Metro is planning to speed up the upgrades to its SmarTrip system to make it easier for riders to buy, reload and track their cards.
Transit officials are aiming to have a Web site available by September 2009 that will allow riders to use credit cards to refill their SmarTrip cards and that will let them track their past transactions.
Currently, riders can use credit cards to load their SmarTrip cards at Metro stations and can use cash to load them on Metrobuses.
Metro also is exploring technology that would give riders the option of simply touching their credit cards or debit cards to the fare gates instead of their SmarTrip cards, similar to a system being tested on New York’s subway system.
“We want to open up the field and see what’s out there,” Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said. “We don’t believe this will be around the corner, but several years from now you could be paying for your fare with your credit card.”
By September, the card also will compute the value of special daily, weekly or monthly passes from Metro and regional commuter transit systems, such as the Fairfax Connector and the MARC commuter line in Maryland, according to the schedule.
By December 2009, Metro plans to add a feature that will give riders the option of having their SmarTrip cards automatically refilled from their bank accounts when they dip below a certain level.
Many of the features were due to go in to effect last month, but were being delayed until 2010 because of agency inefficiencies, an internal audit found in April.
Metro General Manager John Catoe is accelerating the schedule and putting it back on track for 2009 in response to prompting by Metro’s board of directors, according to documents due to be presented to a board committee today.
The transit agency also is considering developing temporary SmarTrip cards that would cost less than the $5 permanent cards, Smith said.
Temporary cards could help the agency eliminate its costly paper farecard system without imposing the $5 cost on tourists and visitors, she said.
