Busjack Posted December 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2013 Sun-Times story that bad Ventra readers on buses have to be swapped; says Pace sends out a mechanic but CTA has been waiting for the bus to get back to the garage. Why 6 month old equipment should break that easily is beyond me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted December 19, 2013 Report Share Posted December 19, 2013 Mabve Ventra hardware was not built for the rigors of bumpy bus travel ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted December 19, 2013 Report Share Posted December 19, 2013 The walgreens down the street from me has a very large banner that says "we sell and reload ventra cards", with both the CTA and walgreen's logos on it. So at least some Walgreens clearly are Ventra agents. This one is one two busy bus routes, that might matter. I ran into the first real problem with my card today. I was travelling with my wife, and I used my card to pay for both of us. We took a bus, and later a train (just out side the transfer window), and later another bus. the first bus had a long delay processing the second transaction. The last bus wouldn't read my card at all, the driver waved us on. Looking at the account online, I see I have five trips posted today, (should be six, but I never got a 'Go' on the last bus, so I don't know why it's not four...). They're all for $0.00, with a description of "Pending Trip Pricing" (expected is "Transit Value"). I don't know how they don't know what it costs to ride a bus or a train. Correct about Walgreen's. All three Walgreen's closest to me in my area are Ventra retail agents and have been from practically day one of Ventra going live for the public. The same has been the case for the two Walgreen's a little further to the west of me. There are even smaller non-corporate "Mom & Pop" food stores, pharmacies and cellphone retail stores; at least one BP gas station; and a dollar store listed as Ventra retailers in my area along with the Jewel, Walgreen's and CVS stores that are in my area. Maybe with all the double charging on false passbacks, the system now can't deal with a real one. It's not unusual for a ride to be "Pending Trip Pricing". I often see this on my history but after a while the rides are updated to reflect proper pricing. This is even on a 30 day pass with no transfers. Yes the 'Pending Trip Pricing' message shown sometimes on Ventra accounts are nothing new. They've shown up on occasion with my card as well only to show correct as relevant pass rides against my card maybe 15-20 minutes later. The messages have nothing to do with the double charging problem that plagued a lot of riders or distinguishing between passback rides. The only relevance is if one saw one or more trips pending than they know should get registered to an account for the time frame in which they were traveling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted December 24, 2013 Report Share Posted December 24, 2013 No posts in 5 days. Is Ventraland starting to get better ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rippler Posted December 25, 2013 Report Share Posted December 25, 2013 Last week I was considering breaking down and getting a Ventra card (I've always had the CCP card and it still works perfectly). And then I read the last batch of problems and decided against it again. I don't think I'm being unreasonable in expecting the new Ventra card to be as trouble-free as the old system that I've used for years before I switch over, even giving correct info online for my fares, etc. Even though I signed up immediately for the Ventra card back in August and on September 4th I got an email it was being sent "soon", soon never came. They won't resend a Ventra card insisting it was lost in the mail, even though on my account it clearly says "Cancelled" in the status column 2 hours after it was ordered. And they of course can't explain the "Cancelled" status, but still insist a card was mailed (I don't believe a card was ever mailed). So they want me to go buy a card from a vending machine, then call them again, they will transfer my CCP balance to the "lost" card number, and then transfer it from that number to the new number. Although why they can't just transfer my CCP balance directly to the new card number is another discussion, but they claim they can't do that. I think the entire system still leaves a lot to be desired. So I'm still putting off getting a Ventra card as long as possible until they issue new deadlines. Five days without new issues being posted doesn't give me the warm fuzzies about Ventra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sw4400 Posted December 25, 2013 Report Share Posted December 25, 2013 Last week I was considering breaking down and getting a Ventra card (I've always had the CCP card and it still works perfectly). And then I read the last batch of problems and decided against it again. I don't think I'm being unreasonable in expecting the new Ventra card to be as trouble-free as the old system that I've used for years before I switch over, even giving correct info online for my fares, etc. Even though I signed up immediately for the Ventra card back in August and on September 4th I got an email it was being sent "soon", soon never came. They won't resend a Ventra card insisting it was lost in the mail, even though on my account it clearly says "Cancelled" in the status column 2 hours after it was ordered. And they of course can't explain the "Cancelled" status, but still insist a card was mailed (I don't believe a card was ever mailed). So they want me to go buy a card from a vending machine, then call them again, they will transfer my CCP balance to the "lost" card number, and then transfer it from that number to the new number. Although why they can't just transfer my CCP balance directly to the new card number is another discussion, but they claim they can't do that. I think the entire system still leaves a lot to be desired. So I'm still putting off getting a Ventra card as long as possible until they issue new deadlines. Five days without new issues being posted doesn't give me the warm fuzzies about Ventra. I remember the launch of the Chicago Card and the Chicago Card Plus years ago. There were lots of problems with it when it first came out. Glitches, failed reads, free rides(I had a Chicago Card that was giving me free rides until the CTA put the kabbash on it and forced me to have to get a new card that would deduct money). