Going somewhere? Riders get 12 hours of free rides from Ventra as it makes system improvements
Posted October 17, 2025 11:25 am
Metra, Pace and CTA riders who use Ventra will get a 12-hour fare holiday starting late Friday.
Upgrades are scheduled on the Ventra system from 11 p.m. Friday to 11 a.m. Saturday, officials announced.
During that period, all Ventra services, including the smartphone app, Call Center, website, ticket vending machines, and uploads at retail locations, will be temporarily unavailable.
“To ride during this period, customers do not need to tap their Ventra cards or contactless devices at rail station turnstiles or while boarding buses and will be given a courtesy ride,” the company stated.
Signs will be posted to inform customers about the outage. Ventra apologized to riders for any inconvenience.