A pilot program in the Washington, D.C. metro area to bring Google Wallet, Apple Pay and other high-tech payment options may be in jeopardy, reported WTOP on Friday (July 10).
Under Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s oversight, the program — through which a “smart” Metro system would let customers pay using the wallets just mentioned or credit cards using near-field communication — has been seriously over budget, to the tune of more than $44 million.
That cost overrun was disclosed by Metro officials last week at a committee hearing. In addition to the project coming in significantly over budget, there has been a lack of interest — as 3,000 people were targeted for the pilot program, only 400 have signed up.
As WTOP reported, Metro Interim General Manager Jack Requa said the pace of adoption had not been up to levels the transit authority had expected upon launching the program in 2011.
“We thought the credit cards were going to take over. Visa, MasterCard and all the others were going to handle the money, and everybody was going to be using their own card with a chip or a smartphone. That transition capability exists within the proposed system, but the reality is 90 percent of our people are still going to be using a card we issue to them. So this anticipation that SmarTrip would go away, and payment would be handled by outside vendors is not the current case,” Requa said, according to WTOP.
There were also delays in installing some equipment at a couple of Metro parking lots, said Requa.
WTOP reported that the board expressed surprise at the magnitude of the delays and cost overruns.
“We were actually told that this would have a positive effect overall on the budget, and it sure isn’t looking like that right now. I would like to understand how WMATA’s portion could go up so dramatically,” board member Mary Hynes said at the meeting. Board members said they wanted to have final say over the program’s progression and whether it will move beyond the pilot stage. Requa said cutting the program altogether remained an option.
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