Yaphank, N.Y.-based Suffolk County Transit (SCT) contracted with INIT to implement an intelligent transportation system (ITS) on more than 300 of their fixed-route and paratransit vehicles.

The contract between SCT and INIT includes an intermodal fleet management system, onboard computers, driver terminals and onboard announcements, with 10% of the fleet being equipped with INIT’s automatic passenger counting technology. The new system will integrate with SCT’s existing destination signs, fare boxes and next-stop signage, as well as with their current paratransit scheduling software provided by another vendor.

One unique highlight of the new project is the ability of SCT to run their central hardware in a virtualized environment. The advantage of a virtual environment is that it reduces physical space while maximizing hardware resource usage. Additional features of the project include software modules for creating forms, reporting and statistics, and a full scheduling application.

The total contract value is in the upper single digit millions and the project is expected to be completed by 2014.