METRO Q Card
Public transit smart card used in Houston, Texas
The METRO Q Card was a contactless smart card used to ride on public transportation in Greater Houston. It was developed by Affiliated Computer Services, and administered by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County. The card was used on METRO Bus, METRORail, and METROLift. The cards are based upon the MIFARE Classic 1K standard and are freely available but expire.
In December 2025, Metro introduced the new RideMETRO card, which functions the same way as the Q Card but gives out only a free local ride per 10 paid ones. It previously was five free per 50.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “METRO Q Card”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- METRO Q Card.jpeg by Unknown author, Fair use
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