Jessica Cushard, a law student at DePaul University, relies on the Blue Line during the semester, and has missed the train six times recently.

The cause? Her Chicago Plus Card.

There's no attendant at the Spaulding stop, so when  automated fare boxes there fail to read her card, as they often do, Cushard has to walk to another station to catch the El.

"They need to find a way to fix this problem, I know several other students who have had the same issue," Cushard said.

Though the CTA billed the cards as a route to lower fares and quicker boarding, passengers say neither the older magnetic cards nor their high-tech replacements work as advertised.

CTA rider Brandon Love uses the seven-day transit pass, which has  a magnetic strip. On more than one occasion, the card's strip has malfunctioned and he's been ordered off the bus.

Card problems have not only made him late for work, but have held up other passengers as well, he said.

"When your card doesn't work, it slows down the commute for everyone, it's frustrating," he said.

Love will soon be getting the Chicago Plus Card through work. He said he is not counting on it to work any better than regular transit passes: "Even people with the Chicago Cards have problems swiping them."

The CTA was unable to respond to requests for information about problems with fare cards by deadline.

Cubic Transportation Systems designs the chips used in Chicago and Chicago Plus Cards.  David deKozan, vice president of strategic planning for Cubic, said the company is not aware of any issues with CTA cards.

He added that new card technology is available, but that the CTA hasn't yet ordered it.

Rafael Gonzalez, a CTA worker at the bustling Clark and Lake station, said he often watches riders swipe their cards several times before the machine actually reads them.

"It can be an issue of the cards being dirty, or sometimes they are bent and don't work like they should," he said.

Nynah Gonzalez takes the 62 bus to work each week and said she has seen a lot of issues with the automated card readers.

Gonzalez thinks it's a communication problem between drivers and riders. She said when the cards don't work right away drivers tend to give users a difficult time.

"There is a good way of telling people what to do; the drivers are not people friendly," she added.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the CTA's response to our reporter's request for information about fare card problems did not come in time to be included in this story.  An earlier version said the CTA failed to respond to requests.