Three Ways WMATA Intentionally Rips Off Bus Passengers

When I was downsized out of a job in 2011, I couldn’t afford a car anymore, so I sold it and began riding buses, including the Richmond Highway Express (REX), Fairfax Connector, and Dash. Since then, I’ve learned three ways that bus drivers rip off passengers. Since the majority of them regularly cheat passengers in these ways, it’s clearly widespread, which suggests the cheating directive may come from management. In other words, it’s likely institutionalized.

One of the first things I learned was that the $1.60 fare only bought two hours worth of rides, but because of scheduling in reality it only bought one-hour-and-thirty or -forty minutes. Since it was impossible to get to and from my destination in 1-1/2 hours, I was often forced to walk to (or from) it--sometime as far as six or seven miles.

I asked several drivers if the two-hour clock was reset each time a passenger got on a new bus. All of them said no, that $1.60 paid for as many rides as passengers could cram into two hours.

Walking six or seven miles takes a long time (about 1-1/2 hours). Also, I developed for the first time an extremely painful condition known as plantar fasciitis and, without health insurance, couldn’t get a doctor’s help.

Then one day, I noticed another rider get on a REX bus going to the King Street station, get off at the Huntington Metro station, and, 20 minutes later, get on the next REX bus to King Street. I asked why she didn’t ride the first REX all the way to her destination, and she explained that this way she got an additional 30 minutes in Old Town because the clock was reset from the moment she swiped her SmarTrip card on the second REX bus. In other words, the drivers had lied to me.

The second way that drivers cheat passengers is by what they FAIL to tell us, but should. One day, I boarded a bus and the only money I had for a week’s worth of bus trips was a 10 dollar bill. I swiped my SmarTrip card, depressed the left button to add money, slid the 10 into the slot, then swiped my card again to register the addition. But the $10.00 didn’t appear as a credit on my card. The driver had watched the entire transaction. I asked what was wrong. He hemmed and hawed. I persisted. Finally, he said that I “may” have held the SmarTrip card too close to the cashbox’s magnetic sensor, and if it touched or even hovered over the sensor, added money wouldn’t register on a card. I asked how to fix it, and he said there was no fix. So I had thrown away $10.00. Outraged, I said, “You observed the whole transaction and you didn’t WARN me about that BEFORE I inserted my money?” He claimed that instructing passengers was not his job. I countered that such information was nowhere on the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) website or in any of its printed literature, so how were passengers to know about it if drivers didn’t tell us? He continued to defensively claim that he wasn’t responsible. I explained that that was my last $10.00 for the week, I had two job interviews that week, and now couldn’t get to them. At which point he completely ignored me.

I took his name, the bus number, and noted the time and place. Then I called and emailed WMATA, told them what happened, and requested a refund. The representative told me that under NO circumstances does it EVER give ANY refunds. When I asked for the names and contact information of management, she put me on hold, then disconnected the line--three separate times! Since then, I’ve witnessed three more drivers do the same things to passengers, which shows the cheating practice is institutionalized.

The third way that drivers rip off passengers is also by withholding information. When a passenger swipes his SmarTrip card, if there’s enough money (or a partial amount) to pay for the ride, the box beeps. If there isn’t enough to pay for the ride, the box buzzes. However, whether it beeps or buzzes isn’t always accurate. I’ve swiped my card with $5.00 on it, and the box buzzes because the driver forgot to reset the machine after the last passenger’s short swipe. But drivers regularly wave buzzing passengers onto the bus anyway. Only when they insist will a driver reset so the card accurately beeps. The gesture implies, “You’re short the fare, but I’ll let you ride anyway because I’m a nice guy.” In fact, they’re doing just the opposite! They’re ripping off passengers.

Two days ago, I boarded a Fairfax Connector 171at 11:08 AM. I had .45 on my card, added $1.25, bringing my total to $1.70, and paid the $1.60 fare, which left .10 remaining on my card. At 11:59, I boarded a Fairfax Connector 162. At 1:20PM I boarded a Fairfax Connector 171. Each time I boarded, the two-hour clock reset, and I re-boarded before the subsequent two hours ran out. Also, each time, I checked the read-out and had .10 credit on my card. However, when I boarded the last bus it buzzed instead of beeping. I asked the driver to reset it, but there was a line behind me, and he just waved me on. I erroneously assumed this meant that ride had registered on my card, the two-hour clock had reset, and the .10 credit remained. But when I boarded a REX at 2:55 (within the latest two-hour timeframe from 1:20), a --$1.50 debit appeared on the read-out.

I checked my Usage History on the website (see below) and saw that the third ride (boarded at 1:20 when the buzzer sounded) had not registered on my card. This is the third way that drivers regularly rip off passengers.

Are drivers pocketing the money they steal from us in the above three ways? Given the way they deliberately lied to me, closely watch transactions but don’t speak up to avert a loss, and intentionally deceive passengers, there’s no doubt in my mind.

If drivers are allowed to empty their cashboxes of money at the end of each shift, there’s no doubt in my mind that they are personally profiting. If another employee empties the cashboxes, they’re likely splitting the profit. Is WMATA management involved? Either overtly by providing the above methods or by not instituting close checks-and-balances to catch driver-criminals. Remember the 2004 Metro parking attendant multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme that went undetected for over a decade because WMATA failed to emplace an audit system?

Now that you’re aware of three of the ways drivers cheat passengers, you can avoid getting ripped off by (1) scheduling rides at two-hour intervals, (2) keeping your card away from the sensor when adding money, and (3) insisting drivers reset when there’s enough money on your card but it buzzes. SPREAD THE WORD! And lodge a complaint below.

