ACS lands Houston transit system smart card deal

ACS lands Houston transit system smart card deal By William Welsh, Deputy EditorThe fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States is following the lead of other large cities here and abroad by deploying a smart card transit system that will be installed by Affiliated Computer Systems Inc. ACS of Dallas has won a $14 million contract from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County in Houston to implement a contactless ticketing system for the area's bus and light rail transportation network.Under the contract, ACS will provide equipment to support the technology on 1,300 buses and its light rail transit system, system maintenance, and passenger assistance services. The company plans to have the system operational by mid-year. The Harris County transit authority plans to equip 70 percent of its passengers with smartcards in the first year. The adoption of a contactless ticketing system is expected to limit the use of on-board fare boxes to occasional riders thus reducing operating expenses. ACS offers IT and business process outsourcing services to the commercial and government sectors. The company, which has 55,000 employees worldwide and had annual revenue of $4.3 billion in 2004, ranks on Washington Technology's 2005 list of federal prime contractors.