With a new CTA “smart” card debuting next week that allows riders to add money through their credit cards, the Chicago Transit Authority is moving a step closer to a fare system where cash is rarely used.
Experts said the move knocks down another barrier to creation of a universal transportation card that would help unify Chicagoland mass transit. Such a card also would be used to pay for Amtrak and airline tickets, taxi and limousine rides and tolls on the Illinois Tollway.
The Chicago Card Plus, which is costing the CTA about $1 million to roll out, is designed to lower internal costs–potentially helping postpone the next fare increase–and speed bus and rail service by enabling passengers to board more quickly.
The Plus card will work as either a 30-day unlimited ride pass, which sells for $75, or a pay-per-use pass on CTA buses and trains and Pace buses.
Cash fares still will be accepted, but the CTA is offering incentives for riders to use the new card. Cash makes up only 16 percent of all fares, and the agency would ultimately like to bring that figure down to 1 percent.
A reduced-fare Plus card won’t be available until later this year to senior citizens, students and disabled riders, officials said. They can continue to use their reduced-fare passes and still receive a 10 percent bonus for pre-buying multiple rides, officials said.
Sign-up for the cards starts at 9 a.m. Monday. CTA officials said it would take several days to process the requests and mail the cards.
Like the current Chicago Card smart card, the Chicago Card Plus is embedded with a computer chip that enables riders to pay fares by touching the card–or a wallet holding the card–against an electronic reader on bus fare boxes or on the turnstile devices at rail stations.
Value still will be added to Chicago Cards at CTA vending machines. The Chicago Card Plus will be reloaded strictly by credit card accounts.
CTA president Frank Kruesi said the fare-collection process takes 3/10th of a second with the smart cards, versus 2 seconds inserting and withdrawing a regular magnetic strip transit card into a slot and considerably longer to count and deposit the correct cash fare.
Kruesi said there are no immediate plans to eliminate the Chicago Card or the CTA magnetic transit card. But after March 31, the CTA will no longer pay magnetic-card customers a 10 percent bonus for buying at least $10 in fares.
How it will work
The existing Chicago Card smart card and the new Plus card, which will be available free of charge through March 31, will cost $5 starting April 1.
Pay-per-use patrons can authorize credit card payments in $10, $20, $40 or $60 increments and check account balances online, similar to the tollway’s I-PASS toll-collection system. Charges are made automatically on the credit card when account balances fall below $10. Users would receive a $1 bonus for every $10 of added value.
Companies and employees enrolled in the RTA/CTA Transit Benefit program will be able to sign up next week for the Plus card and receive the cards starting April 1.
The CTA will mail the Plus card to employees in the Transit Benefits program, which is a payroll-deduction program that shields up to $100 in income from taxes every month.
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Edited by Lara Weber (lweber@tribune.com) and alBerto Trevino (atrevino@tribune.com)
