Railway and tramway locomotives and rolling stock and associated parts

Tender description

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to engage with the supply market to assess the level of interest and considerations in the design, manufacture, commissioning and acceptance/certification of a replacement rail delivery system. The current fleet of Long Welded Rail Trains (LWRT) and Rail Delivery Trains (RDT) were built in 1984/85, these trains are coming to their end of life and Network Rail is therefore looking to replace them. In this instance, Network Rail is inviting interested parties to participate in a market engagement exercise to help shape Network Rail’s procurement strategy as well as the specification for the replacement trains. The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to engage with the supply market to assess the level of interest and considerations in the design, manufacture, commissioning and acceptance/certification of a replacement rail delivery system. The current fleet of Long Welded Rail Trains (LWRT) and Rail Delivery Trains (RDT) were built in 1984/85, these trains are coming to their end of life and Network Rail is therefore looking to replace them. In this instance, Network Rail is inviting interested parties to participate in a market engagement exercise to help shape it’s procurement strategy as well as inform the development of the specification for the replacement trains. The current arrangement is that Network Rail owns the trains and then contracts out the operation, maintenance, repairs and support services. In the forth coming procurement exercise, Network Rail will be looking for proven or innovative design solutions to meet its requirements. In brief, the rail delivery system should take account of the following operational and environmental parameters: — Capable of carrying between 16 & 32 rail lengths, 215, 214, 108, 107 & 106 metre lengths, preferably 240, 239 & 238 m lengths. — Capable of delivering or recovering rail strings with up to 6 adjacent rails laid adjacent to each other, to or from, the 4-foot (between the running rails) and up to 2 rails adjacent to each other on each sleeper end; and, with the use of safety-interlocked gauge controls, to a distance of up to 1 m from the running rails. — Capable of transiting short distances between work locations (within a worksite) in a timely manner without the need to stow and secure work equipment. — Capable of conducting multiple rail deliveries or recoveries between loading events and undertaken without requiring maintenance interventions (e.g. pre-flight checks) or equipment replenishment, while maximising the availability of the fleet and utilising a balanced maintenance regime rather than an overhaul regime. — Capable of working: under live 25kV OHLE systems; in tunnels; adjacent to isolated third rail equipment; and with the adjacent lines open to traffic. Interested parties should contact Arnold Lupunga (Arnold.Lupunga@networkrail.co.uk) to request a Soft Market Test Questionnaire no later than 19.1.2018 and submit their completed responses on 31.1.2018 (17:00). Please note that this is not an Invitation to Tender, it is solely a market engagement exercise and no direct business will be awarded as a result of participating in this exercise. Further responding to this PIN will not in any way advantage or disadvantage any supplier in a future procurement exercise. Following the market engagement exercise, Network Rail will not be bound to conduct a procurement exercise and where it commences a tender exercise, Network Rail reserves the right to cancel the tendering process at any time.