Metra To End Online Ticket Sales In June

CHICAGO — Riders will soon no longer be able to buy Metra tickets online, the agency announced Monday. Metra said the decision will save hundreds of thousands and dollars and fewer people have been purchasing passes through its website since the Ventra App was introduced.

Metra started selling monthly passes and 10-ride tickets through its website in September 2009, but it said Ticket-by-Internet sales have been declining since the app was introduced in November 2015.

Online sales of monthly passes peaked in 2014 at 5,162 a month, but last year they averaged just 2,654 per month. Only 1,201 10-ride passes were sold through the website per month last year, compared to $4,875 in 2011. Metra said about 3 percent of all monthly passes and less than 1 percent of the overall total of 10-ride passes are currently sold through the website.

“We understand this change will inconvenience some Metra customers,” Metra CEO Jim Derwinski said in a statement. “However, we are trying to find efficiencies wherever we can, and we still offer several other sales channels, including the convenient Ventra App.”

Ending the program will save at least $454,000, Metra said. It would have cost an estimated $240,000 to convert "the website sales channel to Metra’s new revenue accounting system," plus $70,000 in required credit card security upgrades this year alone and $144,000 annually to host and maintain the website.

In February, Metra reduced service and increased fares for the fourth consecutive year, citing a $45 million budget deficit resulting from cuts to state funding.

June 20 is the last day to buy July monthly passes through the website. The final day for buying 10-ride passes is June 30.

Metra recommended using the Ventra app, purchasing tickets through employer pretax benefits programs or from ticket agents and vending machines.