Cubic Wins Contract to Link Maryland Buses to Washington Metro's SmarTrip Fare System.Business Editors SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2001 Cubic Transportation Systems, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp. (AMEX AMEX See: American Stock Exchange :CUB), has won a $21.9 million contract to provide Maryland's buses with a new fare system compatible with the Washington Metro's popular SmarTrip(R) card. Under the contract, older Cubic bus fare Noun 1. bus fare - the fare charged for riding a bus or streetcar carfare fare, transportation - the sum charged for riding in a public conveyance collection boxes will be replaced with a system that allows riders to use coins, currency, magnetic tickets and the Washington Metropolitan Area The Washington Metropolitan Area, formally known as the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA is a U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as of November 2004. (WMATA WMATA Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ) SmarTrip 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. . The Maryland Mass Transit mass transit, public transportation systems designed to move large numbers of passengers. Types and Advantages Mass transit refers to municipal or regional public shared transportation, such as buses, streetcars, and ferries, open to all on a Administration (MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. ) has named Cubic the prime contractor for the new automatic fare collection program. The system will eventually link payment for 850 Baltimore region buses and 107 over the road vehicles serving suburban Maryland commuters to the WMATA system. The MTA contract also provides the agency's subway system with entry gate upgrades. The gates will have new magnetic card "swipe" readers so that they are also linked with the new bus payment system. WMATA recently announced a new contract with Cubic that will link Metro buses to its rail payment program, creating the country's first regional interstate multi-modal public transit fare collection system. With the MTA contract with Cubic, the regional system also will be the first smart card to serve more than one transit agency. "To reach our goal of doubling ridership by 2020, we must make it more convenient for people to use transit," said Maryland's Governor Parris N. Glendening. "The Smart Card system will allow customers to quickly pay their fares without fumbling for change or worrying about the exact fare. The cards are now accepted on the Metrorail system in the Washington region where they receive excellent reviews from the public. It is time to expand this convenience to other transit customers around the state." Cubic was the architect of the two-year-old SmarTrip system, the nation's first mass transit smart card fare collection program. WMATA has issued 160,000 smart cards Example of widely used contactless smart cards are Hong Kong's Octopus card, Paris' Calypso/Navigo card and Lisbon' LisboaViva card, which predate the ISO/IEC 14443 standard. The following tables list smart cards used for public transportation and other electronic purse applications. to commuters who have become accustomed to touching a card to the high tech card readers to enter the subway without removing their cards from their wallets or purses. In addition, Cubic helped WMATA implement SmartBenefits, a program that allows participating federal and private sector employees to receive transit benefits directly on their SmarTrip cards. Under the new contract, Maryland buses will utilize Cubic's Tri-Reader(R) technology. Tri-Reader is one of Cubic's Nextfare(TM) Solution Suite advanced smart card tools, developed to plug into new and existing mass transit systems. This technology can provide an open architecture which provides the flexibility to use cards from a variety of suppliers. Cubic Transportation Systems is the world's largest supplier of total revenue services, including integrated ticketing and automated fare collection systems for mass transit that utilize a magnetic ticketing-based system to support the future addition of smart card systems as transit agencies expand their fare collection services. On an annual basis, at least 10 billion people pay for their mass transit rides using Cubic-designed payment systems in more than 40 markets on five continents, including London, Washington D.C., Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. , Chicago, 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 , Guangzhou and Shanghai, China, Atlanta, San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , Sydney, Australia, Singapore and Miami, among other major installations. Cubic's magnetic ticketing technology is the foundation for many of the world's largest fare collection systems, including New York, London and Sydney, Australia. Cubic also pioneered contactless fare collection for mass transit more than 10 years ago. Since then, the company has integrated various smart card technologies in Europe, Asia and North America. In addition to the SmarTrip program, which made contactless payment available in August to Chicago's full-fare bus and rail passengers and suburban bus customers. Cubic's Defense Group provides instrumented training systems for military forces, data links, avionics systems, product logistical support, battle command training, radio communications systems, and field service operation and maintenance. |
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