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Amtrak and IBM April 15 signed a $229 million, seven-year contract aimed at improving the national passenger railroad’s information technology (IT) systems while cutting costs about $85 million.



Under terms of the agreement, IBM will provide business recovery services, deliver help-desk and desktop support services for 7,500 work stations nationwide, and manage the company’s voice and data networks. IBM also will operate and service Amtrak’s Arrow reservation system, which processes as many as 3,300 transactions per minute via the Internet, phone and ticket counters.



In addition, Amtrak and IBM plan to market the Arrow system to other transportation companies in an effort to grow revenue.