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted December 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2013 ...They won't resend a Ventra card insisting it was lost in the mail, even though on my account it clearly says "Cancelled" in the status column 2 hours after it was ordered. .. If you look up to Amtrak41's posts about 2 months ago, Cancelled means never activated. However, since the first weekly status report indicated that 100% of cards had been mailed out, they aren't going to mail you another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rippler Posted December 25, 2013 Report Share Posted December 25, 2013 If you look up to Amtrak41's posts about 2 months ago, Cancelled means never activated. However, since the first weekly status report indicated that 100% of cards had been mailed out, they aren't going to mail you another. I checked back through early September and couldn't find anything about it. But if cancelled means never activated, that would mean it would give time for the card to be mailed out, plus a certain amount of time for activation, before they'd assign it a "cancelled" status for not activating a card. It would have be at least 2 weeks minimum after the order is placed (and with Ventra, that is a really optimistic time schedule). My cancelled status shows 2 hours after the card was ordered... same date, 2 hours later. So I can't see how they could already know it wasn't activated just 2 hours after the order was entered in their system. I know they won't mail out a card anymore, but I still don't believe they ever mailed me a card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted December 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2013 ... My cancelled status shows 2 hours after the card was ordered... same date, 2 hours later. So I can't see how they could already know it wasn't activated just 2 hours after the order was entered in their system. I know they won't mail out a card anymore, but I still don't believe they ever mailed me a card. They know it wasn't activated as soon as they sent it out (if they ever did) and you never called the phone number to activate it. Amtrak41's saga starts here, apparently the message he got was "Account Closed." Anyway, the first clause of your last sentence is all that counts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted December 26, 2013 Report Share Posted December 26, 2013 Ventra seems to be working alot better. I'm told the readers now have added sensors and better software. If your pass is set to expire the reader will now flash a yellow bar across the bottom of the reader. They still need a better way to tell you when your pass expires. The site only shows tranactions for me for about 15 days so there is a question of what time the pass expires on said day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted December 27, 2013 Report Share Posted December 27, 2013 Ventra seems to be working alot better. I'm told the readers now have added sensors and better software. If your pass is set to expire the reader will now flash a yellow bar across the bottom of the reader. They still need a better way to tell you when your pass expires. The site only shows tranactions for me for about 15 days so there is a question of what time the pass expires on said day. I mentioned the part about the yellow bar flashing on the screen to warn of an expiring pass a few weeks ago. At the time I wasn't sure what it was because it flashed so fast. I mentioned my guess that if had to do with my pass set to expire the following day and another member who knew what it was confirmed that it is in fact a warning about a loaded pass set to expire soon. The warning pops up for cards for which the reader detects there is no subsequent pass in cue and no transit value loaded as a back up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted December 30, 2013 Report Share Posted December 30, 2013 "CTA riders got $1.2 million in free rides thanks to Ventra snafus" http://www.suntimes.com/24672881-761/cta-riders-got-12-million-in-free-rides-thanks-to-ventra-snafus.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted December 30, 2013 Report Share Posted December 30, 2013 I boarded 1730 on the 9 Ashland this afternoon, and the Ventra reader is actually installed in a different positions than what you find on other NF buses. On that one, the reader is placed on that bend in the front rail so that the reader is actually facing passengers as they board. And instead of being positioned vertical, it's positioned on a horizontal axis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted December 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2013 "CTA riders got $1.2 million in free rides thanks to Ventra snafus" http://www.suntimes.com/24672881-761/cta-riders-got-12-million-in-free-rides-thanks-to-ventra-snafus.html And, according to that, Cubic got a $1.2 million kick in the rear. The amount per ride seems correct (as opposed to assuming $2.25 