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Metra smartphone app should be ready for riders in May

While promoting a new mobile ticketing app as easy and convenient for passengers, Metra also could reap benefits from the change by closing a free ride loophole.

Officials at a Friday meeting approved an agreement with Cubic Transportation Systems Chicago to create a smartphone app that's compatible with the CTA and Pace's Ventra card system, which the high-tech company developed. The smartphone app will be tested in February and should be ready to go by May.

The app will allow Metra riders to purchase and display tickets on their screens. It also will serve as a virtual Ventra card for CTA and Pace customers to access trains and buses by late 2015 or early 2016.

Cubic and the CTA were criticized for technical glitches with Ventra when it debuted last fall. That's one reason for introducing the app gradually, senior planner Lynnette Ciavarella said.

"We want to be sure we roll it out right," she said.

Metra one-way ticket and 10-ride pass holders sometimes get a break when conductors don't punch their fares because of full trains or other duties.

However, Metra planners said the new mobile app is capable of a self-cancelling feature that would, in effect, electronically punch tickets once activated.

For example, riders with smartphones would be asked to activate their tickets upon boarding trains.

Other transit systems using the app have timed those activated tickets to cancel within the time frame of the trip.

If Metra adopts that idea, it could capture significant amounts of lost revenue.

The agency is still fine-tuning its "business rules" for the app and will give more details in the coming weeks, Ciavarella said.

The agreement with Cubic is expected to cost Metra $500,000 for developing the app. In addition, maintenance, credit card fees and a commission on sales for Cubic should cost about $2 million a year.

The app includes security features such as a moving screen and changing colors that should prevent images being photographed and verify for conductors it's a bona fide ticket.

It should be seamless for riders to use their smartphones for other tasks while traveling, then navigate back to the ticket, officials said.

The move was prompted by a state law requiring Pace, Metra and the CTA to offer a universal fare card by 2015. Proponents of the bill, including Gov. Pat Quinn, had envisioned a universal fare card that could allow people - with or without smartphones - to seamlessly travel between all three systems.

The app will be available on both Apple and Android platforms.

"The clear future of ticketing will be mobile ticketing," Ciavarella said.

Transit app to debut in February for Metra, CTA and Pace riders

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