WMATA Inspector General Hotline, wmata-oig-hotline@verizon.net
Supervisor Gerry Hyland, https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/gov/bos/cforms/mvd_feedback.asp
Delegate Scott Surovell ScottSurovell@gmail.com
Debbie Cenziper, investigative report, Washington Post Investigative Reporter, cenziperd@washpost.com
Jeff Leen, Washington Post Asst Managing Editor, Investigations, leenj@washpost.com
ABC News 7 On Your Side 7onyourside@wjla.com

How to log in: Open www.wmata.com> SmarTrip> Create an Account or Manage Your Account>enter UserName and Password>takes you to Your SmarTrip Account>click on the Nickname under “Associated cards”>in right-hand box, under “Manage Your Card” click “View Usage History>under “Time Period” the radio button beside “Usage history by calendar month” is the default>click Submit button> scroll to the date.

Did you write this just for Fairfax Underground?

Here's an idea, don't ride the bus. Everyone knows the Metro sucks and they're run by criminal black people. Buy a car, and drive by the Metro Monkeys everyday.

"Spreading the word" is futile and totally unnecessary. You might as well save yourself the effort. Everyone already knows that Metro is a corrupt and inept organization that is riddled with criminal elements. It is much like the DC government.

Certain organizations like Metro and the DC government are inherently dysfunctional and by their very nature can and will rip you off at any point of interaction, without even breaking a sweat. Your best bet is to avoid doing business with Metro or having any interaction with it.

There is no point in complaining. You might as well complain that nights are dark, or that rain is wet.

What's the..."bus"?

Have you considered welfare. You could get free medical care that will take care of that foot condition. If you need to ride the bus social services will give you bus passes for free. You will also give you an obamaphone, food stamps and if the list isn't too long you can get housed in a luxury condo.

Unless your original occupation paid around $80,000 a year you are better off on welfare. Stop looking for work.

Call Fairfax County Code compliance. They have a special unit dedicated to those with disabilities.

They will impound the bus and make the driver clean up asbestos. Sharon Bulova will appoint someone to drive you around while the case is under investigation.

DC operates like the Banana Republic that it always has been and still is. Only problem with that is they export the graft and corruption to the surrounding states as the localized areas and city run institutions become territorial and the straw bosses have to protect their little personal territories. They consider the commuters from MD and Virginia to be their automatic free teller machines, so will take their take any way they can.. Remember the attempt to pass a commuter tax on everyone working in DC from VA and MD? That was the "legal attempt." The creative methods you describe are the tip of the "illegal attempts" iceberg. It is inexorably creeping far to the west (even out to the Udvar Hazy parking lots, and even far to the south to Richmond to invade the gov mansion!). In a few years the climate may even warm up enough for the typically accompanying banana plants to become an invasive species. By that time only the politcias and the guerillas will have any ammo, and bribery will be necessary to get ANYTHING done. If anyone out there still has any ethics, take them out of the morass and try to start your own business or move out to somewhere where a man's word and honesty is still worth something in society.

The bus is for savages, not civilized people. You sound civilized. Buy a bike.

Another problem with riding the bus is that passengers are at the mercy of the bad scheduling and the and drivers--and in combination.

If getting to your destination requires you to take 2 or 3 connecting buses, the only time of day that you can do that--and stay within the 2-hour per $1.60 fare timeframe--is during AM or PM rush hours when the buses depart every 30 minutes (otherwise, you have to wait as long as 1 hour between buses). But even if you plan your connections during rush hour you have to hit them just right. If there’s less than 10 minutes between bus connections your chances of being a victim of the driver’s lack of professionalism--and being forced to pay an additional $1.60 for it--are 90%. The same is true if there’s more than 15 minutes between bus connections. Since all Northern Va. bus lines are ALWAYS, chronically late (and you boarded your last bus 1 hour and 50 minutes earlier), if there’s less than 10 minutes between buses and your next bus is 10-1/2 minutes late (the average late period), you have to pay an additional $1.60. The same is true if the bus is more than 15 minutes late. So you only have a 5-minute margin of time (between 10 and 15 minutes) to allow between bus connections.

Drivers always excuse their lateness by blaming traffic, but more than 50% of the time they’re late because they’re prolonging a break by standing around shooting the breeze with other drivers or yammering away on their cell phones or leisurely eating while the minutes tick away. When that’s the reason they’re late, YOU’RE the one who ends up paying for THEIR meal or phone conversation. And they refuse to cut you a price break for their unprofessional actions, self-indulgence, and laziness. Instead, if you brought their lateness to their attention, because you caught them being unprofessional, they try to overcompensate for their guilt by acting extremely “professional” by saying they have no way of knowing whether you boarded your last bus within the last two-hour timeframe or not (even if you told them). Then they demand that you pay an additional $1.60 that THEIR actions have cost YOU!

The only way to get around this problem that Metro has caused for passengers is to plan your route to allow 30-60 minutes between connecting buses. This means what would normally be a 2-hour bus ride (from, say, Lorton to Fairfax City) will actually take between 2-1/2 to 3 hours. So if you have a 9:00AM appointment or class, instead of catching your first bus around 7:00AM, you must catch it at 6:00AM at the very latest. Why? For no other reason than to allow for drivers who are too stupid to know how to tell time.

This chronic, daily problem for passengers is due to (1) Metro’s poor scheduling, and (2) bad drivers. But all complaints fall on deaf ears. Metro emphatically states it NEVER refunds your fare, and no matter how many complaints it receives it never corrects its unworkable schedule or sanctions drivers. Why? Because it costs Metro money to print schedules and train drivers. (It seems that teaching them how to tell time is not part of their training.)

If you ride the bus, you’re at the mercy of tyranny and live in a totalitarian state without ANY recourse.