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Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. recently was awarded a $12 million contract to upgrade Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) smart card-based fare-collection regional central computing system.

The upgrades would support new customer service initiatives or the SmarTrip® card system, enabling passengers to purchase and reload their smart cards.

WMATA also provided Cubic a $2.4 million option to upgrade the rail system’s software. Under a 10-year, multi-phased contract, Cubic would deliver nearly $190 million in systems software and infrastructure for a smart-card system linking rail, bus and parking services in the Washington, D.C., area. The upgrades would interface with the regional fare-collection system’s customer-service center, scheduled to begin operation in summer 2004, according to a prepared statement.

The software will support the agency’s Autoload, Smart Benefits, Regional Transit Benefits and Fairest Fare programs.

Autoload will enable SmarTrip cardholders to automatically and electronically collect stored value or purchase new fare products when their cards are presented at gates, fare boxes, ticket vending machines and station management systems. Smart Benefits uses the Autoload distribution feature to electronically deliver employer-subsidized transit benefits to the smart cards. Fairest Fare will determine the best fare product for a given time period.