Cubic Transportation Systems Awarded $30.8 Million Contract To Build New BART Fare Collection System.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 1999--Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. (CTS) has been awarded a $30.8 million contract by the Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority (BART) to build and install an automatic fare collection (AFC) system.

With exercise of options, the total value of the contract could reach $45.5 million.

CTS is a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp. (AMEX:CUB).

The contract includes upgrading the existing automated revenue collection operations and adding new equipment for the San Francisco Airport extension, an effort that will pave the way for a future smart card-based ticketing system.

In addition to new equipment for the stations on the airport extension, the first phase of the contract calls for the replacement of ticket-vending machines in 34 of the 39 stations currently operated by BART throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Cubic's ticketing devices feature an array of easy-to-use, passenger-friendly features.

The contract's first phase also requires replacement of faregates at several stations. If exercised, options to the contract could lead to systemwide replacement of existing faregates that now serve the 25-year-old system. Further responding to BART and passenger concerns, there is an additional option to provide more equipment systemwide which, if exercised, will lead to more efficient passenger processing.

"This contract demonstrates the commitment that BART's management has made to its riders -- to provide a more convenient and technologically improved system for fare collection," said Walter J. Zable, Cubic chairman and chief executive officer. "It also lays the groundwork for the transition to a smart card-based system which is the technology path for the 21st century."

While the modular equipment is designed to support the magnetic-stripe fare media now in use by BART, contactless smart card readers also will be built so that BART will be "smart card ready." This design specification will provide for BART's future integration of contactless smart cards, supporting the transit authority's transition to a more flexible AFC system. In addition to greater data storage capability, smart cards speed passenger throughput and make it easier for passengers to handle fares because their contactless feature eliminates the need to be inserted or swiped by a ticket transport device in order to be read.

Work on the BART contract will begin immediately, with the design work to be performed by Cubic at its engineering facilities in San Diego. Manufacturing will be done at company's facilities in Tullahoma, Tenn., with installation at BART expected to begin in 2001.

Cubic Transportation Systems Group has installed turnkey automated fare collection systems in major cities throughout the world, including London, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, Sydney and Singapore. Cubic also installed the first generation of AFC equipment in the BART system, some of which is still in operation today.

Cubic customers use smart card technology in several existing systems, including the Metro system in Washington, D.C., the Lantau Airport Railway in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur's PUTRA system, the rail and bus systems run by the Chicago Transit Authority, and the bus system operated by PACE, a Chicago regional system.