Thales builds presence in North American market with secure ticketing system for Greater Toronto Area (GTA) bus and commuter rail networks Brétigny-sur-Orge

Neuilly-sur-Seine Cedex, France – Thales 2006-12-11 announced it has been named the subcontractor to supply the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) transit network with an integrated secure ticketing system. A ten-year contract, awarded to Accenture, for the design, production, installation, support and administration of the system will involve nine transit agencies with a total of approximately 2,000 vehicles, including bus, subway and rail. The total value for the fixed contract is CAD 250 million including sales taxes (€ 175 million). This contract win is a strategic step for Thales in the North American transit market.

The GTA Fare System will make travel across the GTA easier by using smart card technology to replace tickets, tokens or passes. The convenience of a seamless transit system will give people the incentive to leave their cars at home. Riders will be able to load their fare card with value at wickets, select retail outlets, via pre-authorized payments, by telephone or Internet. As a passenger boards a public transportation vehicle, the card is placed in front of an electronic reader, which scans the card to calculate the fare and deduct it from the card balance. When the system is fully operational, it will accommodate passengers traveling across GTA transit systems from Hamilton to Durham.

As subcontractor to Accenture, Thales will provide all on-vehicle smart card processing systems and back office systems to the GTA’s eight municipal service providers and to GO Transit. Thales and Accenture will jointly implement a key component of the GTA Fare System, the Integrated Fare Collection System. This system enables the acquisition of transactions from farecards and front-end equipment and the daily apportionment and distribution of funds across the GTA’s service providers and participating third-party agencies. The GTA fare system will be introduced on a limited basis in mid-2007 and will be fully implemented by 2010 at eight transit agencies and five TTC subway stations.

“Thales is building its presence in North America, which is an important market for the company,” said Jean Louis Olié, managing director of Thales’s transportation systems activities. “We are confident that our extensive experience in providing fare collection solutions worldwide and our close partnership with Accenture will prove successful once again in delivering a secure ticketing system to the GTA.”

Thales’s smart card solutions and associated back-office systems are now present in major cities throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America.”

About Thales
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide, supported by a comprehensive services offering. The group’s civil and military businesses develop in parallel to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. Leveraging a global network of high-level researchers, Thales offers a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy critical information systems. Thales employs 60,000 people in 50 countries and generated revenues of € 10.3 billion in 2005, with a record order book of over € 20 billion.

The Transport & Energy activity of Thales www.thalesgroup.com/transport integrates secure systems for public transport and energy activities like integrated fare collection, train supervision and control, road toll collection, traffic and fleet management, public parking systems, telematics and geolocalisation solutions.