Metro riders looking forward to cheaper SmarTrip cards are in for a longer-than-expected wait.
Metro’s finance committee on Thursday discussed lowering the price of SmarTrip cards from $5 to $2.50 – a drop the Metro board of directors approved earlier this year – but could not agree on how to move forward with the price reduction.
“I think we’re in a pickle,” said board member Jim Graham, after 30 minutes of committee discussion produced more questions than answers.
Transit officials originally planned to reduce the price at the end of August. But Metro Chief Financial Officer Carol Kissal
said the lower price, combined with the ability of SmarTrip users to exit the system with a negative balance on their cards, could lead to savvy customers “gaming” the system out of an estimated $1 million per month in revenues.
“We realized that we had an issue with our current entry and exit rules,” Kissal told the committee, explaining how a SmarTrip customer could buy a card for $2.50, take a $6 ride and then toss the card away after exiting the system with a negative balance worth more than the price of a new card. SmarTrip cardholders may exit — but not re-enter — the system with a negative balance.
After recognizing the loophole, Metro officials announced plans to do away with negative balances. But customers emphatically complained about the change, forcing Kissal and her planning team to develop a set of alternative options.
Those options range from issuing retroactive $2.50 rebates after a new SmarTrip card has been used twice, to capping negative card balances at $2.50.
The finance committee discussed the new options, but decided more data on customer behavior was needed.
But despite their inability to find a solution, the committee agreed that SmarTrip users should be able to leave the system with a negative balance.
“Any of these [options] that say we’re not going to let cardholders out [with a negative balance] aren’t going to work,” said Chairman Peter Benjamin, to a chorus of nods from fellow committee members.
The panel adjourned with plans to take up the subject at its October meeting, making changes to SmarTrip prices or exit procedures unlikely until at least the end of next month.
