Metro News Release

For immediate release: January 18, 2008

New form of payment now accepted on MetroAccess

MetroAccess passengers may now pay for their trips with paper farecards, commonly used in the Metrorail system. MetroAccess operators will still accept cash or two tokens as payment, but passengers may opt to pay with one, $2.50 paper farecard.

Sales offices at Metro Center, Metro headquarters and the Pentagon will sell packages of five farecards, each with $2.50 in value, for $12.50. The pre-packaged, pre-printed cards also will be available at Metrobus garages, commuter stores and select retail outlets. In addition, passengers can use any fare vending machine in a Metrorail station to purchase a $2.50 farecard.

The farecards offer a payment option for passengers who do not want to use cash and eliminates potential overpayment by token users. As the fare increase took effect on January 6, the cost of tokens rose to $1.35 to coincide with the rise in cash bus fares. With two tokens now valued at $2.70, MetroAccess customers who pay with two tokens would be overpaying for their trips since the base fare for MetroAccess trips remained at $2.50.

News release issued at 12:00 am, January 18, 2008.