CVS May Soon Sell SmarTrip Cards

Metro is hoping to ink an agreement soon with the CVS pharmacy chain to allow electronic SmarTrip cards to be sold at all 187 CVS stores in the D.C. region by mid-December. The agency cleared its biggest hurdle in the talks yesterday after the Metro board agreed to compensate the pharmacy chain for any losses related to defective cards or equipment.

"If we can resolve this, we can move forward to getting into every single CVS store in the region, which would triple the number of places where people can buy SmarTrip cards," Metro Assistant General Manager Sara Wilson told the board yesterday.

CVS would sell the cards at no cost to Metro and with no markup to customers. The cards would be sold for $10 and preloaded with $5 in value to eliminate the need for users to find a location immediately to add value.

Expanding locations to buy the blue-and-green cards is critical because the agency is eliminating free paper bus-to-bus transfers and discounted rail-to-bus transfers Jan. 4. Only passengers who pay with SmarTrip cards will be able to transfer from one bus to another for free. Smart-card users who transfer from rail to bus will pay 75 cents for the bus ride, part of a separate but long-promised change that is also scheduled to go into effect Jan. 4.

SmarTrip cards are sold online and at Metrorail stations with parking lots, Metro sales offices, commuter stores and some Giant and Safeway stores.

Next Generation of Rail Cars Moves Ahead

A Metro board committee unanimously approved the design of the agency's next generation of rail cars, which will feature improved technology for troubleshooting mechanical breakdowns, and route maps inside the cars that will let riders see their trains moving in real time from station to station.

If the Metro finance committee and full board approve a proposal next month to buy 648 new rail cars and overhaul 100 for about $2.1 billion, officials plan to begin the bidding process by late December.

Metro officials told board members the agency would save $75 million by buying the next generation of cars because of savings from technology advances.

Metro's newest board member, Neil Albert, deputy mayor for economic development, prompted a heated discussion when he suggested that Metro could greatly increase capacity by reconfiguring the cars to have New York-style bench seating instead of the two-by-two design that Metro uses.

The agency tested bench seating and found it did not work well. But officials said the design was flexible enough so that board members could decide during the next few years to change the seating design.