Sundays are normally quieter days on the city’s public transit system, but yesterday saw one of the biggest changes to the way customers board Metrobuses since the introduction of SmarTrip cards in 2001. WMATA announced in October that it would be putting an end to paper transfers this week, and yesterday, the change went into effect. From now on, only bus riders using SmarTrip cards will be able to take advantage of free bus-to-bus…

This story about a New York City bus driver who was stabbed to death over a bus transfer. Horrific. You can be sure plenty of people will complain and struggle against the new SmarTrip-only transfer regime about to be put in place on Metrorail and Metrobus, but if it prevents even one incident like this in our city, it will have been worth the growing pains….

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…