The
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) purchased the
fare and
passenger control systems from
Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS). The main devices are:
- Express Vendor Vends several types of ticketing media, more than the standard Farecard Vendor. It also allows patrons to add value to their SmarTrip contactless smart card and to make purchases using credit/debit cards.
- Exitfare Machine The Exitfare (sometimes called Addfare Machine) accepts coins and bills to add value to a ticket. Let's say you bought a ticket so you could travel five stations, yet got off the train after traveling seven. When you tried to exit, the gates would instruct you to add value to the ticket at an Exitfare Machine.
- Farecard Vendor Similar to the Express Vendor, with the exception that it has fewer functions.
- WMATA Gates The gate design chosen by WMATA uses bifurcating barriers instead of turnstiles (ala New York). The gates accept paper, plastic or contactless smart cards. When tickets are presented, the information is checked against the data in a central computer, then new information is written to the ticket.