The transit agency says it had no choice because Cubic Transportation Systems, the company that made the Chicago Card, stopped manufacturing magnetic strip cards. The CTA was glad to get out of the banking business by having Cubic take over managing the new Ventra machines. The agency stands to save $50 million in operations costs over the next decade. That’s great in theory, but the launch has been rife with glitches, including dozens, or even hundreds, of cards showing up in the mail for a single person. Hopefully, a few months from now these growing pains will be just a memory. VentraChicago.com
AUDIENCE CHOICE: Money Audience Comments: “A dare”; “Color coordination with Divvy”; “To encourage people to move to another city”; “To frustrate, confuse & anger their customers”; “some politician needed to make a deal for his brother-in-law”; “someone, somewhere, got a kickback”; “Because there’s nothing more amusing than a frustrated Chicagoan repeatedly running their torso into a locked turnstile”
