Chicago Card Plus

Chicago Card Plus

Yesterday I applied online for a Chicago Card Plus which will allow me to manage my transit card online and reload it automatically from my credit/debit card. It’s kind of like EZ Pass, but for people! Other benefits of getting a Chicago Card Plus as opposed to getting a card from the vending machine is that if your card is lost or stolen it can be replaced without losing your balance, you get a 10% bonus each time your card is reloaded with $10 or more, and you only have to touch your card to a touchpad instead of inserting your card into the turnstyle. The Chicago Card Plus works in any CTA rail or bus. No more CTA vending machines and no more wondering how much is on my card. It’s usually $5 to get a card, but through the end of this month the $5 fee is being waived. I’m so excited!

The Washington D.C. Metro has a system similar to this called SmarTrip but without the online feature or the automatic reloading. I wish New York City had something like this when I lived there.

13 thoughts on “Chicago Card Plus

  1. Ease and convenience in transit? Hah! It’ll never fly. Why, I’ll bet your trains even *run* and stuff. What people really like is to be miserable and put-upon by … the transit … um … abuse and … waitaminnit.

  2. Toronto? Still uses tokens and tickets, and you can’t even use your credit card in the vending machines. And since they jacked up the prices (AGAIN) last, the machine cannot accept $5 bills because it is incapable of giving proper change. Feh.

  3. the vending machines in chicago don’t take credit cards either. major pain. and the fare is $1.75 so you always have an extra quarter or 50 cents hanging around on the card. annoying.

  4. its like e-z pass, but for the subway – how awesome!

    new york does need something like that, as does boston, where they only have monthly (and weekly) unlimiteds, so most people who don’t commute by public transportation every day still use tokens.

  5. if i were you, i wouldn’t complain. strike that, if i were chicago, i would raise the fair to $2 so you would have nothing to complain about.

    but that card thing is very cool.

  6. here’s an idea, 1 card that could be use across multiple subway systems. one could take the el to the airport, fly to dc, then take the metro, without managing multiple cards!!!!

    then, change the single card into cards of separate denominations, like a $5 card, a $10 card, etc

    as conformity increases, and everyone is on the same system, we could have, GASP, REGULAR OLD FASHION CURRENCY!!!!!

    im a moron

    i hate money

    viva la revolution

  7. I’m with Cracker (above)… I have 3 or 4 subway cards in my wallet right now. Implant a chip into my arm and automatically bill me when I walk onto a subway system anywhere in the world. Dream!

  8. not really related, but when i was i miami, we saw that they have the “SunPass” as opposed to the tri-state area’s (?) EZPass. Cute!

  9. wow that thing is sweet, doesn’t the PATH have something like that? I know NJ also accepts dollar bills as tender on buses and trains. NYC could reallly use one of those.

    As for FL, they reallly did need the SunPass because of all the damn tolls they have

  10. You should see the smart cards used for transit in Hong Kong – it’s called Octopus – you just wave it while still in your wallet or pursue as you walk through the turnstile and it automatically deducts the fee – it works on all the ferries, all the trains (subway, commuter, inter-city) in cabs, and like the Mobil Speed-Pass, in McDonalds, 7-11s and other stores. They even have a watch now with the Octopus chip in it. So you never have to dig out a card, pretty neat, huh?

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