ACS wins Swiss urban transit fare-collection work

Affiliated Computer Services Inc. has won an $49 million contract to build an automated fare-collection system for the transportation authority in Zurich, Switzerland.

Under the contract, ACS Solutions Switzerland Ltd. will supply the authority with 1,100 automatic ticket vending machines as well as 500 mobile ticketing devices for bus drivers to operate by the end of 2008. The contract also covers maintenance and support.

A contract for the first part of the project is in place, and ACS expects to receive additional contracts for the rest of the work.

The new machine will feature touch screens designed to simplify ticket purchasing. In addition to single tickets and day passes, users can buy multi-ride tickets, monthly passes and a selection of national tickets.

Dallas-based ACS, which offers IT and business process outsourcing solutions to the government and commercial sectors, has more than 55,000 employees and annual sales of $4.3 billion

The company ranks No. 51 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors.