Metro took an initial step Thursday to create a new payment system that would let riders pay for their commutes directly with credit cards, eliminating the need to wait in line at fare machines.
A board of directors committee gave the transit agency preliminary permission to seek proposals from financial institutions as early as this summer. The full board must vote on the issue, but the idea has such widespread support among board members that they nearly gave the proposal presentation themselves. Metro staffers never presented their carefully prepared slide show.
“This is very much looked at as the next wave of fare systems,” said board member Gordon Linton, who represents Maryland. “It allows us to get out of all the management issues of having cards.”
More people are paying for their transit trips with credit and debit cards, according to the agency, but the new system would let riders skip the step of loading money onto SmarTrip cards or paper farecards. Riders would swipe a credit card — or possibly cell phone — embedded with a special chip that would deduct the correct fare.
It also would let the agency focus on moving people, not money. A special train loaded with money ferries around cash collected throughout the rail system each day.
Still, Metro leaders say they do not plan to eliminate SmarTrip cards, paper farecards or cash bus fares anytime soon.
But many questions remain unanswered. It’s not clear how the system could incorporate existing programs such as bus passes or SmartBenefits allocated by employers.
“We want the creativity of the private sector and banks to come up with the solutions,” said the agency’s chief administrative officer, Emeka Moneme.
Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said agency officials weren’t too concerned about the security of riders’ personal information because the financial industry has security standards for credit card technology. She also said the transit agency would ask companies that vie for the contracts to include security plans in their proposals.
But Linton, who said he served as a consultant to two companies working on such plans with other transit agencies, urged Metro to craft its requests carefully. He said Philadelphia’s SEPTA system has had to revise its proposal about five times.
Citing Metro’s own inspector general reports, he said the agency’s track record on fare systems had not been great.
“I am very concerned we make sure that we are in control, that we understand the nuances going forward,” he said.
