The CTA’s president takes full responsibility for the botched roll-out of the new Ventra card system.

Forrest Claypool also said the contractor won’t be paid until the problems are fixed and the CTA is indefinitely suspending all deadlines related the system.

The Ventra Card system has been an embarrassment to the company, Cubic Transportation, and to the CTA. Riders have flooded the system with irate calls complaining about several hiccups that prevented Ventra from becoming all of the wonderful improvements that CTA officials had promised.

Instead, for many riders it was a flop

So now the CTA is clamping down and playing hard ball with Cubic, insisting that the new system operate at a much higher level of proficiency, including:

• Callers should experience a wait time of less than 5-minutes to speak to an operator
• Vending machines and card readers on buses and rail stations must have a 99% availability to be used and not inoperable
• And all card readers must process card taps in 2.5 seconds or less 99% of the time.

Otherwise, Cubic will not be paid.

The CTA is allowing its customers to use the old Chicago Card Plus while Ventra’s problems are fixed.