Highlights

MyBiz: Ensure You are Counted!

Defense Civilian Personnel Data System Portal

Navy Annex Demolition

Pentagon Building Circular

Furlough Information

Home > MTBP > Instructionsforreceivingelectronicfaremedia

Instructions for Receiving Electronic Fare Media

If you enrolled and submitted a claim, your benefits will be loaded directly to your card. To verify your SmartBenefits® status and your claim history, see your Participant Status. The claim history is at the bottom of the page.


Riders of vanpools, MARC, VRE, MTA commuter buses, Quick's Bus, and other modes of transit that do not have SmarTrip® card readers have an additional allocation step to move the benefits from their SmarTrip® cards to their transit vendor. See below for details.

CLAIM PROCESS

In the past, paper fare media was issued in person. You were required to wait in line, show someone your Common Access Card (CAC) and then sign a certification before you claimed your paper fare media. This is an internal control to ensure that you are still employed by DOD and are eligible to receive benefits.

Now, you will make a monthly claim electronically from your desk using your CAC. The process takes about 3 minutes to complete. You will receive email reminders during the claim period. Failure to submit a claim will result is skipping a month of benefits. Submit a claim.

The claim periods are as follows:

Claim Period Benefit Period
October 1-15 November
November 1-15 December
December 1-15 January
January 1-15 February
February 1-15 March
March 1-15 April
April 1-15 May
May 1-15 June
June 1-15 July
July 1-15 August
August 1-15 September
September 1-15 October

Benefit Delivery for Metro Rail, Metro Bus, DC Circulator, PRTC – Omni, ART, DASH, CUE Bus System, Fairfax Connector, TheBus, Loudoun Commuter Bus, Montgomery County Ride On and REX. (Transit Authorities with SmarTrip® targets/readers installed)

1. Submit a claim - this makes benefits available to your SmarTrip® card (you do this each month)

2. On the first workday of the benefits period, benefits will be applied directly to your SmarTrip® card the first time you tap your card to a Metro Rail faregate (entry turnstile) or bus SmarTrip® card target. (*)(**)

When you tap your card on the target for the first time during the benefit period, the transit benefit balance displayed on the screen at the Metro faregate or Bus farebox will be your full monthly benefit amount. As you ride during the month, you will be using your benefits as you commute on mass transit.

Metro allows your employer to separate benefits from personal funds on your card by providing separate "purses" on the card (see below for more information on purses). Your transit benefits are stored on a transit benefit purse on the card. Any personal funds you have on the card are still there, but in a separate personal stored value purse on your card.

*SmarTrip® card must have a history of use and a positive personal balance in order to load benefits. You do not need to spend personal funds to establish a history of use. You can tap your card on a “farecards and passes” machine along the walls of a Metro station at any point in the 3 weeks prior to benefits loading. After tapping your card, you will see your personal balance. Hit “press for cancel” and you are done.

**If a history is not established in the 3 weeks prior to benefits loading, benefits will still load, but they may take 3 to 5 days after first use to establish a history and start working.

Your SmarTrip® card has 2 electronic "purses:"

  1. Transit Benefit Purse
    • DoD assigns authorized mass transit benefit
    • Funds from this purse are used first when riding mass transit during the benefit period
    • View balance at faregate, bus farebox, or online
    • Unused benefits do not roll over to the next benefit period
    • Can NOT be used for parking
    • Can NOT be transferred to your personal stored value purse
    • Holds up to your certified commuting cost not to exceed the federal maximum of $245 per month
  2. Personal Stored Value Purse
    • Personal funds added at Metro farecard kiosks or online
    • View balance at the Metro farecard kiosks, parking target, or online
    • Will be used pay for parking at a Metro lot
    • Cannot be transferred to Transit Benefit Purse
    • Your personal funds do not expire and will remain on the card until used
    • Holds up to $300 of personal funds

Troubleshooting Checklist

  1. Verify that you submitted a claim and are using the same SmarTrip® card that you registered for benefits
    • Visit your Participant Status. The SmarTrip® card # being used for benefits is displayed and the claim history is at the bottom of the page.
  2. SmarTrip® card must have a history of use and a positive personal balance in order to load benefits. You do not need to spend personal funds to establish a history of use. You can tap your card on a “farecards and passes” machine along the walls of a Metro station at any point in the 3 weeks prior to benefits loading. After tapping your card, you will see your personal balance. Hit "press for cancel" and you are done.

**If a history is not established in the 3 weeks prior to benefits loading, benefits will still load, but they may take 3 to 5 days after first use to establish a history and start working.

Contact the MTBP Program office at 571-256-0962.

Further Troubleshooting

Tap your card on a "farecards and passes" machine along the walls of a Metro station

A. This Machine only displays your personal funds on the card. Verify that the personal balance is not negative. If the balance is negative, add funds to make it a positive balance.

Note: The dollar amount displayed at the Fare Cards and Passes machine reflects your PERSONAL purse funds only.

