in place on the most recent update, but I experienced purchase error on the most recent update on iOS.

Keeps losing payment preferences. After an update it wipes out the payment preferences. When you go to buy new tickets you are unable to select the payment (apple or credit card). To fix this you have to 1. close out of your ticket selection 2. close the app 3. reset you payment preferences 4. Choose your train line again 5. Choose your starting station 6. Choose your destination station 7. Choose your ticket type 8. Go to checkout And after all this you get to find out that if your pressing save at step 3 worked. Otherwise you get to go back to step 1 again. They really need to fix this. They also should remember your stations.

In need of improvement. The App is very buggy, laggy, I can’t delete the Ventra cards for some reason? Nor does it differentiate between normal Ventra cards and different type of Ventra cards, for some reason it needs a credit/debit card for auto load when I only want to use Apple Pay. They could have a history of the last station in which the card was used, and the ability to choose the station from the map would be greatly appreciated.

Froze frozen. OMG THIS APP FROZE MY WHOLE PHONE , I mean I was stuck on the ventra information page where u track your buses , when I say FROZE. I mean I could not even SHUT OFF MY PHONE , I press the home button on my phone and NOTHING HAPPENED ,I knew it was not my iPhone so whatever u need to do PLEASE FIX THIS , finally I plugged my phone in now it was never out of charge I had 90%charge left , so as I said I plugged it up the phone went black , then the Apple logo came on and I some how was able to get back on and when I did I IMMEDIATELY DELETED THIS APP OFF MY PHONE , this app is terrible

UI needs work, some buttons are placed in areas of the screen that rarely work. App works “ok” but could use a redesign of some of the buttons: 1. When you open the ticket, it’s hard if not impossible to tap the X at the top-right edge of the screen on an iPhone 14 Pro 2. The heart button to add a favorite route to track is easy to miss A nice way to address issue #1 is implementing swipe functionality to go “back” which eliminates the need of the X button in the first place.

App doesn’t work for new cards. New Chicago rider. Tried to use the “Create New Ventra Card” workflow to add a Ventra card to my Apple Wallet. Errored out all the times I tried to use a credit card stored in Apple Pay and also when I tried to purchase with a different, physical card. It still shows the purchases as pending in my credit card history in online banking, so now I probably have to dispute the charges as well as buy paper CTA tickets.

Payment Issues. many people are experiencing issues with not being able to pay for their passes i take the cta every day and my pass just ran out. i am unable to purchase a new one due to the app issues. i have entered my card info and attempted several different methods and none work the app is alright, if not a bit confusing to navigate besides that. if not for the payment issue it might be a 2.5-3 star app. adequate usually—but it isn’t right now

Negative stars. I would give this app negative stars if I could. No time has ever been correct on this horrible app. I’ve been late to work countless times because of this apps endless gaslighting. Standing in negative temps in the snow running to a stop just to find out it’s going to be another 30 minutes of shivering is amount to torture. It’s been years of this app not working correctly. What will it take for a major metropolitan city to just hire people who can figure this out? I don’t hate the CTA. I despise ventra.

This app is awful. Constantly forgets the user. Imagine being on a train, launching the app with your $50-10 ride pass, having FaceID set so you can authenticate, and the app asks you to set up a new account while the conductor is waiting. It did this to me three times in three weeks. No one can remember their password in this day and age. A non-functioning FaceID capability is a deal killer. Figuring out how to switch back to paper now. Don’t use this is you don’t have to.

Works great. Had some apprehension, but totally unwarranted. App does its job. I just need to make sure my phone is charged so I can use it. You need a credit card to load it up. Can also use the app to see what time your bus/train is coming.

DO NOT RELY ON IT. It has happened to me a number of times now that the app showed a bus arriving within the next one or two minutes, only to then completely disappear and making me wait for another 20 or 30 minutes. I know similar apps from other cities - and countries - and have never seen anything that unreliable. As always, the city of Chicago is extremely effective in leveraging and collecting taxes and fees, but pretty much incapable of providing reliable services to its citizens…

Please change your verbiage. Please for the love of God change the “in queue” verbiage that’s meant to say a pass is ready to be activated as soon as it’s used. It’s confusing and make people like me think it’s still processing. App worked fine for me, in queue make me buy a 2nd pass. It’s not covered in any official documentation and it’s only through a random Facebook post that I knew what it meant.

