The Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority last month started to replace 1,200 aging fare gates for its 91-station metro system and starting next year will do the same with 20-plus year-old fareboxes on board 1,500 buses, including upgraded readers for its closed-loop SmarTrip cards.
But while the readers on the fare gates and fareboxes will also be technically ready to accept contactless EMV credit and debit cards, WMATA has no “immediate” plans to turn on the terminals to take the open-loop cards, a spokeswoman for the transit agency, one of the largest in the U.S., told Mobility Payments.
“The new fare gates and fareboxes are designed with the capability to process NFC-enabled (contactless EMV) cards, however, additional back-end processing and capacity upgrades would also be needed,” she said. “Open payment is something we are working toward, but is not in the immediate future.”