cash fare), although it may not be so many free rides if some of the riders had passes, but I guess that goes into the computation of the average fare lost., Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owine Posted December 30, 2013 Report Share Posted December 30, 2013 Interesting that the reimbursement is in addition to the hold on payments. Unless they are one in the same and this is semantics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted December 31, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Interesting that the reimbursement is in addition to the hold on payments. Unless they are one in the same and this is semantics. One might be offset from the other, but the two are not related. CTA has apparently adequately quantified that it lost $1.2 million in fares, for which Cubic is responsible, but also indicated that Cubic gets paid nothing until the contract specifications are met. It is not clear, for instance, what damage CTA claims as a result of the taps not occurring within 2.5 seconds, or the telephone calls not being picked up in 5 minutes, but that's also probably offset against the monthly contract payment. In a sense, it is not much different from the NABI situation, in that it was reported that CTA withheld the last $15 million, but ending up settling for the additional proceeds of the scrap of about $1 million, plus about $35 million (which turned out to be some cash, but also mostly parts). The only difference is that based on their age, the NABIs were about 40% depreciated, so one could compute the measure of damages. Other than the lost fares, it isn't as clear what the dollar value of Cubic's failure to perform the contract. At least it appears that no one is expecting Cubic to pay cash to CTA if CTA has not paid cash to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nflyer22 Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 I boarded 1730 on the 9 Ashland this afternoon, and the Ventra reader is actually installed in a different positions than what you find on other NF buses. On that one, the reader is placed on that bend in the front rail so that the reader is actually facing passengers as they board. And instead of being positioned vertical, it's positioned on a horizontal axis. Just saw a report on ABC 7 News explaining that the Ventra readers will be repositioned on buses to face customers as they board, improving passenger flow. Probably 1730 is one of the first to get the move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 Just saw a report on ABC 7 News explaining that the Ventra readers will be repositioned on buses to face customers as they board, improving passenger flow. Probably 1730 is one of the first to get the move. I just saw that report myself. I guess now I'll have to start reminding myself to hold and flash my card in front of me again instead of to my right when I board a New Flyer since I tend to be a creature of habit and got so accustomed to that pattern of board, tap to my right and grab a seat if available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 Can they reposition the thing on a old Nova ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted January 5, 2014 Report Share Posted January 5, 2014 Can they reposition the thing on a old Nova ? It shouldn't be all that hard. They would probably have to still have it on a vertical instead of positioned laying flat as can be done on NFs since the most of the front railing on an old Nova that would allow the reader to face the customer passes very close to the farebox. That's about the only difference with repositioning them on the current Novas. They've now begun expanding the repositioning of readers from 74th to Kedzie because I've started seeing some of Kedzie's artics out on the road with readers repositoned as I've already been seeing on increasingly more of 74th's buses (mainly 74th's NF buses so far). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinny Posted January 10, 2014 Report Share Posted January 10, 2014 1874 on route 53 had the new reader orientation this morning. Of course, the screen had a "no entry" sign and the message "not in use". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted January 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2014 1874 on route 53 had the new reader orientation this morning. Of course, the screen had a "no entry" sign and the message "not in use". Was there another reader there, or were the passengers getting free rides? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted January 10, 2014 Report Share Posted January 10, 2014 "Ventra meets performance benchmarks" http://www.suntimes.com/24875361-761/ventra-meets-performance-benchmarks.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted January 11, 2014 Report Share Posted January 11, 2014 Was there another reader there, or were the passengers getting free rides? Most likely not so those passengers likely got free rides. On all the buses that have had the reader repositioned, it's still the same reader just moved from the part of the rail parallel with the windshield and moved to the part that's parallel to the passenger's side of the farebox along with being positioned with the screen facing up so that you'd now be looking down at the screen when you board. At least that's how it is on the NFs both 40 footers and artics. I have yet to see the reader repositioned on the Novas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinny Posted January 15, 2014 Report Share Posted January 15, 2014 Was there another reader there, or were the passengers getting free rides? Free rides unless you had a magnetic strip card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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