VRE Mobile Reviews

Right track, yet behind the curve

PorscheRat

Having purchased monthly tickets since October 2000, at a conservative estimate of over $35,000, I can say that this new-ish app is my preference. Of course, I have always been single-payer, refusing to wrangle with arcane subsidies and split payment voodoo. Yet, the development team omitted some features that should have been obvious priorities for a first release: (1.) First and Foremost: A lock-screen widget that INSTANTLY displays the rider’s choice of default ticket. Alternatively, the app would be set to display that default ticket first thing upon launch. This is CRITICAL for the conductor’s efficiency. The user story for this shouldn’t stretch the imagination (Y’all are an Agile shop, right?). Suffice it to say that seconds, even fractions of a second, matter to conductors who could visually confirm @ three paper tickets per second once their eye’s are trained for the day. (2.) The ticket design wastes too much space on the sprite animation (showing my age), purportedly to aid in counterfeit detection. If I were a conductor, I’d prefer the line and zones to dominate the display, while the animation could be much smaller and still get its job done. And change the colors every month. (3.) Give the Trip Tools area ACTUAL TRIP TOOLS. Simply shelling out to VRE’s web site is a huge disappointment for three reasons: - VRE’s site itself is not well organized to help riders. It’s optimized for marketing and public affairs. - It’s not even the mobile version of VRE’s site (Whoops, you don’t even HAVE a mobile version? tsk, tsk…) - It would conserve VRE’s and riders’ expensive bandwidth to send only raw data (schedule tables, telemetry map, service alerts) without wrapping it in desktop-browser HTML.

Big Bureaucracy in Fewer Syllables

Opera Critic

Where do I start. VRE mobile is an ok app if all you need to do is buy a ticket using a credit card and show that ticket on the train. Where it falls short: * Screen flow is optimized for buying tickets, a once-a-month operation for most users, not showing tickets, something most of us do up to 44-times-a-month * Entering a SmartBenefits card is broken. You can't buy a monthly the first time if you use SmartBenefits--there is no provision for splitting payments and entering SmartBenefits in the same transaction * You cannot enter a SmartBenefits card until it's funded (also fails without a message on the VRE web site) * Using an Amtrak Step-up without an electronic multi-ride ticket. Very bureaucratic edit currently enforced by Amtrak conductors in the paper world. Converse works * Electronic tickets are non-refundable. Nice change without reasonable notice. Overall: a 21st century implementation of 19th century business methods.

An Acceptable Start, But A Half Hearted App

Grogboshieee

The good: The app is setup for purchasing tickets right off the bat, which is excellent, as this is what most people will use the app for and the system to do so is clear, simple, and easy to use. The bad: Those tickets you do purchase are saved on your phone, meaning you can’t uninstall the app without losing all your tickets. It’s nonsensical that I have to create an account for a service that doesn’t actually store the information about purchases related to my account. Those purchases should be linked to my account, on a server, and therefore accessible from any device I sign into. If the concern is getting to the tickets without an internet connection, first off data connection are essentially ubiquitous, and second, there is always an option of downloading the ticket to your phone when you do have internet before you set off. Second, there are, for all intents and purposes, no other functions to this app. The trip tools button is simply a link back to the VRE site which is just lazy programming. It is especially bad given that the VRE website is essentially stuck in 2001 and complicated and difficult enough to navigate on a laptop or desktop, let alone on a small mobile screen having to sort through myriad links to try and find what you’re looking for. The site desperately needs to be updated to be more aesthetically pleasing, intuitive, and user friendly. Plus, as there is no option to buy tickets on the site, no real interactive travel map showing trip times, maintenance, delays, etc. the trip tools link leads you to little useful information. This app could be extremely useful, and the ability to buy and use tickets through your phone without having to go to vendors that are off site from stations and get paper tickets is already a big improvement from the old system, but to make this app really useful both it and the website desperately need an overhaul to bring the into the modern day and provide all of the tools and functionality that are available on other transit apps and websites.

One the Top 3 worst app

Stephensimon

Very poor design: 1 can't tell what month ticket is for; 2 navigation not thought out; 3 slow. Paper tickets are easier.

Need Spotsy station times

Whewcyc

Now that the Spotsy station has in place, would love to get the station times updated on the app.

Hate the schedule "update"

Golnesaherveaux

Hate the new schedule format. The old one was perfectly fine. It's laggy and hard to read in a hurry. Please change back:

It's just not a good app

Mtnewguy

First of all, LlamaLarry's five star review is clearly fake. As for my review, this just isn't a well made app. It works in the most general sense, which is why I have it two stars, but it is slow and glitchy. Below are my grievances. - Super slow to open and navigate between screens - Has occasionally had an error that prevents me from buying tickets right when I need them during my commute - Takes a lifetime to generate the code for Amtrak to scan when using a step-up ticket - Does not stay open in the background and makes me navigate back to my ticket if I don't leave the app open until the conductor comes through the train (see my first point) - Crashes (see my first point again) I still use the app because it is better than constantly misplacing my paper tickets, but that doesn't mean that I am happy about it.

Unused monthly benefits don't carry over

Toilet reader

Warning: if you work for a private employer and you have smart benefits allocated to VRE mobile and you don't use them all in a particular month then your remaining benefits are sent to the government. Did you read that in their nifty brochure? Yeh me either. I lost $49.30 one month because I didn't use it all. I'm going back to commuter direct where unused benefits roll over to the next month.

Really????

Rootypoo

Your app was working great and poof no longer works. Oh and you raised the price, just as the government raised their stipend...really classy

Poor App Design

DTRyder

Poor app that focuses on buying rather than providing easy access to schedule information. Multiple non-intuitive steps needed to get to schedules. It seems getting a fancy schedule that scrolls is more important to VRE than a one click to schedule solution. I'm a regular rider but my train schedule fluctuates, so easy access to schedule information is a must. This app makes it difficult.

VRE Mobile Reviews – Page 7