Metro: Power outage caused fare machine problems

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Metro says a power outage is to blame for a problem that kept riders from using credit and debit cards at fare machines for hours.

Metro said in a statement Tuesday morning that Monday's problem was traced to an outage that affected equipment that processes debit and credit cards. The transit agency stresses that customer information was not compromised and the equipment failure "did not result in the loss of data."

On Monday morning, Metro tweeted that some fare machines were not accepting credit cards. Later, Metro advised customers to use cash, saying machines couldn't accept debit cards, and could only process credit cards transactions smaller than $20.

Eventually, Metro said the problem prevented debit and credit transactions at machines and online, but it was resolved by the evening rush.