New York Transit Agency Awards IBM $65 Million IT Services Contract

IBM says it won a five-year, $65 million contract to manage IT services for New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority, the agency that operates regional subway, train, and bus lines, and manages bridges and tunnels linking the city's five boroughs.

Specifically, IBM Global Services will manage a data center that handles MTA's fare-collection system, one of the largest in the world. IBM also will manage the systems running other key back-end applications, including the massive database that tracks parts for subways, buses, and other equipment, as well as the applications that oversee crew schedules, procurement, contracts, and other tasks. IBM will establish a disaster-recovery site at a company facility outside New York City. IBM headquarters are located in Armonk, N.Y., a suburb north of the city.

MTA is the largest transportation network in North America, serving a region of 14.6 million people and covering 5,000 square miles, including New York City, Long Island, southeastern New York state, and Connecticut. The agency's subways, buses, and railroads collect 2.4 billion fares a year. That's about one in three mass-transit users and two-thirds of rail riders in the United States. Its bridges and tunnels carry nearly 300 million vehicles annually, the most of any bridge and tunnel authority in the nation.