Update 1/26/2022

Metro says riders will have to replace their pre-2012 SmarTrip cards by March 1. 2022.

The old cards won’t work on the new faregates that have been installed in more than half of Metrorails’ stations so far. The cards created before 2012 have “outdated chip technology” and aren’t compatible with the new gates.

Beginning Feb. 7, customers won’t be able to add value to old cards online. Metro has already stopped allowing adding money to old, obsolete cards at fare vending machines in all stations with new faregates. Labels will show which machines no longer process old cards.

While old cards won’t work starting March 1, riders can still transfer their balances to new cards anytime.

“We encourage customers to replace their old SmarTrip cards today and not to wait,” said Metro General Manager/CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld. “As we transition to new, upgraded faregates taking this step now will ensure that as customers return to offices and other activities, they’ll be ready to go.”

Metro has already installed new faregates at these stations:

Addison Road
Arlington Cemetery
Bethesda
Braddock Road
Capitol South
Clarendon
College Park-U of Md
Crystal City
East Falls Church
Eastern Market
Farragut West (east entrance)
Federal Center SW
Forest Glen
Friendship Heights (south entrance)
Gallery Place
Georgia Ave-Petworth
Glenmont
Greenbelt
Judiciary Square (west entrance)
Potomac Ave
Prince George’s Plaza
Rockville
Shady Grove
Southern Avenue
Tenleytown -AU
U Street (east and west entrances)
Vienna
Waterfront
West Falls Church
West Hyattsville
Wheaton

Faregates should be installed at these stations by the end of January 2022:

Cleveland Park
Dunn Loring
Farragut West (west entrance)
Fort Totten
Friendship Heights (north entrance)
Naylor Road
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (north & south entrances)
Shaw-Howard U (north and south entrances)
Silver Spring
Takoma
Union Station (north & south entrances)

The rest should be installed in the coming months.

Original story (4/9/2022)

If you’ve managed to hold on to your same Metro card for more than nine years: 1. congrats, and 2.  sorry to break the news, but it’s going to be obsolete soon.

Metro is installing new fare gates in rail stations and new fare boxes on buses starting this June and the older chips in cards made before 2012 won’t work on the new system.

The change affects about 400,000 active card users, or about 7% of all the SmarTrip cards in circulation.

Cards with 0167 somewhere on the back are still good, everything else will eventually not work.

Metro is encouraging riders with those cards to replace them now to avoid issues later. Riders can mail in the old card, or make a switch for a new card online, on the phone, or in person.

You can also transfer the balance on the old card to a virtual SmarTrip card if you have an iPhone. The Android version is still on the way, launch date TBD.

Now, there are a few hang-ups. Riders who have SmartBenefits — a program usually associated with work benefits — attached to their card won’t be able to transfer their balance yet. Metro will reach out to them later to make arrangements.

As for those old commemorative SmarTrip cards from before 2012: Those are also obsolete, too.

But if you happen to love your card emblazoned with, say, former President Barack Obama or Nationals Park, you can take one approach outlined on Flickr, to remove the stickers from a SmarTrip card with nail polish remover. You can get a new card and could try to affix your old front sticker to the new one. (Maybe you could frame that old card instead).

Metro says Gallery Place will be the first station to get the new fare gates starting this sometime this summer, no earlier than June. All stations will be done over the following year.