Chicago's Metra customers use Ventra App for 1 millionth ride

Chicago Metra customers have now taken more than one million rides using mobile tickets on the new Ventra App.

The one millionth ride was taken Tuesday, exactly two months after the app was launched by Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and Pace. The free app is now available for download and use on Apple and Android smartphone and tablet devices via the App Store and Google Play. Since it debuted in November, the app has been downloaded by more than 250,000 people.

The Ventra App is the first of its kind to allow customers to pay for rides on all three transit systems — CTA, Metra and Pace — from their mobile devices. The app offers customers a wide range of functionality, including Metra mobile tickets, Ventra account management, loading of transit value/passes, account notifications and real-time transit tracker information for CTA, Metra and Pace all in one place.

“We’re extremely happy with the way our customers have adopted mobile ticketing on the Ventra App,” said Metra Executive Director/CEO Don Orseno. “More and more riders every day are discovering that this new app is convenient, handy and very easy to use — and not just for Metra customers, but for CTA and Pace customers as well.”

The app has so far been used to buy 221,000 Metra tickets, and those mobile tickets have now been used to pay for one million rides. That includes 131,000 one-way tickets, 47,300 10-ride tickets, 20,000 monthly passes, 11,500 weekend passes and the rest special event or reduced fare tickets.

The app has also been used to purchase more than 240,000 fare products for use on CTA and Pace, including one-, three-, seven- and 30-day unlimited pass products and includes transactions that added transit value to Ventra accounts of varying dollar amounts.