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Metra months away on ticket app

Metra riders anxious to get their fingers working on a smartphone ticket app will need to wait until fall.

Planners said there are a lot of intricacies still to work out with the technology that integrates Metra, Pace, the CTA and the new Ventra fare system.

"We don't want to unveil it until it's ready," Metra Executive Director Don Orseno said Thursday at a board meeting held in McHenry County as part of an outreach program.

Metra administrators originally expected to debut the app in May or June but are still testing and calibrating it.

"It's an extremely complicated app. It's the first time it's been done across the country," senior director of strategic capital planning Lynnette Ciavarella said.

When the app launches this fall, Metra riders will be able to pay for and display tickets and monthly passes.

At the same time, Pace and CTA customers will be able to check balances on their Ventra accounts, add value to their Ventra cards and view trip-planning and bus arrival features.

Later, CTA and Pace passengers with touch-enabled smartphones will be able to use the app with Ventra readers on buses and at stations to pay.

The app includes security features such as a moving screen and changing colors that verify it's a bona fide ticket and prevent images being photographed. The Illinois General Assembly required Pace, Metra and the CTA to offer a universal fare card by 2015. Pace and the CTA collaborated with a Ventra fare card that's been in use since 2014.

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