WASHINGTON — Trying to cut costs in a tough economy, Amtrak this week inked a seven-year, $229 billion contract for IT services with IBM that it says will also cut $85 million in operational costs over the life of the deal, reports Internet Week.
Amtrak has been hit hard—it recently asked Congress for $1.2 billion to maintain its current level of rail service. The new IBM deal will focus on cutting costs to help it get through this tough time.
This week’s deal, with IBM Global Services, focuses on business recovery services, help desk, and desktop support and management of Amtrak’s voice and data networks. IBM will operate Amtrak’s three reservation networks in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Riverside, Calif. It will also run its reservation system, dubbed Arrow, as well as its corporate data center.
Amtrak’s Arrow reservation system processes as many as 3,300 transactions per minute via the Web, telephone, and ticket counters. IBM and Amtrak also plan to market the Arrow system to other transportation companies.