Due to declining use and in an effort to cut costs, Metra will end its Ticket-by-Internet program, which allows customers to buy monthly passes and 10-ride tickets via Metra’s website. The last day to purchase a monthly pass (the July pass) via the website will be 20 June and the last day to purchase a 10-ride ticket will be 30 June.
Ending the program will allow Metra to save about USD 144,000 in annual website hosting and maintenance costs, as well as interface support costs. In addition, it will allow Metra to avoid USD 70,000 in required credit card security upgrades this year (and any required upgrades in future years), as well as at least USD 240,000 in costs that would be associated with converting the website sales channel to Metra’s new revenue accounting system.
Internet sales of monthly passes and 10-ride tickets started in September 2009. Online sales of monthly passes peaked in 2014, when an average of 5,162 were sold per month, while sales of 10-rides peaked in 2011, when an average of 4,875 tickets were sold per month. Those numbers have been declining since then, especially after the introduction of the Ventra App for mobile tickets in late 2015. In 2017, Metra sold an average of 2,654 monthly passes per month through the website (about 3 percent of the overall total) and an average of 1,201 10-rides per month through the website (less than 1 percent of the overall total).
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