Something doesn't make sense here. DC Metro's card is made[1] by Cubic Corp[2] which is not in bankruptcy. The general idea of avoiding vendor lock-in is a pretty big deal and the board member's comment in the linked article was right: "And so that we're not just funneling money to people who are real good at intellectual property, but aren't really selling us anything, except a tether to them"
If they really were in bankruptcy it would probably be easy for the DC Metro to buy the technology for pennies and (hopefully) open-source it.
The Wash Post article listed below only states that the vendor has discontinued the card - so it's still a vendor lock-in problem. The bankruptcy mention must have been a red herring.
If they really were in bankruptcy it would probably be easy for the DC Metro to buy the technology for pennies and (hopefully) open-source it.
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmarTrip
2 http://www.google.com/finance?q=cub