Metro News Release

For immediate release: July 21, 2004

SmarTrip supply low as sales soar

Since Metro shifted to a SmarTrip parking payment system on June 28, sales of the plastic rechargeable farecard that can be used to pay for parking, Metrorail rides and most Metrobus rides have soared. As a result officials believe they will run out of the cards before a new supply arrives. Prior to the start of the SmarTrip-only parking payment program, sales of the cards averaged 8,000 per month (between May 1999 and May 2004). Since June 28, customers have been purchasing them at a rate of between 3,000 and 4,000 per day, most directly from new SmarTrip vending machines that are located inside 30 Metrorail stations. Between June 28 and July 20, 65,000 SmarTrip cards were sold. Seventy-five percent were sold from the new SmarTrip vending machines; 14 percent from Metro sales offices; 5 percent through local commuter stores; 4 percent via the internet; and the remaining 2 percent via other means. SmarTrip sales have been so high that Metro has sold in the last three weeks what it had been selling during an average eight-month period since SmarTrip was launched five years ago. There is only one manufacturer of the SmarTrip chip that is in the cards and another manufacturer responsible for embedding those chips in the SmarTrip cards. Metro expects to receive 10,000 new SmarTrip cards by the end of the month and another 62,000 by mid-August. New orders are in the works for up to one half million cards. The high volume of SmarTrip sales can be attributed to several initiatives coming together at once. They include:" the shift to SmarTrip-only parking payment program that was initiated on June 28;" the installation of the SmarTrip vending machines inside 30 stations, making it easy and convenient for all customers (not just those who are parking in Metro facilities) to pick up a SmarTrip card;" the continued installation of SmarTrip fareboxes on all Metrobuses (all but one garage of buses has the new fareboxes and those buses are expected to be fully equipped in approximately two weeks) which has created a demand for SmarTrip cards by Metrobus users; " a surprising pre-September 11th resurgence of tourists to the region, which has resulted in an elevated purchase of SmarTrip cards by one-time-only users of the cards; and" unprecedented high Metrorail ridership that saw June’s average weekday ridership top 700,000 for the first time and July’s average weekday ridership counts that have not yet seen the traditional dip that results from commuters who take a summer vacation. In an effort to conserve SmarTrip cards until the next shipment arrives at Metro, officials have decided to temporarily halt internet sales of the cards, temporarily cease sales promotions targeted to non-parkers who ride the rail system; and delay an upcoming promotion of SmarTrip to bus customers that was designed to coincide with the installation of the SmarTrip fareboxes on buses. When Metro runs out of SmarTrip cards, customers will be able to pay the parking fee by purchasing paper farecards in the exact amount of the fee. Parkers will then hand the paper farecard to the parking customer assistance representative who would be stationed at the lot’s exit gates. Customers who have SmarTrip cards will still be able to use them for quick exit. The shift to the SmarTrip parking system has been extremely successful. Metro officials were lenient in allowing exceptions during the first week of conversion to the SmarTrip-only parking system, allowing for the transition period, however since then, less than 1 percent of daily parkers are given an exception to exit the parking lots. Most of the approximately 250 parking-related calls to Metro’s customer service center since June 28 have been questions about how to get receipts; their wanting to know how to obtain a SmarTrip card; recommendations for improved signage; and complaints from one-time or occasional parkers who do not want to purchase a SmarTrip card. Metro has also received complaints about how Metro’s SmarTrip contractor has been experiencing difficulty keeping up with the high call volume since the launch of SmarTrip-only parking on June 28. The vendor has hired additional staff to handle the increase in calls.

News release issued on July 21, 2004.