Chiltern Railways - Compass System Replacement

Chiltern Railways is undertaking preliminary market engagement in relation to the potential procurement of one or more software solutions to replace its existing Compass system, which is due to become unsupported from December 2027.

The anticipated requirement comprises three principal areas:

Operational event and incident logging;

Delay monitoring, analysis and reporting, including the receipt and processing of train performance data from Network Rail's TRUST system; and

Performance action logging and tracking.

Chiltern is seeking to understand whether these requirements are best delivered through a single end-to-end solution, separate modules or specialist systems integrated with one another. The outcome of this market engagement will help determine whether any future procurement is undertaken as a single contract, separate lots or separate procurement exercises.

The anticipated scope of supply may include:

Software licensing or subscription services;

System hosting;

Implementation, configuration and any required development;

Migration of current and historical data from Compass;

Integration with Chiltern and external systems, including TRUST;

Testing and user acceptance support;

Training and change-management support;

Ongoing technical support, maintenance and system updates; and

Backup, business continuity and disaster-recovery arrangements.

The current system has approximately 329 named users. All 329 users have access to the Events module, approximately 289 have access to the Delays module and approximately 311 have access to the Action Tracking module. Of the 329 named users, 208 have logged into the system during 2026. A significant proportion of users require read-only access.

Chiltern anticipates that the replacement solution will primarily be delivered as a hosted or software-as-a-service solution, although suppliers are invited to propose alternative delivery models where appropriate.

The estimated contract value, contract duration and final procurement structure have not yet been determined. Suppliers are therefore being asked to provide information on available commercial models, indicative pricing, implementation timescales and the main factors affecting cost. Any future solution would need to be implemented, tested and operational before the existing Compass system becomes unsupported in December 2027.

This is preliminary market engagement only and does not constitute an invitation to tender or a commitment by Chiltern Railways to commence a future procurement. The purpose is to help Chiltern understand market capability and develop its requirements, commercial approach and procurement strategy, which is consistent with the intended function of preliminary market engagement under the Procurement Act 2023.