Public road transport services

Tender description

Kent County Council (the Council) is the largest local authority in England covering an area of 3 500 square kilometres. It has an annual expenditure of over 1 000 000 000 GBP on goods and services and a population of 1 300 000. The Council provides a wide range of personal and strategic services on behalf of its residents, operating in partnership with 12 district councils and 289 parish/town councils. This is a Contract Award Notice for the operation of a subsidised bus service numbered X1 / X2 (branded Kings Hill Connect) that will provide improved links between Kings Hill and Maidstone Town Centre. The ‘X1' bus will be an express service from Kings Hill to Maidstone, via West Malling Station. The linked “X2' route will run between Kings Hill and West Malling station, giving a speedier and more frequent service in this area and acting as a replacement for an existing rail link service, 123. The service will have a 3 peak vehicle requirement and will provide an overall frequency of 2 buses per hour. The vehicles to be used will be provided by the Council. They are high capacity single deck Volvo B7 vehicles that have been fully refurbished. The vehicles will be fully branded as described above. It is anticipated that as part of mobilisation, arrangements will be made for the successful Contractor to inspect these vehicles. In keeping with the intention to provide a high service standard, branding will also be applied to all related publicity and a program of infrastructure improvement is also being progressed. This Contract is to be established as a ”revenue guarantee" contract with all revenue taken by the Contractor (inclusive of cash revenue and reimbursement in lieu of concessionary travel passes) being returned to the Council through an established mechanism. This Contract is anticipated to commence upon 6.2.2017 and will continue for a period of 4 years (48 months) with an option to extend up to a further period of 1 year (12 months) unless terminated in accordance with the Conditions of Contract on the Kent Business Portal. Should all possible extensions be taken, the total potential contract term is 5 years (60 months).