Metro dispatches IT contract

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has awarded management

consultants Booz Allen Hamilton a $31.2 million, three-year contract to

replace several key enterprise information technology systems.

"That includes bus and rail scheduling and dispatch, accounting, finance

and capital program management, human resources/payroll and material maintenance

management," said George Farrar, a spokesman for Booz Allen. "It's a matter

of bringing the systems up to 21st-century standards.

"We'll use an integrated solution based on transit market-leading commercial

off-the-shelf software packages," he added.

Metro has been a client of Booz Allen for most of the past 25 years

in various capacities, Farrar said. The McLean, Va.-based company does a

lot of transportation work with metro transit entities across the country,

including rail car purchasing and refurbishment and IT systems work, he

said.

Metro operates the second-largest rail system and the sixth-largest

bus network in the country. Its budget for fiscal 2003 totals $1.2 billion,

including an $850 million operating budget.