Metro Considers Free Farecards for Low-Income Customers

Distribution Plan Would Involve Service Agencies

Metro officials are considering giving free electronic SmarTrip Farecards to regional social services agencies, which could provide them to low-income bus riders.

The transit agency is weighing a giveaway because it has proposed eliminating free paper bus-to-bus transfers and discounted rail-to-bus transfers as part of its latest proposals to raise subway and bus fares.

The move would address a concern by some Metro board members that bus riders, who tend to have lower incomes than subway passengers, would be the hardest-hit customers if they could no longer use paper transfers to ride more than one bus to reach their destinations.

Metro board members are likely to discuss the issue Thursday as part of their talks about next year's budget.

In an interview this week, Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. said board members and social services agencies would have to agree to the plan before details could be worked out.

"If the issue really is that there is a disproportionate impact on the poor, then we could propose some number of cards to be given to the social service agencies . . . and people could go through the social service agency and request a free card," he said.

Catoe proposed last week that $6 million be set aside in next year's capital budget for about 1.2 million free cards. But given the expenses needed to maintain Metro's aging infrastructure, officials have scaled down the estimate of free cards to about 200,000, agency spokeswoman Candace Smith said.

SmarTrip cards can be used on Metrorail, Metrobus and eight of 10 regional bus services. But the minimum purchase is $10, including $5 for the card. Under the plan, Metro would waive the fee for the card. Customers would still have to pay for trips.

Under the four fare proposals that Catoe presented to board members last week, the minimum rush-hour subway fares would rise 20 to 40 cents, depending on when an increase goes into effect.

But in all four plans, parking would increase by 50 cents, bus rides would rise a quarter to $1.50 and bus-to-bus paper transfers would no longer be accepted. Free bus-to-bus transfers would only be issued on SmarTrip cards. Riders who want to get the discount for riding the subway and transferring to a bus to reach their destination would also have to pay with a SmarTrip card, because rail-to-bus transfers would not be accepted under the proposals.

When riders board a Metrobus, they can receive free paper transfers that allow unlimited travel for up to two hours anywhere in the region. About 30 percent of all boardings involve a transfer.

But Metro, like transit agencies around the country, wants to eliminate paper transactions to reduce operating costs, boarding inefficiency and fraud. It is common for passengers to use invalid transfers or to share or sell them, although Metro officials said it's impossible to quantify the abuse. It costs Metro about $345,000 a year to print and distribute transfers, officials said.

Metro has been reluctant to get rid of paper transfers until the agency can make SmarTrip cards more affordable and accessible. The cards are only sold online, at Metrorail stations with parking lots, Metro sales offices and commuter stores. Only 11 Giant and Safeway stores in the region sell them, but Metro officials are trying to expand the number of grocery stores, and possibly pharmacies, that offer them.

Sixty to 65 percent of weekday rail trips are paid with the card. Only 21 percent of the approximately 440,000 weekday bus trips are paid with SmarTrip. On any given day, about 55 percent of Metrobus riders board in the District.

Overall, Metro has sold 2.5 million cards since the program began in May 1999, and about 1.4 million are in use, officials said.

D.C. Council member Jim Graham, who represents the District on the Metro board, said he welcomes "anything that would soften the blow" of higher fares and abolish paper transfers.

In addition, because so many bus riders board in the District, he said he would be reluctant to see bus fares go up more than a nickel.

Maryland board member Peter Benjamin said he supports the giveaway. "If you're really worried about fares for low-income people," he said, the best way is to subsidize their fares, not set bus fares low.