Amtrak and AT&T Inc. have signed a five-year agreement under which the telecommunications operator will provide Amtrak with managed data networking and security services.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

AT&T will provide services to protect D.C.-based Amtrak’s telecom network infrastructure, the company’s Web site and the personal information of passengers. The company will be responsible for implementing and managing Amtrak’s wireless local area network (WLAN) and its enhanced virtual private network (EVPN) to help connect more than 400 locations and multiple networks on a single network platform.

“We are bringing together and providing security service across the newly constructed Amtrak infrastructure,” said Gene Budsock, director of product marketing management for security services at AT&T.

Additionally, AT&T will put up firewalls to secure data that flows both in and out of Amtrak’s networks, monitoring for internal threats to and breaches of the company’s security policies.

Despite, some contraction in technology spending due to the economy, Budsock said some areas of IT spending are creeping upwards. “Any time there is heightened awareness of security we get an increase in [customer] inquiries,” said Budsock. “As there is more scrutiny around protecting the customers and shareholders of institutions... that makes companies better be able to spend security dollars than other IT dollars.”

Under the contract, Amtrak also will use AT&T voice services, including long distance and audio and Web conferencing services.

Amtrak provides intercity passenger rail service across 46 states and 21,000 route miles. In the company’s last fiscal year, its trains carried more than 28.7 million passengers.