Cubic to Deliver Its First Web-Based Ticketing and Customer Service Application to San Diego Transit.

Business Editors

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2002

San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems, a subsidiary of Cubic Corp. (AMEX:CUB), will deliver its first Web-based transit ticketing and customer service function as part of its recently announced contract with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) and the North County Transit District (NCTD).

The application, Nextfare Web Services, will allow transit consumers to purchase smart cards, transit passes, rides and stored value as well as conduct customer service functions, such as lost card reporting and administering automated transit benefit programs, at any time and from any location with Internet access. Nextfare Business Management Systems is a suite of backend administrative and revenue management software.

"By securely extending the Nextfare Business Management System out to the Internet, we are able to offer transit agencies another means to solve their vending, distribution, customer service and reporting needs, while fully integrating with their automatic fare collection system," said David deKozan, Cubic's vice president of strategic marketing.

Web Services efficiently distributes Internet purchases by electronically delivering the fare product or value to the smart card when a patron presents his or her card to the reader at the gate, vendor, farebox or validator. This functionality is made possible by Cubic's Nextfare terminal architecture, which creates an Internet Protocol addressable PC environment at each fare processing point, whether at the station or on the bus. This electronic delivery feature reduces administration and fulfillment costs for the transit agency and gives transit consumers the convenience of making purchases in near real-time.

Off-premises and off-vehicle purchasing gives transit consumers a convenient alternative to standing in line at ticket vending machines or booking offices. It reduces the life cycle costs of fare equipment and improves customer throughput and on-time schedules for the transit agencies.

"It's about customer service. Public transportation has to be on time, reliable and easy to use. Cubic's Web Services will help take transit service to the next level. And the same user-friendly Web interface will be used by both transit consumers and transit agencies' customer service representatives to securely conduct transactions and make queries to the central system on behalf of consumers calling the agency's call center," deKozan said.

Because Web Services is fully integrated with the Nextfare Business Management System, it can tie together multiple transit agencies, parking operators, venues and other third parties to support a regional smart card program.

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 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.

Recently, Cubic added a security group to expand its smart card technology into non-transit uses including parking, security, and access control. For more information about Cubic, see the company's Web site at www.cubic.com.