Ely Area Capacity Enhancement ( EACE ) Programme - Market Engagement PIN & invitation to market engagement briefing

Network Rail Eastern Region seeks to obtain views from the supply chain to support the development of the procurement strategy for the Ely Area Capacity Enhancement ( EACE ) Programme. This notice is not a call for competition but serves as an advertisement of a market engagement briefing session and subsequent market engagement questionnaire. For the avoidance of doubt, this notice and any responses relating to it, do not serve as a call for competition. Any comments, indications of interest, participation or non-participation by any organisation at this stage will not influence the process, selection or award decision for any future possible procurement, nor will it be taken as an organisation's committed position. The EACE programme aims to increase the infrastructure's ability to run additional train services in the Ely area to address capacity issues due to a growing demand for: 1) more frequent and longer passenger services and 2) intermodal traffic into and out of the Port of Felixstowe. The Market Engagement Briefing session is scheduled to be held on TEAMS on Monday 9th August 2021 at 10:30 and will last for approximately 30 minutes. Please note that this PIN is linked to PQQ2344 which has been created on the BravoNR portal to enable and capture expressions of interest relating to the proposed briefing session and to facilitate responses from those who confirm their interest in completing the questionnaire. This PQQ reference does not relate to or imply that this activity relates to a procurement event. If your organisation is interested in attending this market engagement briefing session, please confirm your interest via the BravoNR portal to ensure your inclusion. A Market Engagement Questionnaire will be issued post-briefing session. Any suppliers that wish to complete the questionnaire should express their interest after the briefing session via the BravoNR portal, noting the response deadline of 15:00 on Friday 6th August 2021. This market engagement exercise may or may not progress to subsequent engagement stages including, but not limited to, workshops and testing of principles. There is no guarantee that the market engagement will progress into a procurement event and participation in this market engagement process will not support or hinder supply chain involvement in any future possible procurement event relating to EACE.