And here we thought the only thing Chicagoans were generally capable of accomplishing beyond the grave was, as legend has it, voting.
It appears Ventra, the CTA and Pace's glitch-prone new fare payment system, just might think the dead can also ride public transit?
The Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that Oak Park man Stetson Siler was recently mailed a Ventra card not for himself or his wife -- both of whom were still waiting for the cards to be sent to them months after the transition to the new system began -- but instead for his mother, who died five years ago.
"This looks like a big opportunity for fraud," Silber commented to the paper.
At least it was just one card Silber was sent in his dead mother's name, we s'pose.
The Ventra-cards-to-the-dead controversy is the latest of many mishaps plaguing the system's rollout. Amid complaints that some riders are being charged multiple times while others are still waiting for cards and encountering long wait times on the system's customer-service hotline, the CTA announced last week it was discontinuing all Ventra switchover deadlines until the system's many remaining kinks are ironed out.
Ventra contractor Cubic Transportation Systems, in response, has said they "can't guess" when it will be able to meet the CTA's requirements for the switchover to be completed.
Friday was previously set to be the deadline by which Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus would no longer be accepted. All magnetic-strip fare card machines were also previously slated to be removed from CTA rail stations.
Meanwhile, Gapers Block's Jason Prechtel wrote Monday the recent troubles are far from unprecedented for Cubic. The San Diego-based company has also encountered problems with fare payment systems it was involved with in London, Brisbane, San Francisco and a number of other cities.