Rail Replacement Bus Services - Planned and Unplanned

GTR are looking to procure a partner(s) to provide PSVAR compliant Rail Replacement Bus Services for both Planned and Unplanned requirements across the GTR Network in the North and South of England.

At present GTR currently have one incumbent supplier who manage both the Planned and Unplanned Rail Replacement Bus Services in the North and South of England.

The purpose is to run a competitive tender to gain a partner(s) to deliver the Rail Replacement Bus Service and to ensure:

• Alignment to GTR's vision/values/strategic pillars • Robust SLA's/KPI's to drive the right behaviours • Bus Tracking technology and real time management information to identify trends and efficiencies

The final structure of the Tender may be based around a combined package or geographical packaged lots.

The combined value of all these lots will be for up to £15m per annum and the contract award will be for a duration of up to 5 years. The annual value could vary due to annual budget reviews and depending on external impacts to the railway network.

About GTR:

• 4 individual consumer brands (Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern & Thameslink) running across an extended geography with multiple train and station operational models.

• 239 managed stations. • over 500 units in its train fleet. • GTR has one of the largest estates amongst UK TOCs, with a geographically far reaching network covering over 800 route miles across the South East of England. • GTR had the largest number of passenger journeys at 19% of all UK journeys (ORR data 2018-19), a 7% increase on the previous year. This creates unique challenges (particularly of scale) of how SQR will be managed to deliver to contractual obligations and used to drive positive change.

Tender Programme (forecasted)

Expression of Interests Returned: 30th January 2022 Tender Issue: by 14h February 2022 Tender Returns: by 9th March 2022 Clarifications / Assessment Complete: by April 2022 Contract Notification: by May 2022 Contract Award: by May 2022

The above tender period is estimated and may be subject to change at GTR's discretion.

Those submitting tenders will be required to resource accordingly to meet the required tender return date.

Mobilisation Expected to complete 3 month mobilisation period, including TUPE requirements and it is therefore an aspiration that the new contract would go live in September/October 2022.

Expression of Interest Response:

The supplier is requested to confirm their ability to meet the above requirements. All other competency requirements to award a contract will be identified with the tender enquiry document. The proposed contract will be on GTR (The Go-Ahead Group's) model terms and conditions for supply of services. Mandatory terms and service levels will be included within the tender package aligned to the programme.

Suppliers expressing an interest to the EOI is acceptance to contracting on the GTR model terms

Please send returns to:

[email protected]