Cubic Receives $8 Million Contract to Integrate Smart Card Technology Into Houston METRO's Fare Collection System.

Business Editors

SAN DIEGO & HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 11, 2002

Cubic Transportation Systems, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp. (AMEX:CUB), has received an $8 million contract to provide Houston METRO with a smart card-based fare collection system for the city's public buses.

The advanced system will integrate with the transit authority's current magnetic stripe ticketing technology, which Cubic provided in 1993. The upgrade will allow METRO to have greater flexibility in designing its fare media offerings. Riders will get the convenience that comes with smart cards.

"We are aware of Cubic's successful smart card implementations in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, and know that other U.S. transit agencies are rapidly turning to smart cards to decrease boarding times, offer innovative programs to customers and increase the data available for planning in order to better serve customer needs," said Shirley A. DeLibero, president and chief executive officer for Houston Metro. "This new partnership with Cubic will ensure that Houston METRO is a true technology leader with a state-of-the art fare collection system, and that Houston commuters are getting the kind of sophisticated service they deserve."

Cubic will upgrade Houston METRO's fareboxes with smart card processors and provide "Point of Sale" devices throughout the transit system to allow customers to purchase and reload their fare cards. The system's support network will be based on Cubic's Nextfare(TM) platform, an open, non-proprietary architecture that conforms to industry standards. This will allow Houston METRO to select from a variety of smart card types and seamlessly integrate with other transit authorities in the region into the future.

"This contract will affect every passenger and nearly every department of Houston METRO," said Walter C. Zable, president and CEO, Cubic Transportation Systems. "We are delighted that our experience with major projects of this nature, such as New York, Chicago, London, and Washington, D.C., has earned us the trust of Houston METRO for this project."

Smart card-based ticketing speeds up boarding times and gives transit authorities a way to offer customers innovative fare programs such as Autoload, which lets transit users link their smart cards to their credit cards for automatic reload of transit value into the system. In addition, one smart card may be used for public transportation as well as other government or private sector services and can accept many applications, such as banking, employee identification and building access.

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. Every year, nearly 10 billion rides are taken worldwide using Cubic-designed payment 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. In addition to the Houston initiative, Cubic over the past 10 months has received contracts to provide smart card-enabled ticketing technology to transit providers in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York and San Diego. 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. For more information about Cubic, see the company' Web site at www.cubic.com.