Cubic awarded WMATA SmarTrip® contract
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has awarded an $8 million contract to Cubic Transportation Systems to convert its existing paper magnetic farecard vending machines to sales and reload devices for SmarTrip®, the contactless smartcard for the Washington Metro.
The project is part of WMATA’s plan to eliminate paper ticketing from its fare system and convert to all-contactless media by spring 2016.
Cubic will upgrade more than 500 machines with hardware kits including smartcard readers and related software on all Metrorail lines, including the Silver Line to Dulles Airport that opened on July 26. Cubic also produced and installed the fare collection system to the new line under a separate contract.
Cubic has been involved with WMATA’s fare collection since the Metrorail system opened. The company delivered the original magnetics-based system in use since the early 1970s, and designed and delivered the SmarTrip® system that debuted in 1999.
“We’re pleased to be part of WMATA’s transition to a paperless system, as well as having been so involved throughout the agency’s entire fare collection history,” said Cubic Transportation Systems, Americas Senior Vice President and General Manager Matt Newsome. “Cubic brought contactless technology to the region—in fact, it was the first contactless system for transit in the U.S. WMATA set the standard that other agencies followed.”
