ICL’s Transys consortium has won a contract with London Transport (LT) in the UK to deliver an automated fare collection system that will do away with the need to buy tickets. The contract, estimated to be worth around a billion pounds, is part of a huge overhaul of the capital’s transport infrastructure designed to make it quicker and easier for commuters to pay for travel. As part of the deal, Transys will design and install the ticketing system, based on smart card technology, for the 500 underground trains and 6,000 buses across London. The Transys consortium was selected as preferred supplier a year ago – but only after a rival group which included British Telecommunications Plc, IBM Corp and Andersen Consulting dropped out. The consortium has undertaken to roll the system out in 4 years after which time it will manage and support the infrastructure for a further 13 years in a partnership with LT whereby both groups get a share of the revenues. ICL, who has a 20% equity stake in Transys, will be responsible for the development of a range of new networked computer systems. These will control the issue of smart cards and be linked to gates at railway stations to record and deduct fares from the passengers’ cards as they pass through. The computers will automatically collect information on sales from ticket offices, buses and smart card retail outlets and provide revenue figures and analyses for London Transport management officials. ICL said it would also undertake a large part of the ongoing support and maintenance of the systems, as well as providing training for both LT and Transys staff. Other members in the consortium are services giant Electronic Data Systems Corp, with 37.5%; Cubic Corporation (fare collection systems specialists), with 37.5% and WS Atkins (travel consultants), with 5%. A Transys official was guarded about the type of network and smartcards to be used. This has not been decided yet. This is something we are in negotiations with suppliers about, he said. However, ICL, which is already involved in several London Transport contracts, is a Microsoft partner and as part of the Fujitsu group, has endorsed Multos smartcard operating system. EDS will have total responsibility for the operational and management aspects of the service. EDS is estimated to have won around half of all government IT contracts and criticism of the US company has moved from frequent digs in the satirical magazine Private Eye to the House of Commons. The Financial Times noted that news of its success with London Transport is likely to attract as much carping as congratulations. The paper quotes EDS UK managing director David Gourtley as saying that we are market leader and there to be knocked.
