Cubic Transportation Systems Completes First Production, Fully Integrated Smart Card System For Transit in Germany.Business Editors SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2000 Cubic Transportation Systems, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp. (AMEX AMEX See: American Stock Exchange :CUB), has completed installation of Germany's first full-scale, fully integrated contactless smart card A smart card that uses radio frequencies to provide a wireless connection to the reader. The transmission range is only a couple of inches, but allows the card to be quickly passed by a reader in applications such as secured entrances. See smart card and UltraCard. fare collection system for mass transit. The system, which ties 11 independent bus operators to a single fare medium, has just gone into operation in Freiburg. The project was the result of a contract awarded to Cubic in March 1998 by SudbadenBus GmbH (SBG SBG Salzburg, Österreich (Salzburg, Austria) SBG Sociedade Brasileira de Genética (Portugese) SBG Südbadenbus GmbH (German) SBG Student Body Government SBG Server-Based Gaming ) of Freiburg to design, build and integrate contactless smart card fare collection technology for the region's complex bus system. Until remaining bus operators in the region are prepared to utilize contactless card technology, the Cubic system will support both magnetic and contactless card fare methods. Cubic's newest contactless ticketing application automatically processes payments, letting bus riders carry different types of "tickets" on a single card, and allowing payment by the German EC-Karte credit card. The backbone of the integration -- developed and engineered at Cubic's Denmark operation -- is a central computer system and network, which utilizes Cubic's new Windows NT-based software for regional bus operators. The system will improve bus company data bank management and help SBG plan lines, routes, and stops, as well as track customer marketing and lost and stolen card information. Cubic's contactless smart card fare system and new radio modem data transfer system, for which SBG recently won the 1999 German Innovation Award, utilizes radio signals to send important fare information from bus drivers' data terminals to central office computers. Cubic's latest-generation Mobile Fare Computer enables SBG to use the International Organization for Standardization International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Organization for determining standards in most technical and nontechnical fields. Founded in Geneva in 1947, its membership includes more than 100 countries. (ISO (1) See ISO speed. (2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI. )-compliant Type A contactless card platform. Several cities in Germany Complete list of 2,073 cities in Germany (as of September 1, 2005) Only municipalities with independent administration and that have the Stadtrecht (city rights) are included. have or plan to have transit smart card pilots. Freiburg represents the production implementation of contactless smart card technology. Cubic -- with systems in London, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Chicago, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney, among others -- is the world's largest supplier of integrated ticketing and automated fare collection systems for mass transit. SBG, a subsidiary of the German state railways Deutsche Bahn AG, oversees operation of a thousand buses that serve 35.5 million passengers each year. |
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