B. Walk over to the Metro entry faregate, tap your card and enter the station platform.

  • Note the dollar amount displayed on the entry faregate (this will display the benefit purse on your card)
  • Was the amount displayed at the faregate/turnstile different from your personal balance checked earlier at the farecards and passes machine?
    1. If yes, your benefits are working fine, you can exit the platform
    2. If no, your card is still pulling from the personal purse. The reason may be that your card has needs to establish a history of use on the Metro system

These steps should also work on a bus; however, we have had reports from riders of PRTC and Fairfax Connector that the benefits are not loading on their bus properly. Metro is working to get these issues resolved; the steps above will get the benefits onto your card and will work on the buses afterwards.

C. Tap your card to exit a station platform

***If you do not exit, your card will stop working and you will have to see a Metro station attendant to reset the card.

To have full visibility of both your transit benefit and personal balances on your SmarTrip® card, it is highly recommended that you establish a SmarTrip® Online Account with WMATA.

The MTBP program office does not have access to user names or passwords on this site. Questions regarding Metro SmarTrip® user accounts should be directed to WMATA.

Benefit Delivery for Vanpools, VRE, MARC, National Coach Works / Martz, Quick's Bus, Metro Access, Dillon's Bus, Keller Bus, Eyre Bus, and Amtrak.

These transit authorities accept SmartBenefits®, but do not have SmarTrip® card readers installed for direct use.

The allocation only needs to be set once. Any future claims you submit will continue be directed from your card to your assigned 3rd party vendor. Allocations must be set in the month prior to the benefit delivery. Benefits cannot be moved from the card to a 3rd party company within a current month. Allocations for MARC, VRE, Dillon's, Keller, and Eyre must be set up by the 15th of the month prior to benefit delivery.

Vanpool MARC VRE Martz Quick's
Dillon's Keller Eyre Metro Access Amtrak

Riders of VRE and MARC

  1. Submit a claim - this makes benefits available to your SmarTrip® card (you do this each month).
  2. Create an account with CommuterDirect.com to move your benefit, or a portion of your benefit from your card to Commuter Direct each month (you only do this step once). Deadline 15th of the month prior to benefit delivery.
  3. Select the light bulb icon “SmartBenefits®” and follow the on screen instructions.
  4. Receive your pass in the mail each month or arrange to pick it up at a commuter store location.

Contact: CommuterDirect.com 703-228-7433 or questions@CommuterDirect.com

Riders of Vanpools

  1. Submit a claim - this makes benefits available to your SmarTrip® card (you do this each month).
  2. Establish a passenger allocation account with Metro to move your benefit from your card to your vanpool provider each month   (you only do this step once).
    • WMATA Vanpool and Transit Services
    • Follow instructions for “Vanpool & Transit Services Passengers”
    • Ask your Vanpool provider for specific information to identify your Vanpool in the allocation
    • Benefits will be delivered directly to the Vanpool’s account on the first of the month

Contact: SmarTrip® Customer Service 888-762-7874 or smartrip@wmata.com

Riders of MTA Commuter Buses: Dillon's Bus, Keller Bus, Eyre Bus, Martz (Maryland based routes)

  1. Submit a claim - this makes benefits available to your SmarTrip® card (you do this each month).
  2. Create a SmartBenefits® Personal Account with CommuterDirect.com to move your benefit, or a portion of your benefit from your card to MTA Commuter Direct each month (you only do this step once).
    • Scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up using "SmartBenefits®". Follow the on screen instructions.
    • Deadline: 15th of the month prior to benefit delivery.
  3. Receive your pass in the mail each month or arrange to pick it up at a commuter store location.

Contact: MTA Web Store at 410-967-2212 or questions@CommuterDirect.com

Riders of Martz Group / National Coach (Virginia based routes)

  1. Submit a claim - this makes benefits available to your SmarTrip® card (you do this each month).
  2. Establish a passenger allocation account with Metro to move your benefit, or a portion of your benefit from your card to Martz Group/National Coach each month (you only do this step once).
    • NOTE: Riders of Martz routes departing from Maryland, such as Route 904 must follow the instructions for MTA Commuter Bus riders
  3. WMATA Vanpool and Transit Services
    • Follow instructions for “Vanpool & Transit Services Passengers”
    • Select "National Coach Works/Martz Bus" as your provider
    • Pick up your pass from the conductor on the first of every month

Contact: Martz Group 866-466-2789

Riders of Quick's Bus

  1. Submit a claim - this makes benefits available to your SmarTrip® card (you do this each month).
  2. Establish a passenger allocation account with Metro to move your benefit, or a portion of your benefit from your card to D&B Bus Inc./Quick's Commuter each month   (you only do this step once).
    • WMATA Vanpool and Transit Services
    • Follow instructions for “Vanpool & Transit Services Passengers”
    • Listed as D&B Bus Inc./Quick's Commuter
    • Pick up your pass from the conductor every month

Contact: Quick's Bus 800-786-4192

Riders of Metro Access

  1. Submit a claim - this makes benefits available to your SmarTrip® card (you do this each month).
  2. Read the SmartBenefits® Metro Access Customer Allocation Reference Guide.
  3. Set-up or log on to your SmartBenefits® Passenger Allocation Account.
  4. Manage your SmartBenefits® by utilizing MetroAccess EZ-Pay.

Riders of Amtrak

  1. Submit a claim - this makes benefits available to your SmarTrip® card (you do this each month)
  2. Contact the MTBP program office at 571-256-0962 or Transitpass@whs.mil

Questions?

Visit our FAQ
transitpass@whs.mil or 571-256-0962