Metro riders have faced a slew of problems getting into and out of the rail system in recent weeks with the hassles coming to a head as long lines formed during peak commutes in the past few days.
Among the issues:
» Fare gates that didn’t work at the Foggy Bottom and Farragut West stations.
» Fare vending machines at Shady Grove and Huntington with problems accepting credit and debit cards.
» SmartBenefits that will not load riders’ prepaid fares onto their plastic fare cards.
» SmarTrip cards that take longer to register when riders pass through a fare gate.
The transit agency says the source of the trouble might boil down to a new software program that was designed to make the SmarTrip system smarter. In the past few weeks, Metro has been upgrading the software and hardware on its fare collection program station by station.
“It seems too coincidental that all of the little issues of swiping cards and everything would be happening at the same time,” Metro spokesman Reggie Woodruff acknowledged.
The next-generation program was supposed to allow the system to handle additional passes and all the new complicated fare increases.
But, instead, it has led to long lines during rush hours at busy stations such as Foggy Bottom and Farragut West as multiple fare gates failed to accept SmarTrip cards. Some station managers have resorted to opening gates for riders to pass through for free because of crowding. One rider reported large lines of angry commuters trying to get out of Shady Grove around 5 p.m. Thursday.
The transit agency allows station managers to offer the free rides to prevent dangerous overcrowding. Woodruff said the transit system has undoubtedly lost fare revenue each time that happens, but he said the agency has no estimate yet of how much money it has lost that way. However, Wednesday evening ridership was down about 20,000 trips from the previous two days, records show, which means a loss of at least $39,000 if all of the drop came from free trips for riders paying just the minimum rush-hour fare of $1.95.
Furthermore, Metro had to postpone morning charges of its new 20-cent “peak of the peak” surcharge that it planned to introduce Monday after it realized the fare gates did not have enough memory to handle all the new fare configurations. It is not clear when the new morning fares will take effect but that delay is also costing the transit agency much-needed revenue.
The agency is trying to fix the problems — short-term and long-term, Woodruff said. “We’re looking at it overall,” Woodruff said. “And we’re doing spot fixes.”
The new fare collection upgrades require additional time for all of the information to be communicated between the card and the gate’s target, said Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel. “Customers should touch their card to the target and hold it there until the fare gate opens,” he said. Metro is trying to speed up the processors, he said.
