Metro riders now can buy SmarTrip cards at some local Safeway stores, the latest outlet to start selling the plastic farecards.
Thirty-nine Safeway stores around the region began selling the farecards on Monday, according to Metro, joining Giant, CVS and commuter stores.
The cards cost $5 each. Riders who don’t have them pay up to 25 cents extra per trip with a paper farecard and lose out on a 50-cent discount when they transfer between buses and trains.
Riders seem to have been getting the message — the agency estimates that about 78 percent of Metrorail riders and 68 percent of Metrobus riders now use the cards.
