Understanding the Washington DC Metro Ticket Machines

• Buy a SmartTrip card.

• When you arrive at the kiosk, wave your SmartTrip card across the white circular reader on the kiosk. The kiosk will show you your balance.

• Add additional funds. (You can check your station destination to get
  an exact amount.) The kiosk will remind you wave your card across
  the reader to complete the transaction.

• Use the card to open the gates to enter the system. Remember to
  keep your card to exit. It will display your balance as you enter and
  leave the system.

How do I purchase a ticket for either a single trip or multiple trips?

Follow the steps highlighted with the big orange numbers.

Step 1: Select Purchase

The simplest option is to choose the farecard option here: that gives you a ticket with X dollars on it (which you specify in the next step). You use that ticket when entering and exiting a station, and the cost of that trip is deducted from your farecard.

You can use the listed fares to figure out how much your trip will cost, or you can use the online trip planner ahead of time. I usually just put 10 bucks on it (you can trade in old farecards the next time you buy a new one).

Once you’ve decided how much you want to put on your farecard, use the up and down arrows to choose the dollar and cent amount you want. When the screen shows the correct amount, press the “done” button (I think it’s the C button), and proceed to step two.

Or if you know you’ll be using the metro a lot while you’re here, you can purchase a pass, either the one day pass for $14.50 or the 7-day pass for $59.25. Passes give you unlimited trips, so if you’ll spend more than $14.50 on farecards, you should probably choose a pass instead.

Step 2: Insert Payment

Once you’ve chosen what you want to purchase, you have to pay for it- either trade in old cards, or insert cash, or swipe your credit card.

Step 3: Take Pass/Farecard

Your pass or farecard will print out, just grab it from the machine.

Alternatively, you might consider just taking a taxi or an Uber.

You’re not alone. Aside from the addition of a swipe card reader and of the SmarTrip pad over the years, the user interface of WMATA’s farecard vending machines is definitely atrocious, especially for a city and system that sees such a large number of tourists. The situation has been made even worse because of the addition of the $1 surcharge for paper farecards (and the deeply unpopular experiment with “peak of the peak” surcharges). The software is more than 20 years old and has had security problems as well.

DC Metrorail fares vary by distance and time of day; there is no such thing as a “single trip” or “multiple trip” farecard. Whether using the WMATA SmarTrip card, Baltimore Charm Card, or a paper farecard, you’re simply adding cash value to the card, which gets deducted electronically when you exit the platform at your destination. Don’t think of the farecard as holding a certain number of trips, as it would for instance in the New York City Subway.

At the stationmaster kiosk you’ll find a table that gives you the regular (rush hour) vs. off-peak fares for every possible destination from the station. (The list at the top of the machine is for paper farecards, and includes a $1 surcharge). Let us suppose, for simplicity, that you are traveling on a weekday morning from Virginia Square to McPherson Square for a breakfast meeting, departing at 7:00am and returning at 9:00am. The fare during those hours is $2.50 each way. You have a SmarTrip card with $0 stored value.

When you tap your card onto the pad in front, it will ask you how much value you want to add, with a default of $20. This is what the “add value” and “deduct value” labels refer to. If you only want to add $5 to the card, press the down buttons until the value on the display reads $5. If, on the other hand, you want to add $50, press the up buttons until the display reads $50.

Then, when ready to pay, insert the required funds, whether by credit/debit card or by adding cash bills or coins.

The 1996 Washington Post guide offers a screen-by-screen guide, but it predates SmarTrip, the elimination of paper farecards, and almost two decades’ of changes to the fare and pass structure. I could not find anything better.

There is a helpful site from Washington DC Metropolitan Transit Authority dealing specifically with the subject at hand.

Included on that page is the FAQ and a Video.