Giesecke & Devrient lands new MBTA contract

Giesecke & Devrient said today the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has awarded it a new contract for the T's CharlieCard program.

This is an exclusive multiyear contract for delivery of five million contactless smart cards to MBTA in the next three years, said G&D, a technology company that has US offices in Virginia.

As G&D noted, the CharlieCard is a contactless smart card for electronic ticketing that is used in MBTA's Automatic Fare Collection system; the MBTA introduced the CharlieCard for revenue service in December 2006 and over two million cards were distributed in the first year.

G&D said it had completed the first major milestone of the new contract, production and delivery of 500,000 printed and encoded smart cards, ahead of schedule in December 2007.

Under the base contract, G&D said it is delivering an additional 1.5 million cards in 2008 and approximately five million cards over the next three years.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)