Metro plans to start letting its riders use an online site to reload money onto their farecards later this summer, allowing commuters to skip lines at vending machines and stop surfing on moving buses. The agency plans to open the online site to all registered SmarTrip users by the end of August, General Manager Richard Sarles said Thursday.
Riders will be able to use a credit or debit card to add more money. They also can choose to have fare added automatically if their balances fall below pre-determined amounts.
| Metro worker shocked on job |
| A Metro worker was shocked in an Alexandria rail yard Thursday morning while fixing equipment, the agency’s latest worker injury involving electrical currents. |
| The 36-year-old mechanic helper was shocked on his left arm around 8:15 a.m. but remained alert and conscious, according to spokesman Dan Stessel. He was hospitalized for observation, Stessel said, and it appears the current did not travel to any of the man’s vital organs. |
| Metro officials are investigating what went wrong. Chief Safety Officer James Dougherty said Metro officials already made sure they have proper procedures in place to prevent such accidents and are reviewing whether they were properly followed. |
| The agency has had problems with workers shocked by electric currents in the past, including the electrocution of a subcontractor in August 2009 in the Bladensburg bus garage. Last summer, two workers were shocked while working on equipment at the Anacostia station. – Kytja Weir |
But SmartBenefits, the employee benefit program used by more than 200,000 Metro commuters, won’t be accessible online yet. Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said that feature won’t be ready until early next year, so until then many riders still will have to hit the vending machines each month to download their fares.
The online tool has long been sought by riders frustrated by temperamental fare vending machines and long lines — especially on buses as riders add more fares onto their cards while others are trying to board. The project has been delayed many times, most recently from a 2010 proposed start date.
This time, Metro officials say they are close. They have been testing the online site in a pilot program of 5,050 riders and haven’t had any major problems, Stessel said.
The new site is key as the transit agency has been pushing its regular riders to move to plastic farecards. It started charging 20 cents extra for cash bus payments and adding a 25-cent surcharge to each trip for those who use paper farecards. But Metro’s head of bus operations, Jack Requa, said on Thursday that customers loading fares onto their cards on moving buses may be contributing to an uptick in rider injuries.
Eventually, though, the agency hopes to move past SmarTrip cards as the company that makes the internal chip inside them has gone out of business. The agency would like to let users pay with bank cards, smartphones or even federal IDs directly through the farebox.
