Alexandria Buses Test Smartphone-Based Payments During Metro Shutdown

Ditching your SmartCard and replacing it with your smartphone could be the future of public transportation in Alexandria. Alexandria’s DASH bus is testing a mobile payment app during Metro’s summer long closure of Blue and Yellow Line stations south of Reagan National Airport, which will start next weekend. To attract riders to take the bus, DASH will only be charging $1 fares to those who will be paying with the app, rather than the usual $1.75 fare. Leaders of the state and region of Alexandria are partnering with DASH on the testing of this application-based payment system. if successful, the application-based payment system could be expanded to the Northern Virginia bus systems too. "Metro promised its own SmarTrip app by the end of last year with the hope of fare payment features starting this year, but a new finance document shows the app and related station upgrades needed remain under development." An alternative for the closure of the Metro from May 25 to September 8 is the Virginia Railway Express. Riders of the VRE with paper or app-based multi-trip or monthly passes can take advantage of a discounted step-up fee during the closure of the Metro. Instead of paying $8, riders will only have to pay $4. During this time, VRE will not require riders to pay additional fees per step-up rider.

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