Market engagement on rail Passenger Service Contracts

This notice is published by the Secretary of State for Transport (the Authority) acting through the Department for Transport.
This notice is published to advertise a forthcoming market engagement exercise. This exercise relates to a new form of rail contract (the Passenger Service Contract or PSC). The PSC is currently under development by the Authority and will replace all existing forms of contract for the provision of franchised rail passenger services in Great Britain where the Authority is the competent authority for the award of rail public service contracts (excluding certain services in Scotland and Wales where the devolved administrations are the competent authorities and services contracted by authorities such as Transport for London).
The PSC is one of the reforms being introduced by the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/994603/gbr-williams-shapps-plan-for-rail.pdf). The intention is that each PSC will be awarded following a competitive procurement process. The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail outlined the biggest reform of the railway in a generation, bringing the network under single national leadership. A new public body will be created: Great British Railways (GBR). GBR will run the railway in a new way - it will be simple, sustainable, separate - one single body to maintain and improve the infrastructure, set fares, sell the tickets and receive the money, plan timetables and run the network, and be fully accountable for these activities. Regional divisions will ensure we deliver a national network which meet the needs of local communities and regions, bringing decision-making much closer to the people in the communities it serves. The establishment of GBR requires legislation to be passed by the UK Parliament. In advance of this, the Authority will lead development of the Passenger Service Contract and the GBR Transition Team will be working closely with the Authority throughout the process. This market engagement exercise is open to all persons who are interested (or may be interested) in being an operator of rail passenger services under a PSC, and their supply chain. This includes existing market operators, potential new entrants and persons who may be interested in participating jointly through membership of a joint venture or consortium.
This market engagement exercise will commence with a Rail PSC Day on 4th November 2021. It may also include further meetings with interested persons and/or a request to complete an online questionnaire. Through the market engagement exercise, the Authority will describe the thinking of the emerging PSC proposition to date, the aims behind it and how the Authority will be working with the market to develop it further once the Authority has listened to the initial feedback. It is currently anticipated that the first PSC will be a commuter focused railway. Market engagement on this competition will likely commence in early 2022 with the competitive procurement process following in mid-2022 and passenger services commencement in mid-2024. Once the PSC programme is underway, competitive procurement processes will come to market at regular intervals. Note that the Passport process used by the Authority is to be discontinued in 2022 and will not be used for PSC procurement, this will be replaced with a two-stage process of Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) followed by an Invitation to Tender (ITT).
Separate engagement is being conducted by the Authority's Rail Transformation Programme and the Great British Railways Transition Team across all areas relating to the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail. This engagement is underway, and future plans include a formal consultation exercise to support the development of legislation, policy development in key areas of reform, and implementation planning .