Ventra App Reviews

This app is so incredibly unreliable. Wait 5 minutes for a bus that's "due" only for it to never show up. Doesn't update my fare until the 5th time refreshing either. Never had a good experience.

This app in no accessible to me at all (idk if just iPhone users) but the buttons to purchase are all the way at the bottom and every time I try to click purchase a ticket it does not allow me. It’s very inconvenient because I don’t have access to purchase tickets in person all the time and I am not paying cash in person.

The app is down and has been for about an hour. You know the app the entire city uses to travel? And they just don’t update their accounts or give you any information. A horrible app

Is there anything that can be done about the random crashing? Every day it’s something with this app and it’s annoying

My app is crashing so significantly- it’s not useable anymore. it absolutely doesn’t work.

Keeps not opening and signing u out

The app randomly signs you out, put in the correct password and will still say that it’s incorrect, and doesn’t load sometimes

The moments I truly need this app to work just fails. The developers of this app did not think through anything.

This app has tons of bugs and comes with an outdated interface that needs an overhaul. Very dissatisfied. Chicagoans deserve better.

So I had tried to input my credit card for payment, it doesn’t go through, and makes me use applepay, which I don’t want to use since I got credit card fraud happen to me via applepay this past holiday. This lack of fixing the use of credit card issue has been going on for at least the past year, and they haven’t fixed it?? Honestly how hard can it be

Not intuitive and God forbid you get a new phone after you used this app because it will totally lock you out of your account and make you go through all sorts of hoops that you would not even know were needed until you call customer service. the only plus is customer service was very nice and helpful

It pathetic how bad this app is. Has any governing body looked into the practices of this HORRIBLE service/company?

I am a current student, and when I first tried to add money to my card, it was added to my old one. When I made sure to select my student fare card, it created an entirely new digital card instead. I just want the money to be added to the correct card, or I would like a refund.

Why are the times not corrected they were put in a long time ago wrong and it NEVER gets corrected? It takes 73 minutes on one but 58-47 min All the others? App works ok but information is not always reliable

UPDATE: They are still thieves AND their app is garbage and I couldn’t get on the bus because the card would not work. Waste of time and space on my phone. Original review: Let’s you load a card and then closes the card immediately, leaving you without access to your funds!! These people are THIEVES

I mean, seriously?

The absolute worst app I’ve ever downloaded. Usability nightmare.

For no reason, the app frequently signs you out of your account. You notice just in time for the Metra conductor to ask for your ticket.

The app wouldn’t allow me to have a username. I tried a million combos and they were all taken. My GF had a hard time with it too.

I don’t know how this app could still be so terrible after years of existence. The camera cannot scan any of my cards to use as payments, the system frequently gives me errors, and still does not have an interactive map feature. I’ve had this app for at least 5 years and there have been zero improvements in that time.

Purchase button doesn’t work

literally can not purchase anything or even edit settings because any layout with a button at the bottom of the screen is impossible to use. the button can not be pressed without being interpreted as a home screen swipe. experiencing this with an iphone 15 pro max but by the look of the other reviews this has been a universal problem for a while

I had initially written a bad review due to a less than desirable intuitive payment workflow that caused a lot of frustration and a missed train. Some of it was my own error, but it was caused by a lack of prompts. I’ve updated this review accordingly and give it 3/5 as it works, it’s fine, but it could do better in preventing some user error.

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

The purchase button is too short and you can’t tap it in iPhone because it under the home button/bar.

Please fix the position of the “purchase” button

This is a fantastic way to use public transit.

Amazon asks for less verification on a $250 purchase than this app does on my OWN PHONE while I’m trying to quickly make a $7.50 purchase. Absurd.

This app is horribly designed. Not intuitive. Cost me 15 bucks because of the way is designed. Added value twice because it looked like the first transaction failed. Customer service refused to return funds. If you are visiting SKIP this app.

I see a lot of mixed reviews and not understanding why people are having such different experiences. I downloaded the app yesterday because I’m new to understanding the schedule. I was on it for a while and could find how long it would take to reach my destination. 🙄 It’s not hard to learn an app, but this was confusing and not very user friendly. I even tried to purchase a ticket and the the button wouldn’t work. Tried reloading and still no luck. Honestly, I don’t give reviews like that, but just use google 😂

Literally can’t even purchase. You press the button and nothing. The main purpose of the app does not work!

I don’t understand why 50% of the time I open the app I have to sign back in? It seems like a simple fix, but it’s not. With this being the only app that can be used for CTA you would think they would put more effort in.

