Cubic Reaches Major Milestone on Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority --WMATA-- Smart Card Contract
Factory Tests for SmarTrip Bus Integration Completed
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 15, 2002--Cubic Transportation Systems Inc., a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp.(AMEX:CUB - News), today announced it has successfully completed factory tests of its smart card automatic fare collection system for buses operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
"The successful results of this initial testing mean that WMATA is now officially one huge step closer to having the nation's first 'smart' interstate, intermodal, mass transit fare collection system," said Richard Johnson, chief operating officer of Cubic Transportation Systems.
This is a major milestone on a contract Cubic received from WMATA in January of last year to extend its smart card automatic fare collection system -- known as SmarTrip® -- to all WMATA buses. The new regional program will link payment for WMATA buses serving Washington DC, and parts of Maryland and Virginia with the Metro's existing SmarTrip® system. SmarTrip® conveniently links rail travel, parking operations, employer transit benefits, and soon, buses, to a single fare medium.
The equipment that was tested included fareboxes -- manufactured by Cubic's partner in this enterprise, General Farebox Inc. (GFI) -- which have been integrated with Cubic's Nextfare(TM) terminal architecture computer hardware and software to support any future fare collection equipment design upgrades. This advanced technology being delivered under this contract provides an environment that can be easily upgraded to support multiple contactless smart card technologies and applications. The bus fare collection system being implemented by Cubic will be fully interoperable with the current smart card technology that Cubic developed and installed in WMATA's subway and parking systems.
"The completion of this phase is a significant step on this contract," said John Satterfield, vice president of business development for Cubic Transportation Systems.
"Having successfully completed the testing, we are now gearing up for the next phase, which is introduction of revenue service on WMATA buses."
He added, "Cubic and GFI have worked together very successfully. By integrating Cubic's smart card technology and data management system into the GFI bill and coin fareboxes, we have created a superior, state-of-the-art automatic fare collection system for buses."
Cubic and GFI are teaming up again to provide a similar solution for buses in Los Angeles County as part of an $84 million contract Cubic received from Los Angeles County MTA in the spring to develop a multimodal smart card ticketing system for that region.
Washington, D.C. made history as the first U.S. city to deploy a contactless smart card system-wide for its mass transit system. Based on the Cubic-developed GO CARD® System, the SmarTrip® card has gained widespread acceptance in the Washington, D.C. area, particularly in the past year. Recently, WMATA announced it signed up its 250,000th SmarTrip® customer. WMATA is adding an average of 3,000 new SmarTrip® customers each week. The cards are multi-modal, meaning they're usable across all WMATA trains, park-and-ride facilities and now, buses. Cubic technology has also allowed Metro riders who are eligible for monthly employee transit benefits to become the nation's first smart card users to receive their benefits -- called Smart Benefits -- electronically.
Cubic Transportation Systems is the world's largest provider of integrated electronic ticketing systems and has smart card contracts for public transit systems in North America, Europe and Asia. Recently, the company added a security group to expand its transit and parking system smart card technology for other uses, such as corporate campus, security and access control.
Every year, nearly 10 billion people use Cubic systems in more than 40 major markets in cities on five continents, including London, Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, Chicago, New York, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Atlanta, San Francisco, Singapore and Miami. As part of the TranSys consortium, Cubic also is supplying the entire automated fare collection system including smart cards for the London PRESTIGE project.
The corporation's other major segment, Cubic Defense Applications, provides instrumented air and ground combat training systems, battle command training, simulations and simulation support for U.S. and allied military forces. The group also produces high technology avionics, data links and communications products for government and commercial customers, and a wide range of technical and logistics services.
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