Mobile SmarTrip

[Anonymous]

OK I have not been on the Metro since pre-COVID and am going to be taking it for the first time today with some out of town guests. I see now that you can have a SmartTrip on your mobile device. Is the mobile card like the plastic card such that you cannot swipe the card twice to enter a station? In other words, if I want to pay for myself and my guest, do we simply need to have my guest download a SmarTrip on her mobile phone as well and use it separately? Or can I use my card to get us both in?

Separately, can you have more than one SmartTrip on your phone? My friend has kids older than 5 -- can she buy three cards and just put them all on her phone?

[Anonymous]

I think you can have multiple SmarTrips on your phone, but it might be a bit of a hassle to switch between them and tap/retap.

You can't tap more than one passenger in for a trip at a time, though -- because the fares vary depending on the specific trip (time/distance), it needs to track each entry separately, same as with the cards.

It's pretty easy for your guests to just download the app and get a card on their phone, but if you want to pay for their fares, you might have to buy additional cards for your own phone's app instead.