The app constantly signs me out. Then it doesn’t remember my login information. Extremely extremely inconvenient when you’re strapped for time and need to be as accurate as possible.

Waiting for a bus. 16 minutes. Four minutes. 24 minutes. Three minutes. Seven minutes. This thing may as well be a random number generator.

The tracking pages are unable to show times for Favorites but are able to show times for the nearby view. So what’s the point of favorites? Info for Divy bikes clutters up the pages and come first in some views. This app is for bus and rail users. Having Divy info is fine but make it less obtrusive. Really, this app needs a complete overhaul. The design is dated. And some needed functionality should be put in.

Autoload doesn’t work

2/7/25 - For such simple tasks as transferring funds from one card to another (both cards registered in the account), this app should be able to do that making it unnecessary to have to talk to a human.

It has shown me busses, that aren’t even coming, given me wait times that were at least 15 minutes off, and just entirely inconsistent. It might not be the app, but itself. Still the information it gives is wrong most of the time.

I like having it on my phone cause I travel from home to school to work but it logs you out randomly with no reason

The train timers will display times for trains that do not exist and then later in the day it won’t show trains that do exist.

I was going to get in my usual train, but then I was right there just about to get up in the train sped off and I was right at the door and then the lady came on the speaker and said the train was early due to track repair repairs. If it’s early then you should wait for the people who we’re at the train station so they come on time because they know when the train is coming you guys need to fix your thing worst experience I have had on the train.

Ventra Chicago needs to update their settings for removing an old Ventra card. I got a new one sent through the mail and can not update, nor add it to my apple wallet. Which makes it not as convenient as it supposedly is. I give 2 stars because it’s handy. but if you lose your card it’s over with, good luck on adding another one.

It's not possible to save your settings when switching your default credit card. You just get stuck.

The bus tracking has been accurate for me so far but I keep getting overcharged for rides. I pay for a pass, I get on the bus and my pass gets activated, yet it still takes money out of my fare. What’s the point of buying a pass if you end up having to pay the fare anyway?

Can you stop giving the app development to the interns and put some actual work into it? This is the third time my pass is grayed out and I’m forced to use a credit card. You are stealing money

Technically, the app works. Functionally, it feels like it was built by people who have never used transit. The Transit app is far better at helping you see times and where vehicles actually are on approach. Heck, the built-in Maps app is better at routing, if only from a usability standpoint. Basically, I only use the Ventra app to add money to my Ventra card, and that’s it. Seems like a missed opportunity, but whatever. What’s maddening is that the Ventra app still won’t let you use ApplePay to set up auto-pay. Ventra’s fine print says they can’t because of Apple’s terms of use, but that changed a few years ago. Ventra still hasn’t added it. It’s in their best interests to have as many people on autopay as possible, but again - whatever. It takes my ApplePay payment just fine when I get a chance to come to the app and do it manually. (Oh - and when your account gets low, Ventra sends you an email, which is great. But it’s hard-formatted html that thinks you’re sitting in front of a large computer monitor, or that you’re going to .. print it out?! Neither of those connects to the universe I live in. The formatting is so small it’s impossible to read on a phone’s screen. All they have to do is less. Let the text wrap and be big enough. If you want to be fancy, have it detect the device first. Let your emails be useful, Ventra. Again, designed by executives who don’t read their own email and who drive everywhere. And … whatever.

All but nonfunctional. Too many bugs, I can’t update payment, whomever designed or maintains it should be replaced. Really wished it worked, but clearly there is no investment in tech which is ironic for a city that wants to be tech savvy. Swing and a miss… this map is the White Sox of apps.

It’s been a decade since the CTA let Ventra take over fairs. The Ventra app has one job, letting you buy tickets and this app can’t do that. The glitches on this app mean that I cannot buy a ticket. It is impossible to do so. Metra also lets this app handle ticket sales. If you live by a station that doesn’t have a ticket machine you are forced to deal with this abomination of a piece of software. Thank god you can buy a ticket on the train. You better keep cash on you to buy a ticket from the conductor otherwise you’re probably out of luck.

I’ve tried multiple times to use this app to by either a day pass or one way ticket. I get to the purchase page and when I hit “purchase” nothing happens. No error, nothing at all. This is the main purpose of the app…

This app is so useful in theory and could be great, but it logs users out so often for no reason. This wouldn’t be a big issue if the app utilized basic functionality to remember usernames/passwords, let alone implement a Face ID function, but it doesn’t. The number of times conductors on Metra talk down to people on the train even though it’s the app that logged them out is so frustrating. This is such an easy fix, but the app still hasn’t implemented it.