Metro officials are rethinking their decision to reduce SmarTrip card prices and to do away with negative card balances.
Carol Dillon Kissal, Metro’s deputy general manager, told the Metro Riders’ Advisory Council that lowering the card price from $5 to $2.50 – a drop the Metro board of directors approved earlier this year – has presented some “tricky issues,” prompting Kissal and her staff to develop new options.
The seven options include requiring riders to have a minimum value on their SmarTrip card before entering the system, rewarding cardholders with a $2.50 rebate after they have purchased a $5 card and used it for two one-way trips, or simply scrapping the $2.50 price drop.
Metro earlier this summer announced plans to roll out the new SmarTrip price starting Aug. 29.
“Lower-income riders have said that the $5 price is a burden,” Kissal said.
But Metro Project Manager Steve Holland said his agency was worried that the price drop, coupled with SmarTrip cardholders’ ability to leave the Metro system carrying a negative balance on their card, could lead to an estimated $1 million-per-month revenue loss for Metro.
Holland said savvy scofflaws could purchase a SmarTrip card for $2.50, and then toss the card after taking a more expensive ride on Metro trains or buses, which can run up to $6 for a single trip.
“They could just throw the card away, and then do the same thing the next time they take that route,” Holland said.
So Metro announced it no longer would allow negative card balances.
But Kissal said updating the existing exit fare machines to work with SmarTrip cards could take until December. That delay, coupled with customer backlash against the proposed changes, has prompted Metro officials to examine different options, first reported by local blog Greater Greater Washington.
“The feedback I’ve received from people when they found out they would no longer be able to go negative [on their SmarTrip cards] was very negative,” said Riders’ Advisory Council member Carl Seip.
Francis DeBernardo, chairman of the advisory council, said Metro had asked for his group’s feedback on the proposed options, and would discuss the alternatives at its Sept. 16 finance committee meeting.
DeBernardo said he expected the Metro board to take up the SmartTrip issue at its Sept. 30 meeting.
