Cubic Sues to Block Release of Records by LA Metro Related to Sole-Source Contract
Cubic Transportation Systems has gone to court to block Los Angeles Metro from releasing documents that are part of a $66.4 million no-bid contract upgrade Cubic won last year. The pending release stemmed mainly from a California Public Records Act request submitted by Mobility Payments.
In its lawsuit, which Cubic filed in California Superior Court Tuesday, the vendor argues that its pricing and other information it considers confidential and proprietary should be exempt from disclosure under the public-records law, largely because they are trade secrets. (Download the lawsuit petition below.)
In-Depth: Cubic Gets Must-Win Contract in Philadelphia, Beating Accenture on Price; Incumbent Conduent Sent Packing
Cubic Transportation Systems, as expected, won a major fare-system contract from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in Philadelphia, with the SEPTA board approving a $211 million deal Thursday.
It was considered a must-win contract for Cubic, which has been seeking to turn around its fortunes after failing to win a major competitive contract for more than 18 months.
Tip Sheet: Cubic Contract Award Back on Agenda for SEPTA Board Meeting in Philadelphia
The proposed award of a $211 million fare-system contract for Cubic Transportation Systems is back on the agenda for a board meeting of Philadelphia transit agency SEPTA scheduled for next week, where the award is expected to gain approval.
As Mobility Payments reported last month, SEPTA had abruptly pulled a similar agenda item a few days before the board’s regular December meeting, with an agency spokesman telling Mobility Payments only that “discussions about the proposal will continue between board members and SEPTA staff.”
Special Report: Japan Sees Movement on Open Loop, but Rollout is Fragmented and Largest Operator Continues to Balk
Japan has been perhaps the most notable holdout among developed countries in resisting the move to open-loop fare payments.
There are some signs that this is beginning to change, however. Three major subway operators plan to at least trial open-loop payments soon or have already started.
Dutch Transport Agencies Set New Date for Turning Off 20-year-Old Closed-Loop Card Program–in Two Years; Will They Make It?
Transport agencies in the Netherlands, the first country of any size to accept open-loop fare payments nationally, are having a more difficult time with a complementary piece of their new system–shutting down their 20-year-old closed-loop OV-chipcard.
The group of Dutch transport agencies coordinating both the open- and closed-loop rollouts recently said it expects to finish the migration of a new “OV-pas” closed-loop card by the end of 2026. That means all bus, tram, metro and ferry operators in the country would stop accepting the aging but still popular OV-chipcard (OV-chipkaart in Dutch) by Jan. 1, 2027.
Special Report: Masabi and Cubic Seek to Sign Up Transit Agencies in North America with Group Contracts; In-Depth Look at NEORide Deal
The largest group fare contract of its kind in the U.S. will become at least a little bit bigger in 2025, when the NEORide council of governments says it will add five to six more transit agencies to the 15 agencies now live with its EZfare ticketing service across four states, Mobility Payments has learned.
NEORide’s ticketing vendor, UK-based Masabi, and its chief rival for software-as-a-service ticketing projects in North America, Cubic Transportation Systems and its Umo platform, are promoting the idea of regional fare projects.
To be sure, regional and nationwide fare-system procurements have been a growing trend for years globally, including those in Ireland, New Zealand and the Netherlands. These are mainly system integrator-led projects, however. In car-dominant North America, the early regional projects are using SaaS platforms and are targeting smaller transit agencies.
Littlepay Beat Out Cubic for Unexpected Contract Win with Major U.S. Agency; Now the Small Australia-Based Vendor Must Deliver
Transit agencies in the U.S. and beyond will be watching to see whether a recent gambit by major agency Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to hire small Australia-based payments service provider Littlepay over its large incumbent supplier, Cubic Transportation Systems, pays off.
WMATA made the unexpected move, as Mobility Payments reported earlier this month, to award an important contract to Littlepay to carry out the agency’s “Open-Payment Overlay” project. The overlay–one of the few projects of its kind globally–seeks to add open-loop acceptance on top of the agency’s existing network of closed-loop terminals quickly and cheaply.
It means that WMATA will have to continue to maintain a completely separate legacy closed-loop system, likely for years to come, using older card-based ticketing technology.
Washington, D.C., Transit Agency Chooses Littlepay over Incumbent Cubic for Open-Loop Upgrade
The Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, has selected small payments service provider Littlepay to roll out its “open-payment overlay project, Mobility Payments has learned.
It’s a surprising choice for the low-cost but much-watched contract, given that the winning vendor was short-listed with the much-larger incumbent, Cubic Transportation Systems. WMATA is looking for a
U.S. Agency Releases First Details about Reasons for ‘Emergency Procurement’ to Replace Fare System; is It Enough?
Texas transit agency Capital Metro said 1.25 million fare transactions went unprocessed during a 30-day period last spring by its incumbent vendor, Siemens Mobility, according to the agency in a newly released document that seeks to justify the “emergency purchase” of a new fare system directly from Cubic Transportation Systems.
The document (download below), obtained by Mobility Payments, is the first explanation made public on the reasons for the fast-track procurement last summer.
Australia: Cubic Notches Contract in Tasmania by ‘Leveraging’ Its Larger Queensland Project in ‘Platform-as-a-Service’ Play
Seeking “big city” features for its fare system, the small Australian state of Tasmania has decided to plug into the back office of a much larger fare system that is under development by Cubic Transportation Systems in the state of Queensland.
The unusual move means Tasmania will get a long-delayed upgrade to a fare system that will serve