Photo by Mr. T in DC.

WMATA just announced that the morning rush hour peak-of-the-peak fare surcharge on Metrorail trips will go into effect on Sunday, August 29. (Of course, this means that August 30 will be the first day the surcharge is actually levied.) The twenty-cent charge will be added to all weekday trips which begin between 7:30 and 9 a.m. WMATA had postponed the implementation of the morning surcharge after it was discovered that the existing faregates needed a memory upgrade to process the additional fare. The afternoon rush hour surcharge has been in place since August 3.

Oh, and here’s an interesting reminder from WMATA’s press release that some people might have overlooked — the days of skirting by with a negative SmarTrip balance will soon be over.

The new exit rule for SmarTrip® card users will mirror the current requirement that paper farecard users must have sufficient fare to exit the Metrorail system. SmarTrip® card users will no longer be able to exit the Metrorail system without sufficient fare when the rule is enacted later this fall.

Customers are encouraged to have sufficient fare for their trip on their cards when they enter the system, however, Metro is installing SmarTrip® targets on all Exitfare machines so customers will be able to add the necessary value to their SmarTrip® cards at the exit gates. Payment to add value at Exitfare machines is cash only.

The upgrades to faregates should be completed by early fall. The cost of a SmarTrip card will also be reduced to $2.50 on the 29th.