RTA RIGHT TO LAUNCH VENTRA AUDIT
The Ventra race is on.
On Dec. 18, the Regional Transportation Authority is expected to complete an audit of what its chairman calls the “systemic failure” of the CTA’s new Ventra fare payment system.
Which will CTA riders get first: A fully functional Ventra system (no more double charges or malfunctioning card readers, thank you very much) or the audit results?
We’re putting our money on the audit.
That’s one more reason to cheer RTA’s decision last week to undertake an independent audit to review the Ventra rollout.
The audit, which is meant to provide analysis on top of the answers already offered by CTA, is focused on “what’s working and what’s not,” RTA Chairman John Gates, Jr. said at last week’s RTA meeting, with an emphasis on whether the Ventra foul-ups have cost the CTA revenue or will affect its budget. The RTA has oversight authority over the CTA and has asked its auditor general to do the analysis.
“Obviously, this has morphed into much more than a computer glitch,” Gates said last week.
Gates said an independent analysis is needed in addition to the explanations that have been coming from the CTA.
CTA is taking ownership of the Ventra debacle, and for that it deserves credit. As more rollout problems have emerged — failures to mail Ventra cards to riders, riders being overcharged and double charged, interminable wait times for calls to Ventra for help, broken or poorly functioning fare readers — the CTA took action.
On Nov. 5, CTA President Forrest Claypool said it won’t pay Ventra contractor Cubic Transportation Systems a dime of its $454 million contract until it meets three conditions. Those include better caller response times to Ventra’s customer hotline as well as improved functioning of card readers and Ventra card vending machines. The CTA also delayed indefinitely the phase-out of existing fare payment methods and ordered Cubic to triple staff at its call centers.
At a new weekly briefing on Friday the CTA said progress has been made but it still has a ways
The CTA is taking ownership of the Ventra debacle, and for that it deserves credit.
to go. Clear signs of progress are evident but a full assessment of Cubic’s efforts wasn’t possible because no data was provided on the functioning of card readers and vending machines. And even where there’s progress, some questions remain. The Sun-Times reported Friday, for example, that while average wait times for calls to the Ventra hotline are down, simply talking to someone doesn’t mean a caller’s Ventra problem is being resolved quickly.
Hence, our heightened interest in the audit.
Critics are dismissing the audit as an attempt by RTA to appear relevant. Gov. Pat Quinn convened a task force this fall to look at improving Chicago area transit, including possibly streamlining the region’s four different transit agencies, RTA and the three transit agencies it oversees. A CTA spokeswoman said the CTA was surprised by the audit announcement given the “vast amounts of information” the agency already has giving the RTA.
We aren’t overly concerned about what’s motivating the RTA audit.
A bungled $454 million contract is in question here and CTA riders deserve to have an independent set of eyes look at it.