Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

GOCard With SmarTrip Nixed

Despite previous plans for a SmarTrip-equipped GOCard, the GOCard Office has confirmed that the combination will not be made available because of challenges posed by the structure and design of the proposed card.

In 2007, [the GOCard Office and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority began to discuss plans to make available GOCards with a SmarTrip chips imbedded for faculty and students](https://www.thehoya.com/news/university-to-offer-gocards-with-smartrip/).

The plan was delayed several times, however, as the GOCard Office and WMATA struggled to set a price and select a name for the card.

[The problem that ultimately halted the plans was the durability of the cards](https://www.thehoya.com/news/gocard-smarttrip-deal-hits-roadblock/). Roman Fahrmann, director of GOCard Services, said that the SmartTrip-equipped GOCards made were not durable enough.

“Unfortunately, the failure rate on the Metro cards [SmarTrip-equipped GOCards] was about 50 percent,” Fahrmann said. “Metro worked with our suppliers but were not able to provide a better product.”

The sample cards provided were blank SmarTrip Cards on which GOCard information could be added. These cards were not as durable as the GOCards currently used on campus.

Students would have had to pay an additional amount for the GOCard with SmarTrip. But the GOCard Office decided that the quality of the product was too poor.

“Since students needed to pay separately, we didn’t want to roll out a product that didn’t work for campus,” Fahrmann said.

WMATA representatives were not available for comment.”

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