Metra riders may be able to use their smartphones as train tickets as early as May, officials said Friday.
If a February pilot program, with a select group of customers, is deemed successful, all passengers may be able to buy their tickets three months later via their phones. They could display these tickets aboard trains, just as they do now with paper tickets, officials said.
Metra intends to introduce mobile ticketing in phases to avoid the kind of glitches that plagued the rollout of Ventra on the CTA.
“The whole idea is not to roll it out and have it implode. We want to roll it out so it’s a good solid system,” Metra Executive Director Don Orseno said.
More features will be added later, including the ability to use a smartphone in conjunction with the Ventra system to tap on to CTA buses and trains.
Theoretically, Metra says, by late 2016 a commuter could use a phone as a train ticket then tap on to a Pace bus or CTA train farebox to board those vehicles.