Jamaica Highway2000 Expands Toll Collection System, Increases RFID Sticker Tag Use Worldwide

LONDON--Jamaica’s Highway 2000 expands toll collection infrastructure with opening of Portmore gateway, completing the first phase of a three-tiered project. Jamaican Infrastructure Operator, which operates the roadway for the TransJamaican Highway Ltd., increases order for TransCore radio frequency identification (RFID) eGo tags. The paper-thin windshield sticker tag, which operates at 902-928 MHz frequency band, expands global use providing an economical RFID tag technology that can increase patrons’ migration to wireless payment of tolls and speed traffic throughput.

The Jamaican Toll Roads Act, passed back in 2002, provided the charter for Highway 2000, a public-private partnership between the Government of Jamaica and the developer TransJamaican Highway Ltd. Just one year later in October of 2003 the first phase of Highway 2000 was opened, commonly known as the Old Harbour bypass and stretching for some 13 km from Bushy Park to Sandy Bay, and included Jamaica’s first toll plaza. They have now completed the last portion of Phase one, and one of the most essential, the Portmore Causeway (Portmore is a city with approx. 250,000 inhabitants), which links Portmore to Kingston, a vital economic gateway. The Portmore section of Highway 2000 includes 7 kilometres of highway, a six-lane bridge, and a 21-lane toll plaza.

The concept of a TransJamaican Highway was first considered over 40 years ago and revived in 1994 when it was determined that Jamaica needed to employ the Build-Operate-Transfer model. As a public-private sector initiative, a concept gaining favor around the world, Highway 2000 is 100 percent financed by the developer, TransJamaican Highway Ltd.

Toll roads have been a part of public transportation throughout the world for centuries, and in use in Jamaica since the 18th century as thoroughfares built on private estates. These roads were used to improve the movement of goods to markets or the wharves and were usually in better condition than the public roads, so many preferred to use the estate route. Estate owners set up a gate through which users paid a toll to get through as a means to pay for maintaining the road. Today, with the popularity of automobiles in the 21st century and transportation demands escalating, toll roads are again a means to build and maintain roads in Jamaica.

About The Family of eGo RFID Technology

TransCore’s eGo sticker tag is a 915 MHz radio frequency programmable, beam-powered, windshield-mounted sticker tag ideal for applications requiring low-cost and high performance. These paper-thin, non-battery tags are easily installed and are appropriate for electronic toll collection, airport access, airport ground transportation management, and security access.

The latest eGo technology is the eGo Plus sticker tag, which can support multiple protocols and make it effortless to migrate from mixed-tag population to a common tag. The high-speed tag has a read range up to 31.5 feet (9.6 meters) and 2048-bit read/write memory at a fraction of the cost for hard-case-battery tags. An additional benefit of the windshield sticker tag is that it adheres to the windshield as opposed to Velcro, reducing the vast majority of misreads and violations because of a customer inaccurately holding up or waving a tag. This benefit also reduces the operational and system demands to process violations, streamlining manpower and system needs.

Today, more than 2.7 million eGo and eGo Plus tags are in active service worldwide including Georgia, Texas, Washington, Puerto Rico, Shenzhen, China, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency.

About TransCore

TransCore is dedicated to driving inefficiencies out of surface transportation through innovation. With installations in 46 countries, more than 100 patents and pioneering applications of RFID, GPS and satellite communications technologies, TransCore's technical expertise is unparalleled in the markets it serves. TransCore's 60-year heritage spans the development of RFID transportation applications at Los Alamos National Labs to implementation of the nation's first electronic toll collection system. TransCore’s global experience with tolling systems includes more than 6,200 installed electronic toll collection lanes worldwide and 22 customer service centers. TransCore offers an extensive suite of enterprise software applications, business process outsourcing, system integration, and maintenance services to provide complete solutions, configurable to customers’ requirements.

TransCore operates as a unit of Roper Industries, a market-driven, diversified growth company with 2005 revenues of $1.5 billion, total capitalization of over $4 billion, and is a component of the S&P MidCap 400 and Russell 1000 Indexes. For more information, visit www.transcore.com.