?? It costs the same. There were big problems last November through January at the latest, but it's been perfectly fine and fast with ventra for the past 6 months.

You seem to be writing this from last fall.....or never take ventra.....or just read the headlines or had bad experiences last fall and never gave up that mindset.

As far as ridership, the latest I saw is bus rides are down 3% from last year and rail is up a very healthy 8% from last year.

Ventra is a huge improvement and actually sped up the buses a little.

Weird. I fucking hate Ventra. And no, it costs more. It's $3 now. And they took away transfers it seems. The two, and last, times I reluctantly used that bullshit my money vanished off my card. I took a train, tried to get on a bus, said I owed more. It's a bullshit scam. I no longer use the CTA until they get rid of that stupid shit and go back to the old way.

It used to be you could stretch $5 for a long time. And when you'd get on a bus and owed money, it'd only be like 50 cents... now that stupid Ventra scam just says you owe more without telling you how much.

Still cost $2 for a bus, $2.25 for a train.

I think you are just uninformed, yes Ventra had its problems at inception but most of those problems have been resolved and it is superior to the old Chicago Card.

you're wrong, as has been pointed out elsewhere. it is still $2.25 for train rides.

also, ventra has vastly improved to where i don't even think about it anymore and now think it is better than chicago card.

get a grip.

I'm not talking about the Chicago card, which I also never used. I'm pissed they stopped using regular fare cards.

Also, why did my $5 run out after one bus and one train? They clearly are charging full fare on transfers. Whatever. I've used that dumb shit Ventra twice. And you have to pay extra for the card, so it IS more than it was... never again. I'll drive until it goes back to the regular CTA fare cards that were just fine and used for years.

There's free parking on Addison and Ogden anyway, so I don't even need it for games anyway.

As in like the printed paper cards you get out of a machine. Those are $3 for a single fare. $2.25 + 25¢ for 2 transfers + 50¢ limited use fee = $3. They don't say so but that's probably to cover the added cost of the cards, which have complicated RFID circuits and antenna rather than inexpensive magnetic stripes like in the old tickets. Hold one up to the light, you can see the metal antenna coiled around inside the paper. However, it's effectively a sucker tax to deincentivize buying low-value cards frequently vs high value cards infrequently.

If you get a plastic ventra card there's no extra fee and you can reload it for free online or at the kiosks. Just don't opt-in to the service where you can use it as a regular debit card and you wont get any fees.

The rollout was botched and terrible, but now that it's here I haven't had any problems with it other than the fact that it should say "hold here" rather than "tap here" because it takes a second or two to register the card.

McCormick Place busway
 

I apologize that this has nothing to do with new transit development, but I'm trying to find information on how the McCormick busway works--where it's accessed, how often it runs, is it part of the CTA. I did a few google searches and I can't find any concrete information. Anybody in the know?

Transfers still exist, if you felt you had a problem using the card you probably should have called the hot line instead of assuming, give it a chance!

The north entrance is at ground level beneath Randolph St. just east of the NICTD platforms of the Millennium Park station. then it runs along the east side of the depressed Metra ROW to about 9th St. where it crosses under the MED tracks to the west side of the ROW. the south entrance is Under the Stevenson, just east of King Drive. You can follow it here: https://goo.gl/maps/s3gLE

Not to belabor the point but I really don't see how Ventra is better than the Chicago Plus card. They screwed me out of $60 when it first went online by nixing my pass half way through the month and blaming me. I will say that their equipment seems to function better now at the turnstiles but I still have issues with them reading my card slow or just not working at all sometimes. Mostly when I'm leaving the loop after work it seems like. Where as I never had an issue with my Chicago Plus card not reading or working.

I was just curious if folks had concrete examples as to how Ventra is better than the Chicago Card system?

Anybody have pics of the old corridor under the Trib and Trump. Not sure I have ever seen it.

concrete example, huh?

how about the fact that ventra simply and actually works. i had 4 different chicago card pluses crap out on me on an average of 6-8 months over two and a half years. after the 4th one stopped working for no fucking reason what-so-ever, i cancelled my chicago card account and went back to using the old fashioned magnetic dip cards until the CTA rolled out ventra last year.

the roll-out of ventra was totally FUBAR, nobody will deny that, but i have to say that i am impressed with ventra thus far for the fact that my ventra card has now lasted for longer than 8 months without crapping out for no reason, which is more than i can say of any of the shitty-ass chicago card pluses that i had.

oh how i hated the chicago card. :hell:

HA! Nice. I would say that is a good example. Looks like our roles are reversed with the different systems. I don't care for Ventra but I will be using it until I can simply pay wit ha pass on my phone. Assuming that isn't Ventra as well.

Never in my life did I own or use a "Chicago card"

Thought they were stupid when they were introduced too.

There was nothing wrong with the REGULAR ass fare cards. The MTA uses them just fine. Why does our system, which is 1/10 the size (at best) and only a fraction as busy as theirs, need some stupid private company 'fast pass' bullshit???

And I was fine when it was Ventra OR traditional fare cards.

Oh and I too was screwed out of about $15 total dollars dread across a handful of old cards. Fuck Ventra; that was my only point.

the MTA cards are swipe cards much faster then dip cards. Either way I bet they are looking to modernize their system as well. I think BART is the most antiquated.

my chicago card worked for years without issues and my ventra card is working just fine as well

not sure what all you people having problems are doing wrong

I don't take public transportation very often (public transit is for suckers anyways) but I recently picked up the Ventra card and found it works great. . . given the increased cost of parking downtown, I have used the bus a few times when heading from my place in the east Loop to my buddy's house in the south Loop. . .

. . .