Metra needs to get into this century

Most of you have read about my first day at work and the troubles I had with that. Well, I just wanted to take a moment, while I was on a Metra train, to really complain about how flawed this system actually is. You can't actually use a credit card in any way within the Metra system. This means to park, to buy a ticket, or to renew a monthly pass. This is the most archaic system I have ever taken part in. Don't you think that today, with just a few people on the internet, maybe, just maybe, you might earn a little more money and maybe, at the end of the day, make peoples lives easier??? So, to park, you have to buy a "credit card". Now this card is great. There is no unique identifier on the card, so you can't actually add money to it from the internet. No, you have to get to your train station a good 30 minutes early just to have the hopes of getting in one of 2 lines to add money to your card. Oh yeah, and how to do that is to put $20 dollars, yes, you can only use cash and you can put a maximum of $20 on your card. So the nice thing about this is that every 13 days you have to do this same thing. This seems to me to be a nice Chicago family job running Metra. No reason to do anything about it, it works, we all make money, why make it easier for the commuter.

Not to try to top that, but how about the actual train itself. If you get on the train at a stop without a ticket booth, which means any 21 of the 23 stops on my line. Yes, there are only 2 ticket counters on my whole line. This means the only place to buy passes is at Chicago Union Station. If you get on the train and don't have cash, they ask you to get off. There is no other option. Now, I have been to restaurants that have wireless credit card adaptors, I have been to theme parks that can give you access badges for rides so you don't have to wait in lines, but metra can't take anything but cash. I have been in third world countries that take more credit than Metra does. And Yes, I have been to third world countries, and yes, for real, they take credit. So then you stand in line in Chicago during rush hour, with about 1,000 of your new best friends in the annals of underground chicago with no air conditioning only to buy your pass from a ticket agent that seems to have cable television behind her on her tv but can't possibly take anything but cash or a paper personal check. Now, Metra can't tell me it is for security because anyone can forge a check. And it is not for a lack of technology as they seem to have phones and cable here. What a waste of time, money, and energy. Metra needs to wake up, or they can just continue to be behind the times and all of us lowly commuters will continue to use them because we have no alternative. But just wait until the hi-speed train comes to chicago from Europe, I bet they will accept credit cards. Nevermind, this is Chicago. Whoever runs Metra will get the promotion to run that line too. Hopeless.