The Bay Area-based Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC) surpassed one million active "Clipper" cards in circulation just 18 months after rebranding the card from TransLink to Clipper, making the contactless smart card fare collection system one of the fastest growing in the U.S. transit industry. Cubic Transportation Systems, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp., delivered and operates the Clipper system.

Clipper is a regional fare collection system that utilizes the Clipper smart card for customers to add value to and pay their fares with one card on any of the regional services now linked via the Clipper system. Participating operators include the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, San Francisco Muni, AC Transit, CalTrain, SamTrans, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the Golden Gate Bus and Ferry system.

MTC credited the increasing number of participating transit operators as well as their collective customer education efforts for driving the growth, up 142% from the prior year.

In 2009, Cubic took over the contract for the original TransLink regional fare collection system, and in less than a year, helped MTC launch the new Clipper system. Cubic operates the customer call center, Clipper Card fulfillment and distribution, technical help desk, the retail merchant network, and the transit benefits system for employer/employee management of transit subsidies.