Cubic Transportation Systems Completes First Production

9 March 2000

Cubic Transportation Systems Completes First Production, Fully Integrated Smart Card System For Transit in Germany

    SAN DIEGO--March 8, 2000--Cubic Transportation Systems, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp. (AMEX:CUB), has completed installation of Germany's first full-scale, fully integrated contactless smart card 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) 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 (ISO)-compliant Type A contactless card platform. Several cities in Germany 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, 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.