Contract for West Coast Partnership Rail Services. Currently operated by First Trenitalia West Coast Rail Ltd

Concepts

• railway transport
• lichfield trent valley
• provision of long distance rail services
• west coast partnership rail services
• first trenitalia west coast rail ltd.
• provision of rail services
• preparation of hs2 rail services
• performance of services
• conventional mainline rail system
• first trenitalia west coast rail

Location

Description

Contract for provision of long distance rail services on the UK conventional mainline rail system. They serve the key cities of London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is envisaged the services would run between: (a) London Euston to Lichfield Trent Valley, Crewe, Preston and Glasgow Central; (b) Lichfield Trent Valley to Macclesfield and Manchester Piccadilly; (c) Crewe to Wilmslow and Manchester Piccadilly; (d) Crewe to Chester, Wrexham General and Holyhead; (e) Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street; (f) Preston to Blackpool North; (g) Carlisle to Edinburgh; (h) London Euston to Coventry, Birmingham New Street, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury; (i) Wolverhampton to Stafford; and (j) Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton, Stafford, Crewe and Glasgow or Edinburgh. There is a mixture of leisure, business and commuter travel. These services would be similar to those currently operated on the West Coast Partnership franchise. It is envisaged that the contract would also encompass the provision of rail services on HS2 (initially between Old Oak Common in London and Curzon Street in Birmingham and potentially between London Euston and Crewe), and will also include the performance of services in relation to the planning and preparation of HS2 rail services.

Ammendments to Previous Notice

CPV Codes

• 60200000 - Railway transport services

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** This notice is published in order to update (and to rectify) the previous prior information notice related to the West Coast Partnership Direct Award, which was published on the contracting authority's website on 31 March 2021. That previous notice had envisaged that the start date of the Direct Award would be 1 April 2022. The start date of the Direct Award is now envisaged to be 16 October 2022. The envisaged duration of the Direct Award remains as described in the previous notice: up to 10 years in total, which may be made up of a core term and one or more optional periods with the option(s) exercisable by the Secretary of State for Transport. It is currently anticipated that the grant of any Direct Award as envisaged in this notice will follow on from the expiry of the franchise agreement entered into by the Secretary of State and First Trenitalia West Coast Rail Limited on 28 August 2019 (the "Franchise Agreement"), as varied by the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement ("ERMA") entered into by the parties on 19 September 2020. The expiry date of the ERMA, which was entered into in compliance with Article 5(5) of Regulation 1370/2007, and of the underlying Franchise Agreement, is being extended from 1 April 2022 to 16 October 2022 by exercise of the Secretary of State's contractual right to extend. The contracting authority reserves the right not to proceed with the Direct Award as envisaged or to use an alternative method to procure an operator for the contract