Works. I downloaded this last, ironically, because the reviews were the lowest. This app is quite literally the ONLY app that allows me to book tickets to Chicago online. Nothing else worked except this. Not sure why the reviews are so rough, you show your ticket one time, stop crying if you have to go to your email to pull it up.

Opportunity wasted for Metra. While a reasonably functional app to collect fares and store tickets, the app falls short of benefit for the rider at most opportunities. The biggest gap relates to frustration and lack of transparency for riders on Metra issues and service alerts. While service issues are supposed to be updated, The app is never up to date vs platform announcements when trains run late, and is a material step back from real time eta functionality on the metra web page many years ago. Certainly adds to frustration when it should be a positive.

PII Nightmare!. Can someone please explain why do I need to enter things like last name, address, phone number etc to essentially buy a digital Ventra card? Do you guys know what a PII hack is? If you don’t, I assure you, you’re going to in a matter of months. Apart from the fact that I do not know why you need all that personal information, there is also no way I’m trusting your systems to secure it. You should only ask for first name (at best) and then let me pay with Apple Pay. Done! Oh and maybe an email address so that you can bombard me with Marketing material (I guess)...

Clean interface but unreliable train schedule. The app is easy to use and being able to add cards to Apple wallet is a much appreciated feature. Unfortunately the train schedule (I don’t know if this applies to buses as well) is unacceptably inaccurate. It will say the train is “due” for several minutes before actually arriving. Please fix this issue.

Ridiculous issues. The people back at Ventra corp have to get their coding straightened out. I often have issues purchasing passes on the app, I forget my password often and need to go through the reset process: they send me a new password to reset, which fails MULTIPLE times, and I have several emails in my inbox I need to delete afterwards. This app is worth two stars only because this is the ONLY public transit system in Chicago.

As bad as the CTA itself. The CTA can’t run their buses or trains, why would I have thought their app would work. Actually, I’ve been using the app for years & it’s super inconsistent on when it decides to accept my credit card for reloading. Then it will randomly reset & lose all of my saved lines & stops. Why, oh why did I transfer my plastic card to Apple Pay?! Doesn’t work. Plastic card is no longer functional. Customer service is useless. CTA expects me to pony up for a new card. So now they’re holding my money hostage because they’re tech doesn’t work. Awesome.

Returning to travel; didn’t realize we’d time-traveled. I’m trying to get home to visit family. All very last-minute through no fault of my own. Trying to buy tickets to travel around Chicago in advance, just so I don’t slow down lines or irritate my family who have cars but are busy. You know? NB - it’s not my first day on the planet, nor in a major global city, or even in Chicago where my family has lived for a century. Nope. This whole Ventra adjunct thingy is like the 1800s. I am trying to pay money to a company in advance to make everything move more smoothly and instead I’m told I need to pay $5 for a plastic card and I might get that money back through something really not very sensical. This has to be a joke! So much for keeping things easier for others. Or myself, for that matter.

Doesn’t deserve 1 star!. This app is awful! I can’t believe that after all this time CTA hasn’t invested in making it USABLE! It’s a pain and frustrating. I have a new Ventra card but the app won’t let me register it. I call customer service and apparently the card is already registered and just needs to be activated. It’s now activated and registered but the app still won’t let me delete my old card and put the new one on it. I’m over it! There’s no reason why this app shouldn’t be working much better than it is!

Apple Wallet is Unreliable. I am writing this review on a CTA bus. I and three other riders are not able to pay with our phones. Luckily I carry a spare physical Ventra card that always works. There was another mass problem in the fall, lots of people unable to pay fare with their iPhones. As someone without a car, I’d love to have the freedom to go wallet-less for short trips, relying on my phone and Apple Wallet. But that carries a risk of getting stranded because I can’t pay fares. If you use the app, use it with a PHYSICAL CARD ONLY.

