Official UK procurement notice
Auto-Reconfiguration Signalling Power Supply Systems - Preliminary Market Engagement
Authority: NETWORK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionNetwork Rail operates a large portfolio of Auto Reconfiguration systems used to support the resilience of 400V TN S and 650V IT signalling power supplies. Many of these systems have been operational for more than two decades and face several challenges:
- Obsolescence of essential components affecting maintainability and availability
- Reliance on legacy telecoms (such as 3G) due to national network withdrawals
- Rising failure risk due to ageing cables, switchgear and protection components
- Limited diagnostic capability in existing systems
- Inconsistent compatibility with modern power protection and monitoring solutions
- Increasing sustainability pressures, including carbon reduction and waste minimisation
To support Network Rail’s long-term asset strategy and maintain operational performance, we are exploring a future programme to introduce a modern, cyber secure, modular, maintainable Auto Reconfiguration SPS platform.
This aligns to wider organisational objectives including:
- Improving safety and reliability for passengers and freight
- Supporting digital railway capabilities
- Reducing operational carbon
- Enhancing maintainability
- Delivering sustainable whole life value
This preliminary market engagement will help confirm commercial viability, test supplier capability, and identify innovative approaches to support a future-proofed solution. It also seeks to understand the level of interest from the supply chain for any future tendering activity.
CPV: Signalling equipment
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How NETWORK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED buys Railway equipment (CPV 3494), and who usually turns up
NETWORK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Railway equipment (CPV 3494) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 45 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid13% / 25%
2–350% / 44%
4–638% / 25%
7+0% / 6%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate83% / 34%
Within ±2%0% / 41%
Above estimate17% / 25%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 3494No real estimate
i
How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 359 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid25%
2–344%
4–625%
7+6%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Utilities
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 23 Mar 2026, 13:51 GMT
- Last source update
- 23 Mar 2026, 13:51 GMT
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-026290- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-067171Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
23 Mar 2026 → 1 Jan 2028 · 3 dates- Planning notice published219 days ago23 Mar 2026, 13:51 GMT
- Market engagement191 days ago20 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
This PIN seeks to explore via a Soft Market Testing questionnaire some key information regarding the supply of auto-reconfiguration signalling power supply systems. This will help inform Network Rail generally about the supply market and also help inform any strategies should a procurement event take place. All instructions relating to submission can be found within the PIN document which is accessed via BravoNR.
Questionnaire submissions, should your organisation wish to take part, are to be submitted by 12:00 20/04/2026 via BravoNR unless this deadline is extended. In the event of queries, please only raise these directly with Network Rail via the BravoNR messaging function. Access details for the PIN can be found below:
URL: networkrail.bravosolution.co.uk ↗
PIN/PQQ Code: pqq_3883
Title: Auto-Reconfiguration Signalling Power Supply Systems - Preliminary Market Engagement
- Today29 Oct 2026
- Contract starts1 Jan 2028
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published23 Mar 2026, 13:51 GMTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender