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Metro's Board today approved charging rush-hour fares and parking fees on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2009.
“We are charging rush hour fares to meet an unprecedented demand for service,” Metro General Manager John Catoe said in a statement.
From the press release:
The transit agency will charge peak fares from the rail system’s 4 a.m. opening until 9 p.m. on Jan. 20. Metro’s commemorative One-Day Pass with a special Inauguration design will be sold for $10 online and $7.80 at Metro sales offices and fare vending machines. The cost of the passes will be $10 at all sales locations Jan. 20. And Metro will charge $4 for motorists to park in its lots.
Typically, since Inauguration Day is a federal holiday, Metro's parking lots are free of charge that day.
While parking lots located at the Greenbelt, Van Dorn and Morgan Boulevard stations will be limited to charter bus parking only, there will be 40,000 spaces available for private cars to park in other Metro lots on Jan. 20. Of note: you won't need a SmarTrip card to pay for parking that day, as Metro says it will have staff on hand to collect the $4 fee in cash.
Catoe is also encouraging locals to purchase commemorative One-Day Passes in advance to save money and avoid the lines.
“If you are an area resident who frequents Metro, you get a ‘local’ discount by being able to purchase a One-Day Pass between now and January 19 for $2.20 less than those who are just arriving to town on January 20,” Catoe said.
You can sign up for special WMATA e-alerts dedicated to the Inauguration.
Photo by d2digital
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Huzzah!
Wouldn't a "local" who "frequents Metro" use a "Smart Trip?" Catoe is a bit of a "douche."
I want my Obama smartrip and I want it now!
This is confusing/gauging
only buses at the greenbelt lot? i go through that lot often to use the B30 to get up to BWI. that's a huge lot. must be able to hold many hundred buses. something tells me they won't be able to fill it up.
Do you have to use the One Day Pass to ride that day (can you still use regular Smart Trip/paper ticket)?
Do you have to pay cash at the parking gates or can you use Smart Trip as usual?
Don't they know that the locals know not to go to the BIG EVENTS. We work here. It's a day off. Sloth.
We've been there. Seen it. Couch potato. We're not going anywhere. We've got snacks and cable television, plus the internet. Ride the broken escalators, suckers. We've got duct tape to seal in the freshness.
WMATA FAQs
What form of payment will Metro accept for parking on Inauguration Day?
Metro will accept cash only for parking at its lots on Inauguration Day.
Doesn't say anything about Smartrip being acceptable for faregates but I'd assume it is, right?
So can i buy a buttload of obamatrips and sell them for $9?
Wait a minute. Every other day of the year, Metro REQUIRES you to use a SmarTrip card for parking. One this one day, they won't let you? Seems like they need an option for both.
Using Greenbelt as bus parking only is a major mistake. That lot is too big to use just for busses and as the easiest "park and ride" lot for people north of the city (like all those people staying in hotels near Baltimore and beyond) it makes the most sense to open that up to cars coming off of I-95.
College Park should be the "bus only" lot with busses dropping people off at the Metro then parking for the day at one of the large lots on the UMD campus. Or, given that airspace restrictions will close down the College Park Airport that day, you can park busses at the airport (right on the tarmac, why not?) which is within easy walking distance of the College Park station.
The much bigger story is that the DC government will be lifting all residential parking restrictions for most of Inauguration Week.
Good for visitors, I guess.
Sucks bigtime for residents. You know, those of us that actually pay taxes here.
The much bigger story is that the DC government will be lifting all residential parking restrictions for most of Inauguration Week.
I have heard stories (hopefully just urban legends) that some people are coming into town with plans to sleep in their cars on city streets.
So help me God, if I can't find a space on my block and there is some "Obama is the Second-Coming" moron (and you would have to be a moron to voluntarily sleep in your car in DC in Jan) living in his car on my block, I will go all "Joe the Plumber-mmeets Joe Six Pack-meets the creepy guy with the Obama monkey" on their ass.
Here's a tip folks. He is a man. A good man? Maybe. A great man? Maybe. Corrupt as hell and the second coming of Nixon? Maybe. But just a man. Not a god, not your personal savior, not the answer to all the problems in your life, not the embodiment all that this good in the world. Just a man. So unless you have a hotel room, stay home and watch it on TV.
I wonder if there are still rooms to rent at the Crew Club.
I wonder if WMATA is planning on putting any ATM machines in metro station on inauguration day. I foresee people having lots of problems with using their credit card to buy farecards. There have been times when I have tried to use my CC to add money to my smartrip and not been able to, for no obvious reason. One one occasion it took half a dozen tries before the transaction went through. I would imagine that with all the people using the addfare machines, the network lines to the CC verification service will be overloaded.
Cash ONLY at the parking lots? I smell crime of the CENTURY.
and they are shutting down 86% of smartbike usefulness for the entire week... not just Jan 20 or Jan 19 and 20, a whole week. http://www.thewashcycle.com/2008/12/smartbikes-inauguration-week-partial-shutdown-.html
Anybody ever read Nathaniel West' "The Day of the Locust?" No? Alright then. Rent the movie. Donald Sutherland is Homer Simpson.
This is going to make the Fourth of July on the Mall look like pinocle night at a retirement home.
1. Cash-only parking lots
2. Parking attendant five-finger-discounts
3. PROFIT!
"So can i buy a buttload of obamatrips and sell them for $9?"
I'm pretty sure it's illegal to resell metro fares, but it's not something that's really enforced.
Yeah, kinda like that whole murder-being-illegal thing. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
1. Cash-only parking lots
2. Parking attendant five-finger-discounts
3. PROFIT!
I'm pretty sure that's why they switched to SmartTrip cards in the first place.
Thanks for the lecture to give us mere mortals some sense of perspective hillvada.
"“If you are an area resident who frequents Metro, you get a ‘local’ discount by being able to purchase a One-Day Pass between now and January 19 for $2.20 less than those who are just arriving to town on January 20,” Catoe said."
I'll get an even bigger discount holing up with a five-day supply of Doritos, Diet Coke and Netflix movies. Then on Tuesday, stay home and watch the Blessed Event on the 50" plasma.