Metro News Release

For immediate release: December 10, 2003

Metro testing web site in six languages

Translation test to run through May

Metro is opening doors to non-English speakers by offering a new translation service that allows visitors to its web site to read translations of all pages, except PDF files, in Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, German, and Korean. Metro’s web site, www.metroopensdoors.com, sees an average of 3.3 million people log onto the site each month. During the six-month test period that will run through May 2004, Metro will offer web surveys on the site to test customer satisfaction with the service. " We operate mass transit in the nation’s capital, a city that hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. This new service makes sense because it will help these visitors travel efficiently through our region via Metrorail and Metrobus," said Leona Agouridis, Metro’s Assistant General Manager for Communications. To get Metro’s home page in any one of the six languages offered, the user only has to click on the flag representing the language. The page will automatically be translated by software on the site rather than by human translators. " Metro is using this " machine translation" because it is the only practical and timely way to offer translated pages in multiple languages of all of the site’s approximately 1,500 html pages," explained Syd Garriss, Metro’s Manager of Communications Media, which includes Metro’s Web site. " Machine translation also eliminates the inherent and unacceptable delays in having text manually translated. " With machine translation, new or revised text is translated immediately on request. The instant translation is critical for communicating service disruptions, detours, severe weather advisories and other fast-changing information," he added. Once the six-month test is complete, more languages will be added if the test proves successful. The specific languages to be added will depend on the availability from the vendor, cost, and customer demand. Machine translation has limitations and the software sometimes produces awkward translations. The purpose of the test is to determine whether the translation quality is sufficient for customers to get the meaning of the content.

News release issued on December 10, 2003.