CTA News: Groupon To Sell Discounted Fare Cards, Credit Card Fares To Go Into Effect Next Year

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 13, 2012 9:00PM

Here's some good news for those of us who have yet to take the Chicago Card plunge. Groupon is expected to sell three-day CTA passes for $9 (the passes normally run $14). Groupon will limit the number of passes a customer can buy to four, which will be mailed to them, and the sale is expected to generate $1.8 million in revenue for CTA. (Per RedEye's Tracy Swartz.)

And for those of us who have fully embraced the cashless society and can't leave home without our credit and debit cards, we can pay for our train and bus fares simply by tapping our credit cards to the fare boxes by this time next year. Pace is paying $54.1 million to jump onto the contract CTA signed with San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems last year. It's the first step toward what will eventually become a universal fare card system between the area's three public transit systems, once Metra gets off its collective ass and with the program.

Once the system is implemented, customers will also be able to buy reloadable contactless cards with cash at train stations and retail outlets. Both CTA and Pace will still accept cash.