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DC Metro Drops Paper Fare Tickets
For the first time, a customer who pays for their Metro trip at King Street, Huntington, or Franconia-Springfield stations will receive a SmarTrip card — not a paper fare card — from the 25 upgraded vending machines that went into service in October.
Metro has begun upgrading more than 450 existing fare vending machines to dispense SmarTrip cards rather than paper farecards. The rollout began at Virginia stations along the Blue and Yellow lines earlier this week and, by Friday, all stations from Crystal City to Huntington and Franconia-Springfield will be completed.
Metro plans to discontinue all sales of paper farecards, including bulk sales, when the last machine on the system is upgraded by January.
Customers will be able to use any remaining paper farecards to enter and exit the rail system until early March. After that, riders holding paper farecards will still be able to transfer the value from paper to SmarTrip at any rail station or Metro sales office through June 2016. ...................(more)
http://www.masstransitmag.com/press_release/12124488/dc-metro-drops-paper-fare-tickets