Challenger for worst app ever. This app is horrendous. Not only are the flows difficult and non intuitive but there aren’t any error prompts to let the user know exactly what is wrong. You are left doing troubleshooting on your own. It is also overly chatting, almost constantly requiring a server connection which is an issue on a moving train :) Please fix this and outsource it to someone who understands digital design principles. Just because people HAVE to use your app doesn’t mean you should deliver a low quality experience.

I don’t usually write reviews but….. This app is a mess. While it is nice to have train passes on your phone, I have had times where the app charges my account for a day pass and then when i try to use the day pass at a terminal it charges the money on my account instead of the day pass I just purchased. My advice, don’t put any money onto your account unless it is for one specific ride, instead, buy day passes and pay for it directly via your credit card or Apple Pay… or honestly, just use a physical ticket, it works better anyways

Unable to close tickets. If the app actually followed guidelines and was tested on anything modern they would realize that they are using too much of the screen. The bottom bar is under the action bar on any modern iPhone without a home button. The metra ticket overflows into the clock and battery status area. Once you use a ticket it’s basically impossible to close it unless you tap the 1 pixel out of 4 million that lets you by pure luck. I appreciate modernizing everything and using an app like this for tickets but at some point the bare minimum isn’t cutting it.

Not very good. My transit history has been wiped away and only show a date of dec 2nd. It was very useful because I was able to track when my mother actually got on the bus…I don’t like to always call because she doesn’t feel comfortable with taking her phone out of her purse while on the bus stop or on the bus. Seems like I can only add money to card….for now! Please update the transit history!

Arrival information completely unreliable. The ventra app is incapable of accurately reflecting arrival times and accurately tracking bus/train progress. Buses often disappear with the next one in 20 minutes. This makes it completely impossible to schedule when I should leave. Using the app is no better than randomly arriving at the bus station. Would encourage the PM to prioritize this fix because really the only value prop of this app over Google maps is the ability to more accurately schedule routes.

Great when it works. When the app functions as it was intended/designed for, it’s great. Unfortunately, this app for a while has been plagued by bugs, glitches, crashes, and other failures. Sometimes the app will just “go down” for a day or two. I’ve also had happen a couple times where my ticket just won’t load. Terrible customer service too. Metra really outsourced their most important tool to an inconsistent company.

Private company running payment for a public service. Terrible app and customer service doesn’t care. I moved my physical card to a digital one and have had numerous times the digital card won’t read when tapping so I have to pay using a different card. Bus operator doesn’t care to hear me explains this happens all the time and I have a 30 day pass. I also keep “favoriting” various trips and it resets every week. Terrible app. Stop privatizing public services.

Won’t take funds for weeks. Haven’t been able to use the app for weeks to get funds. Keeps saying payment won’t work and Face ID won’t work and when I call the number to get help I get the meanest customer service reps who are no help but to tell you to go to the website and don’t use the app. However, the website will take the same payment but according to customer service nothing is wrong with the app. Very frustrating but it’s not like we have any other options in Chicago.

Why can’t I use my credit card to reload?. Every time I try to add value from my MasterCard to my Ventra card it says my institution declined the transaction. So why does my card work EVERWHERE else?? This includes the actual Ventra website where I reloaded the card from the SAME MasterCard moments after the last time I was told by the app that it was being declined. If I can’t put money on my card to pay the fare, well I guess that renders all your other features irrelevant. Not that it matters, according to other reviews none of it works anyway.

Charged my CC with No ticket delivery. First time I used the app it charged my CC via Apple Pay and did not deliver any ticket for Metra. I followed up with another purchase that succeeded. I have now 2 charges on my CC but only 1 ticket so I have to either dispute with my CC company or deal with their already very slow support system. Disappointing to use this app. I applaud the CTA for trying to go digital but they have failed in some very fundamental areas for how the app should function.

