Comments on: “Beginning July 1, customers using paper farecards will be charged an additional $1 per trip.”

By: anon

anon — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:29:12 +0000

$25 to entertain a whole family on vacation for the day sounds like a pretty darn sweet deal.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:26:38 +0000

In case he wasn’t, people should no longer think it can be done with regular cards because I think at one time you could go negative on a paper card. Not positive about that but I thought so.

By: textdoc

textdoc — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:18:49 +0000

I think Andy2 meant going negative on a SmarTrip card.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:14:14 +0000

I don’t think you can go negative on paper cards anymore. I don’t ride the metro often anymore but sometimes after visitors are here, they hand over their leftover fare cards with a few cents on them (not a full ride). I can’t remember if they no longer let you enter the turnstile or if they don’t let you out with a fare card with less than the necessary fare. I think it’s no longer possible to do this, at least with paper cards.

By: cj

cj — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:13:26 +0000

It’s interesting that you picture the smartcard along with NYC’s metrocard and Boston’s Charlie card. In Boston they charge 50 cents more per trip for riders using a paper charlie ticket than a plastic Charlie card, but what’s really amazing is that the charlie card is Free! you can pick one up in many central stations and add fare at the machine, no surcharge or registering necessary. And the fare (1.75) is per ride, no matter how far you travel. They don’t have the tourist congestion we have in DC during the summer though, many of the older stations don’t even have escalators just stairs. I’m all in favor of gouging tourists to help the budget, but something’s seriously wrong with Metro if they have to charge $5 for a metrocard and have increased fares across the board and charge $1 more for paper tickets and still unable keep up with service, escalator repairs etc.

By: c

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:08:42 +0000

they are absolutely not as durable as a credit card. not at all. i have never snapped or cracked a credit card. i have cracked about 5 smart trip cards, rendering them useless.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:04:44 +0000

Maybe you’ve just been lucky, because it does happen all the time. I’ve had two SmarTrip cards snap in two while they were still in my wallet. They aren’t as flexible as credit cards. If you bend it, it will snap in half.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:38:44 +0000

Well since Smartrips let you go into the negative for 1 trip, if you let it go negative for your last trip before you leave the city you are essentially getting refunded the cost of that trip.

If you’re coming from Vienna at rush hour that’s your $5 right there.

By: CoHieghtsInYaFace

CoHieghtsInYaFace — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:57:09 +0000

truth!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:11:40 +0000

That’s incredible. The card I bought when I moved here in 2005 started dying in 2008, and I wasn’t even using it that often.