Metro and Rail Works Pipeline

Scope

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) is engaging with the supply chain to explore progressive and collaborative contracting approaches for its potential Metro and Rail pipeline up to 2032.

Birmingham Sports Quarter (BSQ) Metro Extension - 1.5km extension from Digbeth (Birmingham Eastside) to the new Powerhouse Stadium for Birmingham City FC and the Sports Quarter.

Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Extension Phase 2C (WBHE) Extension - Final 0.5km completion into Brierley Hill town centre.

East Birmingham and North Solihull (EBS) Metro Extension - Preliminary feasibility and TWAO consent for a future route between Sports Quarter and HS2 Interchange/Arden Cross.

Metro Renewals Programme - Renewal of key Metro assets including track, Overhead Line, structures, civils and systems.

Rail Programme - Potential for value in bringing additional rail projects to redevelop existing stations, including as part of the Sports Quarter wider transport programme.

Combined estimated scope value of up to circa £1Bn+ across design, construction and associated multi-disciplinary services across a seven-year period.

Engagement Objectives

We want to talk to the market to explore the best delivery model(s) that will enhance delivery certainty and provide quicker routes to market for delivery of major transport infrastructure across a phased programme up to 2032.

This will help us refine our contracting, procurement and delivery strategy ahead of formal tender activity in 2026. We want to be in contract early to mid-2027 on the first tranche of the programme.

We want engagement to be two-way. This is the opportunity for suppliers to meet the team, understand the projects and talk about what great delivery looks like. Please be prepared to engage.

We will use market stalls, live polling and facilitated thematic breakout sessions for suppliers to talk to us about their perspectives, expertise, experience in delivery of major transport projects on-time and budget.

We also want to talk about the market's appetite and track record in pivoting to progressive contracting approaches that are more enterprising, more integrated and more collaborative. We want to talk about how these can work alongside ECI and NEC contracting environments. But we also don't want to discount more innovative uses of traditional contracting approaches.

Within this context, we also want to understand if and how existing frameworks could be used or supplemented to more quickly deliver large, multi-disciplinary programmes in a phased and packaged manner.

Event Details

Date: Monday 16 February 2026

Session 1 Time: 09:00 - 12:30

Session 2 Time: 13:00 - 16:30

Location: The Station, Millenium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham, B4 7XG

Example Agenda for Session 1

09:00 - 09:15 | Registration & Refreshments

09:15 - 10:00 | The Opportunity - Introductions, Context and Pipeline

10:00 - 10:30 | Emerging thinking - Contracting, Commercial and Procurement (with Q&A / live polling)

10:30 - 11:30 | Group Session - Thematic Breakout (including break)

11:30 - 12:15 | Project 'Market Stalls' - Meet the team / gain greater depth

12:15 - 12:30 | Wrap up - Further Q&A and Next Steps

Who Should Attend

This engagement is open to:

• Main contractors, construction and civils specialists
• Lead design consultancies and multi-disciplinary engineering firms
• Joint ventures and consortia partners
• Systems integrators (metro controls, signalling, traction power, comms)
• Specialist subcontractors and suppliers
• SMEs with relevant rail, tramway or urban infrastructure experience

A maximum of two representatives per organisation are welcome. Attendance is free, and there is no formal application; however, advance notification is requested to support logistics and material distribution. Following registration, each organisation will be assigned a session to attend.

Please follow the below link to register interest in attending.

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Follow-up

Based upon attendance and contents of the engagement session, participants will be invited to consider and provide more formal feedback (maximum 2,000 words) by 27 February 2026. This will build on the discourse of the day, but should focus on some of the following topics;

Commercial Model

o Opportunities for phased delivery to bring forward quickly more pressing major projects (potentially contract entry in 2027 for ECI/detailed design) whilst incorporating later stage projects without the need for further procurement

o Benefits and application of 'Project 13' outcome-based commercial and contractual models, including enterprise and integrator-led approaches versus traditional approaches with real-world examples

o Market capacity and capability to adopt FAC-1 / Project 13 approaches on light rail or complex urban infrastructure schemes and within an NEC environment. What works/doesn't work well

o Opportunities for more innovative use of traditional construction contracts

o Risk and reward alignment with shared risk, pain/gain and performance incentives

o Structuring ECI to support optioneering, buildability, cost assurance and innovation while maintaining procurement compliance and competitive tension

o Lessons Learned from comparable UK projects, including what has worked well, common pitfalls, and conditions for success when using collaborative or alliance-based contracts

o How contracting models could be formed across the pipeline to cover front-end development through to back-end delivery, including optioneering through design and into construction and operations

Delivery & Capability

o Realistic design, planning consent and construction lead times for tramway extensions

o Experience, risk, opportunities in third party delivery versus delivery led by infrastructure owners/operators

o Supply chain constraints and capability to deliver large multi-million pound projects as a portfolio of rail, renewals and metro without long term procurement horizons

o Approach to packaging in terms of size (single integrated lot vs. multiple separated lots), disciplines and minimum/maximum bidding thresholds. Potential application of packaging and phasing within an existing framework environment

o Appetite to bid as main contractor, lead designer, JV partner or specialist subcontractor

o Differing approaches for system integration

o Best approaches for operator engagement and asset management

Market Appetite

o Conditions that would increase or reduce participation in future tendering

o Benefits of bringing in the rail programme (focussed around station redevelopment and construction) and creating a portfolio pipeline in terms of speed, efficiency, economies of scale versus market appetite, capacity and risk

o Feedback on procurement process design (competitive procedure preferred, data room content, bid cost management)

o Views on how to maintain competition, proportionate bid costs whilst increasing speed

Following this engagement day, TfWM may undertake 1:1 clarification sessions with interested parties to explore specific procurement or technical models in greater depth.

Refinement of procurement strategy based on market intelligence, to be adopted before formal tender notice in summer 2026.

Remarks

• This is a soft market engagement exercise
• All engagement is conducted on a non-binding, without prejudice information-gathering basis
• Participation in this engagement does not confer any preferential treatment in future procurement
• No tender opportunity is currently live, and no binding commitments result from attendance
• We have not yet selected a preferred delivery or contracting model. Views expressed through this engagement will directly inform the options taken forward
• Any material information relevant to a future procurement will be shared openly with the market through formal channels
• All information shared during the engagement will be high-level and non-confidential. This will include anonymised summaries of informal engagement at 'Market Stalls', breakout sessions and any subsequent 1:1 clarification sessions with suppliers