Payment Issues and consistency. App is outdated, needs a refresh and overall is in dire need of a do over. I’ve been using the same payment option for months and out of know where it’s telling me I have to use an alternative payment option. Clearly my card is not expired and has something to do with this buggy app. It was frustrating because I had to get cash near a store to hop on the bus. I commend others for dealing with this buggy inconsistent app. Seriously It would be a miracle if this app ever gets a rework. Wishing you all godspeed

Unable to Login on iPhone??. I am unable to login to this app using my iPhone 16 Pro. This phone is fully updated (release 18.2, app is also updated). I can login on my computer. I have reset password several times, I have deleted the app and reinstalled several times. I called Ventra Chicago and they reset my password on their end and got the same error I get and were not able to fix it. Screen shot error is: “Something went wrong…Server error occurred. Please try again later.” PLEASE HELP!

It's pretty good but still a bit buggy. I use this app since I like the Apple wallet option, but my favorites won't update. If I click on the blue heart, the bus line still shows up in my favorites but it says 'No information available'. I want to make the line disappear all together and uninstalling and logging out did nothing.

Absolutely useless. You now need this for Metra too as many ticket offices have closed. However, it seems the writers of this “app” know they have a monopoly and don’t care that much of the functionality if broken, data gets lost, and customer service is worse than Comcast. If I didn’t have to use this app, I wouldn’t. Also, if a resume falls on my desk from anyone who says they worked on Ventra, it goes straight in the trash.

Better than nothing, I guess. Unfortunately this app is the only way to add a Ventra card to your Apple Wallet. And that’s about all it’s good for. Can you purchase a new Ventra card in the app? Nooooo. Can you transfer a balance from one physical card to another? No, that would be too convenient. Are there broken links in the help section? Absolutely. Additionally, many of the buttons are so close to the edge of the screen that they don’t respond on the first few taps, or are obscured by other iOS components.

Helpful Customer Service. Jackie was extremely helpful and kind with guiding me to reset parts of my account. I have to say the app was quite frustrating on its own, yet the support of the customer service reps makes up for it. I suggest emailing and calling when you have issues.

Horrible service. Ventra is so laggy and unreliable. There have been multiple instances where it would say a bus is delayed or 5 minutes away, only for the app to start lagging and showing incorrect results. I have to close out the app multiple times for an accurate time schedule and in that period the bus has already passed the stop. This is terrible for people with disabilities who rely on this app to be convenient and correct.

Highly inconvenient for commuters. This has been happening more frequently as of recent. Whenever I try to purchase a cta pass the payment won’t go through. Whether I used a debit or credit or even apple cash it doesn’t work. I missed my bus today while heading to work because the app continued to reject every card I tried. This is affecting my transportation to work. I need improvements to be made. Currently looking into alternatives.

Apple wallet feature does not work. It used to work but when I switched phones I am no longer able to use wallet feature which is inconvenient considering I have cards with money that cannot be used. I even purchased a Ventra digital card through the app only to be told I cannot add to wallet. There are several complaints in various threads online for years now without the issue being fixed. There should be a class action for all money lost.

constant glitches. it’s wild how this app never improves. lately, it seems to have gotten worse. glitches several times every single time i use it. click on a bus/train route and it shows you times for a completely different route or goes blank. mark a favorite stop and you’ll never see the times for that stop. a couple weeks ago, i was checking out for a 30day pass. after i entered my password to confirm sale, hit enter, the screen went blank, then it asked me enter my password again, so i did and it took me to the confirmation page. it charged me twice but only took me to confirmation once. i’ve contacted ventra 4 times now. it’s impossible to actually speak to a rep to get a refund. terrible. i wish ventra would actually fix their app and get it together.

Easy to use. The app itself is really easy to use and always gets me where I need to go. Simple to add fare value. Shows me good routes and how soon to expect the next bus. Much better than many other major cities transit apps I've used.

Wasted money. I bought a day pass on the app and it only let me use it once. When I tried using it a second time, the machine said that it had expired. I bought a second day pass on the app, but it remains in-queue unusable. The first one is still active, even though the machines won’t accept it. So I would have to wait 24 hours until I can use the second one. I ended up just buying a physical day pass. Never using this app again!