SmartTrip card

On a recent Sunday afternoon, I decided to take a ride on Metro.

I bought a SmartTrip card from a vending machine at Van Dorn Street station for $10; $5 for the card itself plus a $5 balance on the card. I used the card for:

Metro Blue line train from Van Dorn Street to Pentagon
Metro Yellow line train from Pentagon to Fort Totten
Metro Green line train from Fort Totten to Greenbelt
Metro B30 express bus from Greenbel to Thurgood Marshall BWI Airport

At the airport, I wasnt sure if the MTA light rail ine vending machine would accept my SmatTrip card, or whether attempting to use it in the Maryland MTA system would screw it up. I paid cash to buy a ticket to ride Maryland MTA light rail from the airport to Penn Station.

Total expenditure was about $8.00 for this trip on transit from Alexandria VA to Baltimore MD.

While at Baltimore's Penn Station, I checked the price of a coach seat on an Amtrak Regional train from there back to Alexandria VA, which was available for $60.00. In view of the great price differential between Amtrak and transit, I decided to take the MTA light rail - Metro express bus - Metro rail combination back home to northern Virginia.

When I added value to the SmartTrip card at the Greenbelt Metro station, it showed a current value of negative 5 cents. Adding $5.00 to the value resulted in a new balance of $4.95. I am not sure how that negative balance happened. Maybe the driver of the B30 express bus from the airport backto Greenbelt allowed me to ride his bus with a farecard whose value was 5 cents less than the fare, rather than asking me for the additional 5 cents. I do recall that bus' farebox made a strange alert sound when I boarded and swiped my SmartTrip card, but th driver waved me forward.

I think I got to ride Metro 1XXX, 3XXX, 5XXX and 6XXX series cars on this trip. A pleasant afternoon's outing, and now I own a SmartTrip card.

I've been commuting on Metro and MARC for the past few months, and have noticed that some of the turnstiles give me lower than expected fares when exiting. From Vienna to Union Station during rush hour, it should be $4.60. But I've noticed that sometimes I would get a reading of $4.10 when exiting, a 50 cent discount. I didn't pay close enough attention as to wheter it actually deducted $4.10 from my card as I didn't remember the fare when I swiped it at Vienna. I will have to pay closer attention next week.

On the rail side, SmarTrip will allow you to exit the system and induce a negative balance (since when you enter the system, it can't know how far your're going) - interesting that the busses logic will let you do the same thing, since they're fixed fare.

HokieNav wrote:On the rail side, SmarTrip will allow you to exit the system and induce a negative balance (since when you enter the system, it can't know how far your're going) - interesting that the busses logic will let you do the same thing, since they're fixed fare.

Yes, thats why theres a $5 charge, so there is no way you can profit from having a negative balance (unless you plan on leaving DC and never coming back)

I also did not know that buses allowed you to hold a negative. Perhaps the $5 purchase price of the card is factored into that as well.

It's a good feature, and an incentive to use a card instead of a ticket. You cant get back into the system, without topping off, but it's much appreciated if you're arriving downtown late and need to rush to the office instead of paying with an exitfare machine

dpan wrote:I've been commuting on Metro and MARC for the past few months, and have noticed that some of the turnstiles give me lower than expected fares when exiting. From Vienna to Union Station during rush hour, it should be $4.60. But I've noticed that sometimes I would get a reading of $4.10 when exiting, a 50 cent discount. I didn't pay close enough attention as to wheter it actually deducted $4.10 from my card as I didn't remember the fare when I swiped it at Vienna. I will have to pay closer attention next week.

Did you ride a bus prior to taking Metro on the $4.10 days? That 50-cent difference would probably be the value of a bus-to-rail transfer, and it's taken upon exiting Metro.

jamesinclair wrote:It's a good feature, and an incentive to use a card instead of a ticket. You cant get back into the system, without topping off, but it's much appreciated if you're arriving downtown late and need to rush to the office instead of paying with an exitfare machine

Also, since there's never a need to add value to a SmarTrip card at an Exitfare machine, Metro didn't have to spend money retrofitting them with SmarTrip readers...

I've had negative balances on my Smarttrip card quite a few times, since I usually don't refill it until it's empty. I think it's a very good thing because I never have to worry if I have enough fare to get to my destination; as long as it has a positive value I'm good. This has helped me countless times when I'm running late. I've gone into the system with as little as $0.05 before. Of course as soon as I exit with a negatice value I immediately fill it or if I'm in a hurry fill it the next day before I travel. As mentioned above, Metro won't lose any money since no one is going to buy a $5 card to cheat the system out of a few dollars and there's no need for machines so customers can pay exit fare.

RE the OP: I took a similar trip last summer to Baltimore and back (no busses though). I took:

-MARC from Germantown to DC
-Red and Blue lines to Franconia/Springfield
-VRE back to DC
-MARC to BWI Airport
-MTA Light Rail to Lexington Market
-MTA Subway to Owing Mills and back
-Light Rail from Camden station to Penn station
-MARC back to DC and Germantown

It was my first time on the MTA Light Rail, MTA Metro-Subway, and VRE, as well as my first time south of Alexandria on Metro. That $60 price is insane. If MARC ran on Sundays, it would cost less than $10 to take MARC/Metro from Penn station to Alexandria.

jkovach wrote:

jamesinclair wrote:It's a good feature, and an incentive to use a card instead of a ticket. You cant get back into the system, without topping off, but it's much appreciated if you're arriving downtown late and need to rush to the office instead of paying with an exitfare machine

Also, since there's never a need to add value to a SmarTrip card at an Exitfare machine, Metro didn't have to spend money retrofitting them with SmarTrip readers...

What gets me is that it seems that after retrofitting all the old-style machines with SmarTrip readers, Metro has deployed new Passes/Farecards machines to replace some of the older machines that were just retrofitted. Dupont and Glenmont each received like two new Passes/Farecards machines recently.

SchuminWeb wrote:

jkovach wrote:

jamesinclair wrote:It's a good feature, and an incentive to use a card instead of a ticket. You cant get back into the system, without topping off, but it's much appreciated if you're arriving downtown late and need to rush to the office instead of paying with an exitfare machine

Also, since there's never a need to add value to a SmarTrip card at an Exitfare machine, Metro didn't have to spend money retrofitting them with SmarTrip readers...

What gets me is that it seems that after retrofitting all the old-style machines with SmarTrip readers, Metro has deployed new Passes/Farecards machines to replace some of the older machines that were just retrofitted. Dupont and Glenmont each received like two new Passes/Farecards machines recently.

Maybe there was a problem with them. Not all machines have been retrofitted though. In College Park you still have to wait in line to wait for one of the 2 Smartrip machines, while the other 3 remain empty (which is why I would incur negative balance, since I didn't want to wait).

It should have cost $6.65 to ride from Van Dorn Street to Baltimore Penn Station via Metrorail ($2.55), the B30 bus ($2.50, with 50 cent discount for a rail-bus transfer), and the MTA light rail ($1.60). I would guess a one-trip pass on MTA would permit a switch from a northbound train coming from BWI Airport to a northbound Penn Station light rail shuttle. You could also walk from the University of Baltimore/Mount Royal light rail station over to Penn Station; it is about a 5 minute walk. (When I was in Baltimore last week, I noticed a new building is being built immediately east of the Mount Royal light rail station, blocking the view of Penn Station from the light rail station and making it more confusing for someone unfamiliar with that portion of Baltimore to walk to Penn Station from the Mount Royal station.)

Incidentally, that $60 cost between Baltimore and Alexandria is probably a function of A) buying or trying to buy a ticket on the day of travel and B) trying to travel south of Union Station from north of DC. I realize you were just railfanning, but traveling to anywhere south of Union Station that is still in WMATA Metrorail territory (or on weekday afternoons, anywhere in VRE territory) just isn't worth it, mainly because of the layover/engine switch at Union Station.

One other thing - MTA Maryland is in the process of introducing a SmarTrip-like card that will be valid on all Baltimore area transit vehicles (light rail, subway, buses), the MARC trains, and some bus systems based in Maryland, including some in the DC area (like Montgomery County's Ride On). I'm pretty sure it won't be valid on any vehicles in the WMATA system however.

CHIP72 wrote:One other thing - MTA Maryland is in the process of introducing a SmarTrip-like card that will be valid on all Baltimore area transit vehicles (light rail, subway, buses), the MARC trains, and some bus systems based in Maryland, including some in the DC area (like Montgomery County's Ride On). I'm pretty sure it won't be valid on any vehicles in the WMATA system however.

It's called the "Charm Card" (why do they always give these things such lame names?) and no it will work everywhere in the Balt-Wash region.

"CharmCard™ may be used on MTA Bus and Metro Subway and regional service in Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, and anywhere you see the CharmCard™ and SmarTrip® names displayed."

See: http://www.mtacharmcard.com/what.html

So CharmCard will be compatible with SmarTrip. Wonder if it will also work the other direction? I also wonder if it's not the same system, just rebranded with Baltimore's (rather lame) branding.

Actually, you know what, I think that's probably exactly what it is - a rebranding of the SmarTrip system for Baltimore. Part of the page about it says, "Simply call the CharmCard™ phone number (1-888-SmarTrip)". 1-888-SmarTrip. That's all we need to know...

The CharmCard will work in the DC area and can be used on Metro. Likewise, the SmartTrip card can be used on Baltimore's MTA.
Link: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1689089

I'm interested to know how it (and the Smartrip) would work on the MARC. Do you use it at one of the automated machines to buy a ticket? How about using it to pay for a monthly ticket?