Easier Ways to Pay At Metra Parking Lot

Instead of inserting cash into payment boxes at Libertyville Metra parking lots, commuters now have the option of paying via credit card, cash, or even by phone with new pay stations available to commuters June 28.

“I was always worried that they wouldn’t know where my spot is or that they wouldn’t get my money, and then I would get a ticket,” Metra commuter Liz Rehberg said on Tuesday after using the upgraded pay stations for the first time. “So it’s nice to have a piece of paper saying that they got my money.”

The machines ask for the commuters’ parking space number and payment. Cash, credit, and debit cards can be inserted for payment, and a receipt prints proof of payment. The previous payment system accepted only cash, and commuters did not automatically receive a receipt.

Representatives of Total Parking Solutions Inc., the company contracted to install the new payment system, were on hand Tuesday to help Metra riders at the Prairie Crossing Metra station learn how to use the new pay stations.

“All the machines are linked together, and when people make their payment and enter their space number, all that information is sent to a web-based management system,” said Tom Zawacki, president of Total Parking Solutions Inc. “Anybody with Internet access and the access code from the village can get the data.”

He says that technology allows police to run the enforcement report before they leave the station.

The new system also helps manage collection from the machines, according to Zawacki. The old cash boxes required parking officials to collect, organize and count the inserted cash daily. Now, they can monitor the amount of cash collected using the system’s data.

“In Hinsdale, where 80 percent of the commuters pay by credit card, they are able to collect just once every three weeks,” Zawacki said. “It’s a really great management tool.”

The new system benefits the village but also adds convenience to commuters.

Mundelein resident and Metra rider Efrain Perez is familiar with the system after using it at a Glenview station.

“I like them. They’re convenient,” Perez said. “They’re a lot easier to use. Now I just don’t know what to do with my pennies.”

Aside from the ability to use credit and debit cards for payment, users also can use a free smartphone application to pay by phone, an option Zawacki says is good for the commuter who’s “perpetually late.”

According to Zawacki, once the application is installed on a user’s smartphone, it will ask the user to register his or her information. The application will remember the station parking lot, so the user only has to type in the parking space number each time he or she parks. After submitting the parking space number, the user approves the payment fee and is done.

“After you send it that information, it sends you a text or email, whatever you prefer, so you have proof of your payment,” Zawacki said.

The application is available at www.parkmobile.com. Zawacki encourages commuters to arrive a few minutes early to the train station until they become acquainted with the new pay stations.