Official UK procurement notice
Elizabeth line software requirements - Workforce Rostering
Authority: Transport for London (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionScope
Description
The Elizabeth Line is London's newest railway line running from Reading in the West through to Shenfield in the east through the middle of London. The operating of the railway is split into a number of teams carrying out maintenance and other activities on the network on a number of different shift patterns.
Each of these teams have different roster patterns that are currently organised by a combination of methods. This investigation seeks to identify a single tool that will plan, adjust and report on staff rosters. Effective workforce planning is critical to ensure:
- Safe and timely execution of maintenance activities
- Efficient deployment of resources.
- Compliance with regulatory and contractual obligations, in particular the requirements of the Office of Rail Regulator for fatigue risk assessments to be carried out and recorded where workers shifts meet requirements for duration, rest period and a number of other factors.
Objective of the proposed solution
We are exploring the implementation of a digital solution to support workforce rostering, planning and scheduling. The key objectives are to:
- Improve the efficiency and automation of the rostering processes.
- Enable a workflow where a draft roster pattern can be circulated prior to publishing
- Enhance visibility of workforce availability, skills and constraints, bringing in data from other HR data that holds key qualification and organisational data.
- Enable optimisation of workforce allocation.
- Support safe and compliant delivery of maintenance activities.
- Provide scalable and user-friendly tooling for planners and operational teams.
Contract dates (estimated)
1 May 2027 to 30 April 2032
5 years
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
- 72212330 - Scheduling and productivity software development services
- 79630000: Personnel services except placement and supply services
- 48450000: Time accounting or human resources software package
Contract locations
UK - London
Engagement Deadline
3 July 2026
Engagement process description
This Preliminary Engagement Notice is being issued for the primary reason of seeking information from the market. Subsequent to reviewing the findings for the Elizabeth Line Roster & Fatigue Tool, this may lead to a procurement.
Engagement is being sought via a Market Sounding Questionnaire (MSQ) which aims to gather feedback from potential suppliers including but not limited to: market interest and capability, risks and issues.
To participate in this early market engagement, organisations are required to register their interest via email to the following Inbox: [email protected]. TfL will respond with an MSQ, which we invite interested suppliers to submit a response to this PME
Please note the deadline for submitting an MSQ response is 6:00pm 10th July 2026.
TfL also reserves the right to conduct further rounds of preliminary market engagement in relation to this project and TfL may conduct one to one discussions with organisations to explore and better understand their responses to the MSQ.
CPV: Personnel services except placement and supply services · Scheduling and productivity software development services · Time accounting or human resources software package
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Transport for London buys Programming services of packaged software products (CPV 7221), and who usually turns up
Transport for London’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Programming services of packaged software products (CPV 7221) →
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Here, local means registered in Greater London.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Greater London.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards were announced within 103 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 bid45% / 0%
2–346% / 31%
4–68% / 31%
7+2% / 38%
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 estimate48% / 42%
Within ±2%32% / 58%
Above estimate20% / 0%
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 7221Published estimate£2.0m
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 13 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid0%
2–331%
4–631%
7+38%
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
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 17 Jun 2026, 17:58 BST
- Last source update
- 26 Jun 2026, 15:52 BST
- Authority reference
WS3181586393- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-060487- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06b788Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
17 Jun 2026 → 1 May 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published125 days ago17 Jun 2026, 17:58 BST
- Latest notice published116 days ago26 Jun 2026, 15:52 BST
- Market engagement109 days ago3 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
Engagement process description
This Preliminary Engagement Notice is being issued for the primary reason of seeking information from the market. Subsequent to reviewing the findings for the Elizabeth Line Roster & Fatigue Tool, this may lead to a procurement.
Engagement is being sought via a Market Sounding Questionnaire (MSQ) which aims to gather feedback from potential suppliers including but not limited to: market interest and capability, risks and issues.
To participate in this early market engagement, organisations are required to register their interest via email to the following Inbox: [email protected]. TfL will respond with an MSQ, which we invite interested suppliers to submit a response to this PME
Please note the deadline for submitting an MSQ response is 6:00pm 10th July 2026.
TfL also reserves the right to conduct further rounds of preliminary market engagement in relation to this project and TfL may conduct one to one discussions with organisations to explore and better understand their responses to the MSQ.
- Today21 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 192 days1 May 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 17 Jun 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Jun 2026, 17:58 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published26 Jun 2026, 15:52 BSTUK2
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
2 public bodies on the noticeOther public bodies
- Transport for LondonProcuring entityProcuring on behalf of London Underground Limited
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender