Metro News Release

For immediate release: January 4, 2005

Metro’s car sharing program expands

Metro has expanded its car sharing program at 11 more Metrorail stations and in doing so has added a second car sharing company to expand the scope of the program and serve more stations throughout the system. Metro’s car sharing program, which has included a relationship with Flexcar for the past two years, has added Zipcar and at the same time has exercised the third year option on Flexcar’s original contract. Zipcar is another car sharing company that operates in multiple cities and has established itself in the Washington region over the past few years.

Now Metro customers have easy access to rent automobiles by the hour from Flexcar or Zipcar at or near 66 of the 86 Metrorail stations.

"Over the past three years we have seen how car sharing complements the use of Metrorail and Metrobus," said Metro General Manager and CEO Richard A. White. "We are excited to be able to expand the program to include another car sharing company and to make it accessible to more of our customers throughout the region."

Under this new contract, Flexcar’s fleet will serve five new stations by the end of the month in addition to the 54 it already serves. Cars will be placed in the Kiss & Ride lots at the Dunn Loring-Merrifield, Largo Town Center, Medical Center, Morgan Boulevard and Rockville Metrorail stations. Zipcar will add cars to the Kiss & Ride lots at six stations in addition to the 29 it already serves with cars near Metro stations. These new stations are: Congress Heights, Rhode Island Ave, Twinbrook, Suitland, Franconia-Springfield and Eisenhower Ave. In addition to these six stations, Zipcar plans to place cars near nine more Metrorail stations by the end of the year, bringing the total number of stations served by Zipcar to 44.

The existing Flexcar vehicles are parked at Kiss & Ride locations at Shady Grove, White Flint, Grosvenor-Strathmore, Tenleytown-AU, Silver Spring, Takoma, Brookland-CUA, Greenbelt, College Park-U of Md, Prince George’s Plaza, West Hyattsville, Fort Totten, New Carrollton, Anacostia, Branch Ave, Vienna/Fairfax-GMU, West Falls Church-VT/UVA, East Falls Church, Braddock Road, King Street, Huntington, Capitol Heights and Wheaton Metrorail stations. There are also Flexcar vehicles parked near 31 other stations and Zipcar vehicles parked near 29 other stations that do not have Kiss & Ride areas.

The placement of car sharing vehicles at the 11 new stations not previously served brings to 44 the number of stations where a vehicle is available at a Metro Kiss & Ride lot. This leaves only 10 stations with Kiss & Ride lots that do not yet have car sharing vehicles.

In addition, between the two companies, there are vehicles near 32 of the remaining 42 stations that do not have Kiss & Ride facilities. Exact locations of the vehicles in the Kiss & Ride lots and in locations near Metro stations can be found at www.flexcar.com/washingtondc/locations.asp and www.zipcar.com/find-cars/.

The car sharing program is operated by Flexcar and Zipcar, not Metro. Customers who would like more detailed information on the car sharing program, can contact Flexcar at (202) 296-1FLX or visit www.flexcar.com or Zipcar at 202-737-4900 or visit www.zipcar.com.

News release issued on January 4, 2005.