Students Can't Load Fares On Their New Ventra Cards

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 29, 2013 10:05PM

A Ventra card holder tries to add cash to his card at the Halsted Street Orange Line station, Aug. 29, 2013. (Photo credit: Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist)

Students who have been given Ventra cards have run into some technical difficulties with the open fare system adopted by CTA and Pace: an inability to add value to their cards.

Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch reported several complaints about zero balances on Ventra cards, even after value was added to the cards online or at the brand new vending machines at “L” stations across the transit system. Here is one complaint told to Hilkevitch.

Ben Gorvine, of Evanston, whose daughter is a freshman at Evanston Township High School, said he loaded $20 onto her Ventra card Monday night. The order history confirmed that a $20 purchase was made, but the card balance was zero, said Gorvine, a psychology professor at Northwestern University.

"I talked to the folks at Ventra today, and they told me they had over 13,000 orders that they're trying to process and that it may not go through for a day or two,'' Gorvine said after driving his daughter to school Tuesday and giving her his Chicago Card so she could get home in the afternoon. "So apparently they weren't ready for the rollout, at least not for the student cards.''

By 5 p.m. Tuesday, the $20 was credited to the Ventra card, he later said.

This is not what CTA needs with Ventra cards being mailed out to Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus holders this week. CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase was contrite when Hilkevitch contacted her for comment and said, “This shouldn't be happening.” Chase's colleague at CTA, Lambrini Lukidis, blamed the glitches on the rush of students activating their cards all at once and that CTA and Pace drivers have been instructed to "wave through" people with problem cards.

Ventra will launch system-wide Sept. 9 but if this keeps happening, don’t throw away your fare cards just yet.