Ventra

Jeffrey Smith

1 year ago

I hate for the fact that I can favorite different stops but after a week or two they break and says there's no more stop there. Problem is you can't delete these so they just stay there forever which is frustrating. The app used to load the times and locations way faster until a major update came out probably a year ago now. Just a frustrating, slow, and unfriendly app

Brita Dallmann

1 year ago

I've had a lot of problems recently with the app glitching, not allowing me to scroll down to view an entire train/bus line. If I try to scroll, it glitches and goes back to the top. This makes it impossible to view most stops, so the app is mostly useless. I uninstalled and reinstalled, and it worked for about 7-10 days, but is back to glitching now.

Meridith Beird

2 years ago

For the last 3 years I've used the app with some issues but nothing massive (some bugs with saving favorite stops, doesn't track buses super successfully, etc.) But recently I stopped being able to load money onto my card, I just get an error message. I called their customer service and was told they see no issues with the app and that was that. What a joke. In a city as big as Chicago, their primary transport app should not have this many critical issues.

A Google user

6 years ago

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".

A Google user

4 years ago

The new version is still desperately slow. You can't edit the widgets on the main page. The interface makes it more difficult to know where to click. The app barely acknowledges that Metra exists, and the highly useful transit tracker feature is gone. And, it still tries to get you to turn on location tracking, which is NOT required for most functions. This is three steps back.

A Google user

6 years ago

I've been trying to create an account for the past hour without any luck, but serious frustrations. I have a really 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!

Daniel S

1 year ago

The app is excruciating slow. It's slow to the point that it's unusable for anything other than buying Metra tickets. I have three favorites stored, but whenever I open the app it says there are no favorites. When I go to the Add Favorites section and search the locations I added previously, they show up. The locations just aren't appearing on the front page. It's pathetic that THIS is the app the City of Chicago wants to use.

DeeDee M

4 years ago

Can't look up balance on card like the old app. Don't like the new app. Why does this app need access to your contacts & pictures? What do pics, contacts, & location. What do these things have to do with transportation service. Stop spying on people. Can't use app unless permission is granted. Too much private info needed. Crashes. This app crashes every time I try to create an account. Can't confirm my account, there is no button anywhere on the page to confirm.

Eric Andruszko

4 years ago

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...

Brandon Cooper

1 year ago

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.

David Neto

2 years ago

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.

Eileen Bevis

1 year ago

Love the ability to buy metra tickets + check ventra $. Getting better. Still has outages without warning notices and weird quirks, like the Metra area popping up the "for a better experience, turn on your location" window over and over again, forcing you to turn on location in order to use that particular area of the app. When all I want to see is the list of stops and scheduled times, I shouldn't have to provide my location data or waste battery to power my phone's location feature.

John-Paul Ensign

1 year ago

It may be worth noting that on Android (maybe iOS), you can tap with this app open and it will auto select the Ventra card. Better than going into GPay or Wallet, only to manually choose Ventra every time. One feature that would be awesome is having a setting for the Nearby widget on the Home screen that allows a filter. E.g. I rarely use buses and am 99% of the time on trains. It would be nice if I could configure the Nearby widget to only display trains.

Tami Garrett

1 year ago

New review 05/2024! Still has problems. Takes 2 or 3 times to load data to see routes and load funds. Info says there hasn't been an update since 2022? Definitely needs one. The fix that was done yesterday to fix the old fix still didn't work. Still crashing. Must put phone in airplane mode to access tickets. Even before this problem this app is always being "fixed" by my phone as causing errors, running slow and stopping. I'm going back to regular tickets.

Dan Noonan

1 year ago

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.

Kyra Dailey

1 year ago

The amount of hoops you need to jump through just to reset your password only to have the password reset refuse to function no matter HOW MANY PASSWORDS YOU TRY is asinine. This kind of app should be designed around efficiency above all else. Absolute waste of time and energy and I still had to find an ATM to pay my fare in cash after all the hassle failed to have any payoff. Useless.

Ken Kring

1 year ago

Some things work well. Other things are horrible. Made the mistake of marking something as a "favorite" and now have the inability to remove it. It will show that there are two more favorites that are hidden but when you hit expand, it will not show them. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling it and it does the same thing. Maddening!