Here's the part that WMATA could learn from... the Starbucks website lets you manage your account online... You can add multiple cards, setup auto-reload where you can reload based on a date or when your balance hits a certain amount. You can transfer balances between cards (ie if you ever lost a card.... just transfer to another card that you have).

If you have ever registered your SmarTrip card with WMATA it appears to go into this big abyss.....where you can't search on it or pull it up again.

Maybe WMATA and Starbucks could go into business together?? I see enough people drinking coffee on the Metro in the AM anyway.... pay for commuting and coffee with the same card!!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work some overtime (aka bill extra hours aka buy more shoes!).

Orange line was of course single tracking (hey its the weekend!). So I decided to drive to my office. Mapquest put it at an approximate 20 minute drive. Metro usually takes me 30 Minutes. With the waiting around for single tracking trains driving of course won out. Weekend street parking was free. This all probably sounds like driving should win..... but I can't read while I am driving....In bound traffic would be way worse during the week....and if I wanted to go out after work I would need to move my car somewhere. Also the big downside to driving.... getting from SW to 295N. Its weird and annoying.

WMATA wins!!!!!!!

But the real question is... if I had used Metro to commute this weekend, and SmarTrip had converted to the new system... what purse would my fare have been deducted from!?

I have officially been commuting 100% using SmarTrip as my means of fare payment for the last 5 days (2 days last week I used my SmarTrip for bus, and Monthly MARC pass for rail).

I must admit I like the ease of use.... just tap the card to the SmarTrip reader, no need to even take it out of the case I use to carry it in.

But..... shortly after I got the SmarTrip card I registered it online. Now I want to update the mailing address, and check the balance. but you can't do that online. You need to call the SmartTrip people. Why??? If I can register my Starbucks card and reload it online I should be able to do these easy transactions for my SmarTrip card. Why does WMATA make it sooooo hard???

I was checking my online account this am....$4.25 was deducted for parking.... If I had used the SmarTrip card it would have been $8.25....

what a waste of money for the SmartTrip card. Oh well now I know...

Lesson Learned Metro and SmarTrip suck!!

So on my way home yesterday I checked my SmarTrip Card balance using one of the farecard readers....

Balance of $6.75. So the problem from Thursday wasn't a demagnetized card or any other card problem. It was that the technology SmarTrip uses isn't advanced enough to tell me that my balance was too low.... I only got a generic Card Error message!

YAY!

so I drove to New Carrollton and tried to pay for my parking after happy hour, with my newly purchased SmarTrip card... Denied! i had to pay with a credit card :P


It's probably demagnetized :P

Since I drove to New Carrollton this morning instead of taking the MARC, I had to buy a SmartTrip Card in order to get out of the garage! So this afternoon I get to New Carrollton and and proceed to try and buy my SmartTrip card. As I exit the fare gate I cross the way to the row of pass/farecards and farecards machines. I figured Pass = SmartTrip card and proceed to enter my cash. Um no.... luckily I didn't purchase it. I look around thinking I am going to need to ask for help :P station managers are all tied up with tourists trying to get kids through the fare gates correctly!

Then I notice 2 machines over by the ATMs... mosey over. yep SmartTrip . and they only deal in $10! I need $13.25 ( 5 base for the card and $8.25 (according to wmata.com) to pay for parking), so I purchase my card and wait for a receipt... no receipt comes out, keep hitting # nothing. Then I think maybe it wants my PIN, so I try that... nope...then I decide well I need to go back to the other machines and load up some more money and I can check if it has the $5 fare. It did ... I add $10 more and off I go! (and actually only $6.25 was deducted for parking)

The drive home was actually pretty good... so now I guess it is good that I have the SmarTrip card so when I go to happy hour in DC, I won't need to wait for a MARC late in the evening ( after 6:30/7pm... they only run about 1 per hour so it really sucks if you miss the train you are aiming for)... I can just drive in!

So I woke up this morning, got ready and planned on taking a train that leaves 20 minutes later than what I normally take. As I was ready to head out I checked my BlackBerry and found an email from the MTA that PENN line service was suspended due to a fatality. So off I went to New Carrollton. Traffic was not bad and I actually made good time (I arrived before I would have if I had taken the later MARC train I was aiming for)...

This explains why a helicopter was hovering over the station.

PENN service has resumed.

I can't wait to see how much its costs me to park! ( I don't have a SmarTrip card because my monthly MARC pass includes unlimited Metro trips)