No More Metro Paper Transfers Effective Today

At the same time, Metrobus riders will receive a bus-to-rail discount if they transfer using a SmartTrip® card. That discount will reduce Metrorail fares by 50¢.

The changes aim to encourage riders to use SmarTrip®, which saves them 10¢ on each Metrobus trip, eliminates the need for exact change on bus, speeds up boarding times to keep buses on schedule and speeds the flow of customer traffic through Metrorail faregates.

Under the new plan, SmarTrip® users will have an extra hour to take advantage of free bus-to-bus transfers as the transfer period extends from two hours to three hours. Also, riders paying with SmarTrip® will save 50¢ on their fares when transferring from either bus-to-rail or rail-to-bus.

In addition to doing away with the paper transfers that bus operators hand out, the transfer machines in Metrorail stations that dispense the rail-to-bus transfers will be removed as well. All transfer discounts, bus-to-bus, rail-to-bus and bus-to-rail, will be deducted electronically with SmarTrip®, no coins nor paper needed.

Eliminating paper transfers will save Metro about $300,000 a year for the cost of paper and printing, and the repair and maintenance of the transfer machines in stations.

Metro will continue to sell the weekly bus pass, 7-day short-trip rail pass and weekly rail pass.

SmarTrip® cards can be purchased on Metro's Web site by mail, at Metro sales offices at Metro Center, the Pentagon, Anacostia and Metro headquarters, at the Northern, Western, Landover, Royal Street and Four Mile Run Metrobus divisions, vending machines at Metrorail stations that have parking facilities, regional transit stores and select Giant and CVS stores.