Ventra

You can do only some of the things you need to, and will run into limitations. Ones I have hit: 1) went through the reset password process, except that it never sent me an email. This must be a backend issue. I talked with Support on the phone who said they would send me an email, but it never came through. Then I tried again a few few days later and it magically appeared. 2) while attempting to purchase tickets on the app (something you think they would want to make as easy as possible) the purchase button is tiny and in position directly under the iPhone’s bottom bar. Attempting to click the purchase button an iPhone will interpret it as a click on the bottom bar of your phone making it essentially impossible to click purchase. I thought I would just purchase a ticket online instead, but that is not possible; you can only get it on the app, at a station, or on the train. This has got to be losing Ventra money!!

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.”

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!