Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 28 Aug 2026, 15:14 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Premarket Engagement JNA Type Box Wagons

Authority: Direct Rail Services Limited (Public body)

GoodsAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Sectors: Transport Equipment & Vehicles (34) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£1,000,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 4 yrsends 30 Jun 2032 · starts 1 Jul 2028

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Premarket Engagement JNA Type Box Wagons - This Request for Information (RFI) is a high-level market engagement exercise intended to gather insight into the industry’s ability to meet NTS’s requirements. Feedback received will help inform NTS’s understanding of market capability, indicative costs, supplier interest and potential lead times, and may be used to support the development of any future procurement strategy.

Please use the following link to access documents - atamis-2464.my.site.com/s/Welcome ↗

CPV: Railway freight wagons

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 4 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Jul 2028 – 30 Jun 2032 (4 yrs)
Eligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Direct Rail Services Limited buys Rolling stock (CPV 3462), and who usually turns up

Direct Rail Services 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: Rolling stock (CPV 3462) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerDirect Rail Services Limited · all categories
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 2 known-size awards · market: CPV 3462 · North West England (authority’s region), n=7
1 of 20%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
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. The market figure counts awards delivered in North West England (authority’s region).

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no winner locations published · market: CPV 3462 · North West England (authority’s region), n=8
—13%

No winner locations published for this authority. Local means a registered address in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 4 decided notices · market: CPV 3462 · UK-wide, n=5
30 days96 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 30 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 2 of 4 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 3462 · North West England (authority’s region), n=9
2 of 478%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer5 lots with bid counts · all categories
40% had one bid
The market8 lots with bid counts · CPV 3462 · UK-wide
13% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid40% / 13%
Buyer: 2 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 8 lots with published bid counts.
2–360% / 75%
Buyer: 3 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 6 of 8 lots with published bid counts.
4–60% / 13%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 8 lots with published bid counts.
7+0% / 0%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 8 lots with published bid counts.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyerToo few to chart: 2 lots with estimate and award, 5 needed · all categories
The market23 lots with estimate and award · division 34 · North West England (authority’s region)
13% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate13%
Market: 3 of 23 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%30%
Market: 7 of 23 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate57%
Market: 13 of 23 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 346248 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£1.0m
Expected competition
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 40 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet28% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 40 similar lots
1 bid28%
11 of 40 similar past lots received 1 bid (28%).
2–333%
13 of 40 similar past lots received 2–3 (33%).
4–625%
10 of 40 similar past lots received 4–6 (25%).
7+15%
6 of 40 similar past lots received 7+ (15%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £1.0m, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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.

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.

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
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
28 Aug 2026, 15:14 BST
Last source update
1 Sept 2026, 11:59 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-082578
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Railway freight wagons
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06eec0 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

28 Aug 2026 → 1 Jul 2028 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published57 days ago
    28 Aug 2026, 15:14 BST
  2. Latest notice published53 days ago
    1 Sept 2026, 11:59 BST
  3. Market engagement25 days ago
    28 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST

    Premarket Engagement JNA Type Box Wagons

  4. Today
    24 Oct 2026
  5. Contract starts
    1 Jul 2028, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 28 Aug 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    28 Aug 2026, 15:14 BST
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    1 Sept 2026, 11:59 BST
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

additional

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

Direct Rail Services Limited

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PNBJ-7645-CMHD Regents Court, Baron Way, Carlisle, North West, CA6 4SJContact email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure