Official UK procurement notice
NEX26/48 Ballast Tamper Maintenance
Authority: Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive T/A Nexus (Public body)
Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive (Nexus) owns and operates a Plasser 08-275 Ballast Tamper (known locally as MA60 and referenced as so from this point onwards). MA60 is an eight-axle, diesel hydraulic, self-propelled S&C Ballast Tamper. Nexus will be tendering for a supplier to undertake the required servicing, maintenance and repair of MA60 in accordance with the Vehicle Maintenance Manual. This tender opportunity is for a 3-year fixed cost contract for all planned maintenances, as well as a fixed cost for corrective maintenances, emergency repairs and technical back-up, with the option to extend for up to a further 12 months at Nexus’ discretion. MA60 shall be maintained in accordance with its Maintenance Manual NX 08-275-MA60 unless where specified by Nexus.
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionTyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive (Nexus) owns and operates a Plasser 08-275 Ballast Tamper (known locally as MA60 and referenced as so from this point onwards).
MA60 is an eight-axle, diesel hydraulic, self-propelled S&C Ballast Tamper. The machine was delivered to Nexus in 2014 and has since completed 706862 Tamping cycles and has recorded 8938.4 working engine hours, and 6909.9 main engine hours (Information accurate as of October 2026).
Nexus will be tendering for a supplier to undertake the required servicing, maintenance and repair of MA60 in accordance with the Vehicle Maintenance Manual.
It is expected that all maintenance schedules with the exception of the daily and weekly checks, derogated activities and parts overhaul will be performed by the successful tenderer.
This tender opportunity is for a 3-year fixed cost contract for all planned maintenances, as well as a fixed cost for corrective maintenances, emergency repairs and technical back-up, with the option to extend for up to a further 12 months at Nexus’ discretion.
MA60 shall be maintained in accordance with its Maintenance Manual NX 08-275-MA60 unless where specified by Nexus. Activities will be grouped by frequency which will be outlined in the tender documents upon release.
Additionally, the contractor may be required to:
- Undertake specific inspections or investigations outside of the Maintenance Schedule(s), e.g. a condition report for certain machine parts.
- Respond to ‘machine stopped’ failures within 24 hours of the initial report.
- Provide ‘out of hours’ fitter cover. The cover shall provide a timely response and resolution any emerging ‘reasonably forecastable’ machine faults that occur during that shift.
CPV: Engineering services · Repair, maintenance and associated services of vehicles and related equipment · Transport equipment and auxiliary products to transportation
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive T/A Nexus buys Repair, maintenance and associated services of vehicles and related equipment (CPV 5010), and who usually turns up
Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive T/A Nexus’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: Repair, maintenance and associated services of vehicles and related equipment (CPV 5010) →
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.
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 in 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 40 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 bid4% / 40%
2–324% / 32%
4–670% / 4%
7+1% / 24%
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 estimate8% / 14%
Within ±2%23% / 67%
Above estimate69% / 19%
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 5010Estimate not published
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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 91 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid11%
2–338%
4–627%
7+23%
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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
- Below threshold
- 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
- 2 Nov 2026, 11:52 GMT
- Last source update
- 2 Nov 2026, 11:52 GMT
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-103667- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07956dFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
2 Nov 2026 → 7 Feb 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published8h ago2 Nov 2026, 11:52 GMT
- Today2 Nov 2026
- Market engagementin 11 days13 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
Potential suppliers for this opportunity are invited to express their interest via email to [email protected] referencing NEX26/48 Ballast Tamper Maintenance in the email subject. The deadline for submission of emailed expressions of interest is 13 November 2026.
Upon receipt of the email above and following the submission deadline suppliers will be invited to complete a short questionnaire ahead of an individual Teams meeting at which responses will be discussed in further detail. Questionnaires will be issued on 16 November 2026 with a return date of 20 November 2026.
It is expected the Teams meetings will take place during week commencing 30 November 2026.
Dependent on the outcome of the above it may be that suppliers are invited to view the vehicle at Nexus' maintenance facility in Newcastle Upon Tyne prior to any tender exercise though time restraints may permit this until during the tender process.
- Contract startsin 96 days7 Feb 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published2 Nov 2026, 11:52 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