October 21, 2008
WMATA: Paper Transfers to End in January
We knew this was something WMATA had been considering for some time, especially with the agency's big push toward emphasizing universal adoption of SmarTrip cards, but today it's official: Metro is eliminating paper transfers in January.
Beginning January 4, 2009, only bus riders using SmarTrip cards will be able to take advantage of free bus-to-bus transfers and discounted rail-to-bus transfers. Bus drivers will no longer hand out paper transfers, and machines that dispense paper rail-to-bus transfers inside Metro stations will be removed.
Expect to hear some pushback on this one from advocates for the poor and the homeless. The $5 fee for SmarTrip cards and the need to add value to it using one of Metro's farecard machines are seen as obstacles to many needy area residents. Paper transfers have long been a sort of currency among D.C.'s homeless population. Metro says it is continuing to reach out to area social service agencies to discuss the change, and that it has already issued 50,000 free SmarTrip cards to the region’s social service agencies.
The good news for those of you who already use SmarTrip: once the change goes into effect, free bus-to-bus transfers will now be good for three hours instead of only two. SmarTrip users often complain that their transfers are not valid for as long as paper transfers, so this change should silence that concern.
Metro says eliminating paper transfers will save them about $300,000 a year. The change should also help cut down on fraud and abuse of transfers, as well as minimize disputes between bus drivers and riders.
A new ad campaign will be launched this month to inform customers of the impending change. Metro will continue to sell its weekly bus pass, 7-day short-trip pass and weekly rail pass.
Photo by 7194KK
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Metro also needs some sort of system to account for a bus-to-metro commute. It makes no sense to only pay 35 cents extra when taking the metro then bus to work, and then having to pay a full fare for both on the way home.
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So bus drivers won't be handing out or accepting valid bus transfers. Ok. But what about the torn up, stained, and weeks-old transfer tickets I see so many people use? Those are still good, right?
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need to add value to it using one of Metro's farecard machines are seen as obstacles
Actually, you can add money to it on the bus.. though people always get concerned when you put $20 in the farebox. Supposedly there will also be grocery stores too someday where you can add value.
http://www.wmata.com/riding/smartrip_adding_value.cfm
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You actually don't have to use the fare card machines to add money to your Smartrip card. Metro, for some unknown and obviously illogical reason, does not advertise the fact that you can add cash to your Smartrip card when boarding the bus. Have you ever noticed the "Smartrip" button on the money taking machine? That's what it's for.
Of course this will make boarding the bus take longer, but since it will not happen each and every time someone using cash boards the bus it'll be a relief to regular bus riders. I can't stand the little old ladies who insist on getting on in front of me so they can stand at the machine, blocking the entire entrance, taking their sweet and belabored time making multiple attempts to put their ratty bill in the money taker. All I want to do is tap my card and make my way to the back, the bus can take off with someone still putting money in, not with all of us Smartrip users waiting outside.
Now the question is, how long until the Smartrip bus fare increases to $1.35 when everyone gives up using cash?
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thank god they're finally biting the bullet on this one.
i don't care what the hell the advocates for the homeless, poor, destitute, etc., have to say. this will work.
i do hear them regarding the need to refill your smartrip at a fare machine. you can do it at the farebox on the bus, but i could see that REALLY slowing things down.
what wmata needs to do is set it up so:
1) funds can be added to your smartrip card via credit or something like that so you don't need to go to a physical kiosk to get it done.
and
2) set up kiosks in key places to help avoid the crush that could happen to add funds to smartrips on busy buses like the x2 or the 70s. how about some kiosks at busy bus stations (8th and h ne, for example) or at grocery stores?
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The $5 fee for SmarTrip cards and the need to add value to it using one of Metro's farecard machines are seen as obstacles to many needy area residents.
So you can loiter around Mcdonalds eating your three $1 Doublecheeseburgers, your bag of Rap Snacks, and your Citrus Crunk, but $5 for a SmarTrip card is an undue burden on the needy? What you need to do is put down that chicken leg, get off your fat a$$, and steal yourself a bike. Now, move over and let me pass 'fore they have be to pullin' these Hush Puppies out your mothaf***in' a$$!
R.I.P. Dolemite: 1937-2008
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We heard the same batch of complaints from "poverty activists" when they replaced food stamps with debit cards. Not only did that save USDA millions in administrative costs, it made welfare fraud much more timely and efficient. Try buying heroin with a book of food stamps today, and just watch your pusher give you the gas face.
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Can we also assume that every bus system that accepted paper transfers is now up-to-date and using SmarTrip?
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Why the hell should I have to pay $5 for a card that probably costs 10 cents to manufacture? Hell, I'm still using tokens!
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Is $5 really that much of an obstacle barring access to a SmarTrip card? With each ride costing 10c more by cash, by 50 rides (or taking a round-trip bus journey every workday for 5 weeks), the thing pays for itself. Even if WMATA were to cut the price to $3, or whatever, the breakeven time reduces further. The three hour thing is nice, since it'll allow for more single-fare round trips. They really need to establish a bus-to-metro transfer, though. There's no reason that a bus-subway trip (like Mount Pleasant to Foggy Bottom) should cost 2.60, while the same trip in reverse is 1.70.
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Will they have some sort of receipt system in place for those of us who need a paper receipt for travel/expense reports? Not as pressing a matter as helping the poor and destitute, but still an issue.
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We need to put our weight on Metro to get off they
sorry arses and kick those rat soup eating mother truckin bus drivers to the curb for making me late every gotdamn morning. Transfers...we don't need no stinking transfers.
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R.I.P. Dolemite: 1937-2008
Aww, (Signifying) Monkey. Thanks for passing this on...I haven't seen anything about it elsewhere.
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I always ask for a receipt when I give the homeless guy twenty-three cents for a bus ride. And most of the time, at least one of his personalities gives me one. Although, sometimes the "receipt" is either an acorn, a hamburger wrapper, or a dollar bill.
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Joan.
Here's a nice shout-out trib.
http://officialtrashpalace.blogspot.com/
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Since Smartrip cards do not support weekly passes and are not expected to until late 2009, this eliminates discounted transfers between bus and rail for the ~7000 riders that use a rail pass. That's not too many, and of course not all of them actually ride both bus and rail.
WMATA should offer a bonus of about 1% (as proposed by the RAC) to adding fare to a Smartrip card, to give people the incentive to go get a card and keep it.
I'm still seeking an answer to whether DC is working on the project to combine driver's licenses and Smartrip. That would get cards out to a lot of people out there quickly.
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If the poor would stop playing the numbers they could afford to transfer from bus to bus and make some real money.
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I'm still seeking an answer to whether DC is working on the project to combine driver's licenses and Smartrip. That would get cards out to a lot of people out there quickly.
That would also increase the potential for fraud exponentially. Good thing you don't have any DC agency staff involved in that type of thing. Any more.
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Metro also needs some sort of system to account for a bus-to-metro commute. It makes no sense to only pay 35 cents extra when taking the metro then bus to work, and then having to pay a full fare for both on the way home.
I think DCist covered this before, but the reasons are essentially the following:
1) Because we don't want do
2) Because it makes no sense to allow cheap transfers from low-value transit to high-value transit (or however it gets put)
3) Because masses of cheap idiots like me would hop on a bus outside of a station for three seconds, swipe my card and then hop on the metro (as long as it saved me money)
Metro, for some unknown and obviously illogical reason, does not advertise the fact that you can add cash to your Smartrip card when boarding the bus.
Because DC people are massive assholes will inevitably decide to fill up their card on the S4 at 8:45 in the morning, holding up the whole goddamn boarding line, burning an extra minute or two trying to get it to work; in the meantime most people who either work or live in the city live near or pass by a metro station during the day and can fill up their cards at their leisure without boning a whole bus full of people.
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Damn, Monkey; you had me running to google for answers, and sure 'nuff, Rudy Ray Moore is no moore! I'll have to view my much-abused copy of Petey Wheatstraw (the devil's son in law) one more time, with tears.....
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Wizzy, you fool. We poor know we poor. We play the numbers to get somewhere outta poor. Ain't nuthin like being poor. The rich are already rich. Let us poor people be, we play to get rich. Yeah, we know its a dream sometimes, but let us dream.Alright:)
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at perkinsms, i don't need my smart trip attached to my drivers license--i don't need the city monitoring where i'm going and when!
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What a bunch of bastards. I love the transfer. And I love bus tokens. Screw you smart trip.
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Hey does dcist know what is up with bus routes by the capitol? I got on a bus at eastern market sunday night and instead of going down pennsylvania and by the capitol, it went all the way around. Is there some new homeland security thing going on?
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Two things I'd like to:
*Auto-replenish (just like EZPass)
*On-line interface with WMATA to get a list of itemized transactions for expensing purposes. EZPass gives me a on-line itemized statement that I can use to bill clients for trips on the Dulles Toll Road, for instance. Metro should have the same capability. These days my Metro wanderings for business purposes just get written off in overhead whenever I have to replenish the card.
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Hey Badtzmaru!
We call those buses: Ghost Buses
They just circle CH with may be one or two people on them. Some of them go to Union Station or The Navy Yard. Me thinks it's part of the WMATA's NEW
30 program.
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Because DC people are massive assholes will inevitably decide to fill up their card on the S4 at 8:45 in the morning, holding up the whole goddamn boarding line, burning an extra minute or two trying to get it to work; in the meantime most people who either work or live in the city live near or pass by a metro station during the day and can fill up their cards at their leisure without boning a whole bus full of people.
Well if you put a $20 on your Smartrip it'll be a while 'til you need to fill up again. If everyone gets a smart trip and some of them fill up with cash on the bus, you'll probably have the same amount of annoyance you have no with people who insist on paying cash every time. And we know they do that at every hour of the day.
But I suspect the people on the S buses at 8:45 have internet access at home and a credit card. So if metro ever gets its act together and lets us put money on our Smartrips from home in our underoos while watching reruns of Sports Night, there will eventually be fewer people feeding bills into the machines on the buses.
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ah, the good ole X2...
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Re: the cost of the SmartTrip cards, it seems like it would also be fairly easy for WMATA to distribute some cards to various social services organizations.
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Well it was a 36 bus and I was the only passenger on it and the lady driver was real nice and as we drove near Federal Center SW she got back on the normal route and then I got off by the Archives/Navy Memorial stop.
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Because DC people are massive assholes will inevitably decide to fill up their card on the S4 at 8:45 in the morning, holding up the whole goddamn boarding line
These are the same riders who are so huge, you have to squeeze by them on the escalator and take up 1.5 seats on the train, forcing you to stand.
We call them "massholes."
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I always ask for a receipt when I give the homeless guy twenty-three cents for a bus ride. And most of the time, at least one of his personalities gives me one. Although, sometimes the "receipt" is either an acorn, a hamburger wrapper, or a dollar bill.
Dammit Monkey, I mean that I use the bus transfers as a receipt for riding the subway (although on occasion I use them for the bus as well.) Pick up a transfer at your start and end point and you have a timestamped receipt for work. Am I the only person who does this?
Next time I'll turn in an acorn.
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I often put more money on my smart trip on the bus, but NOT when I'm boarding! I wait until we're in motion, then go do it. It's not too hard, but I'd rather do it in my underoos!
I'm thrilled the paper transfers are FINALLY going away. It'll stop many of the dime and nickle users who slow down the line.
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maybe they aren't massholes...maybe they're from illinois.
FIBs.
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Hey! What am I doing here?
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"Metro also needs some sort of system to account for a bus-to-metro commute. It makes no sense to only pay 35 cents extra when taking the metro then bus to work, and then having to pay a full fare for both on the way home."
WMATA has said before that a bus passenger actually costs $1.75, but they keep the fares for both metro and bus the same as not to confuse things. This is probably one of the ways they make up for the difference.
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Dude, every knows that Massholes are from Massachusetts, not to be confused with Vassholes—students at Vassar college.
You better git right with yer holes man.
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Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon or perhaps a bus transfer cause I'm trying to get to my job in Arlington and I only have 25 cents. What!?
Forget you then!
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3) Because masses of cheap idiots like me would hop on a bus outside of a station for three seconds, swipe my card and then hop on the metro (as long as it saved me money)
How the hell would that save you money? You'd end up spending the $1.25 for the bus ride you never took to get that $0.90 (presumably - since that's the value of rail-to-bus) transfer discount on the rail fare. Sounds like you'd be $0.35 in the hole if you did that.
It really doesn't make sense that Metro doesn't have a bus-to-rail transfer benefit...especially once the entire system is on SmarTrip.
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Another vote for bus to rail transfers!!! This would be a huge mothertrucking help to people who live in the dead zones of upper petworth, anacostia and all over northeast. You know, all the places that haven't been touched by gentrificators like myself.
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I want a bus to trail transfer! I can't remember the 90s too clearly but I think even the T in boston had them.
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"Re: the cost of the SmartTrip cards, it seems like it would also be fairly easy for WMATA to distribute some cards to various social services organizations."
Which they have done. Check the Metro website.