Forgetting your SmarTrip card won’t be a problem for much longer.
Metro is planning a pilot program to allow riders to pay for their trip using a variety of new methods, including credit cards and mobile phones, without the need to convert U.S. currency to Metro fare value.
The program begins in January and features new fare technology and fare gates at 10 Metrorail stations and two parking lanes.
The 10 Metrorail stations chosen for the pilot are:
- Shady Grove
- Eisenhower Avenue
- Bethesda
- Pentagon City
- Pentagon
- Ballston
- Gallery Place
- Farragut West
- Navy Yard
- Suitland
The six Metrobus routes chosen for the pilot include:
- 37
- X9
- 39
- K9
- J4
- REX.
Visitors will be able to use “near-field capability” equipped (NFC) credit or debit cards and mobile devices, without stopping at a fare machine or purchasing a SmarTrip card, according to Metro Public Information Officer Philip Stewart. The transition is part of a $200 million overhaul of the current fare collection system.
According to Stewart, Metro selected the pilot stations by calculating which stations would have sufficient volume of entry-exist pairings to obtain the needed transaction data necessary for a successful pilot phase test.
Tamara Stein, a senior at AU, is in favor of the new program, and said she believes it will make riding the metro easier.
“The current system isn’t that bad, but it definitely is annoying to always have to load your SmarTrip,” Stein said. “The new program is more tech-friendly and I think a lot of young adults who are constantly on their smart phones would probably love to have another function, such as paying for the metro, accessible right from their smart phones.”
The installation of new fare gates will begin in October. Many Android phones include the technology, and the new iPhone 6 and Apple Watch will come with Apple Pay, which is with NFC as well.
“We absolutely want riders to feel safe and secure in using their bank cards or smartphones directly at the gate for fare payment,” Stewart said. “Under this new program Metro will not retain payment card data and will utilize the best industry-standard security protocols to keep riders’ payment information secure.”
Brenda Cadena, a junior at AU, also believes the new program would be very successful because she always has her smartphone on hand.
“If this decision goes through I’m sure it would be accepted as the majority of people have smartphones and have adapted to pay things with them,” Cadena said. “I’m excited for this to happen and wish it would happen sooner.”
To properly test the system, Metro will select a group of pilot phase participants through a variety of methods. The pilot will end by June 2015, and if successful, Metro will replace the old fare gates and vending machines and manufacture new payment targets on buses and at parking facilities, beginning in 2017.
