Metro wants to make their SmarTrip cards even smarter in the next year, allowing passengers to take advantage of special passes that are currently only available in paper form. A technology upgrade will also allow passengers to link a credit card to their SmarTrip cards, making it easier to add funds to them. Metro also hopes to sell the cards in more locations, including neighborhood convenience stores which would also be equipped with terminals to add funds.
And to all this I say, “Well, it’s about bloody freakin’ time!” Unfortunately, stuff like this is really par for the course with Metro, considering (1) there are multiple jurisdictions involved (DC and counties in Maryland and Virginia) and (2) poor decisions have been made along the way (no track redundancy, carpeting in the rail cars, that really stupid and thankfully short-lived two-car train experiment a couple of years ago, etc.). SmarTrip is, to me, one of the best things Metro has implemented and I’m glad its potential is finally being realized.