Railway transport services

Tender description

The Department for Transport (DfT) is extending the validity of the Rail Franchising PQQ Passport System. The validity of existing Passports will be extended to 26.9.2022. This will help facilitate the smooth implementation of any recommendations from the rail review (www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-williams-rail-review). Interested economic operators may apply at any time until 26.9.2022. DfT aims to process applications received before noon on 23.9.2019 within approximately 3 months of that date. Applications received after that date will be processed once the next application date window has closed. DfT intends to announce the date of the next application window following the conclusion of the rail review or, if sooner, the announcement of the next competition. This notice does not constitute a call for competition. Holding a passport allows you to express an interest in future competitions, during the lifetime of the passport, without the need to resubmit certain information. If you do not currently hold one, you must have made your application before the relevant application date of any future competition in which you are interested. DfT intends to offer further opportunities to make a passport application once a call for competition is made. Dates (including application dates) for individual franchise competitions are intended to be announced via an update of this QSN while any direct award will be the subject of an individual PIN. Once the Expression of Interest (EoI) for a specific competition has been released, as a passport holder you can then express your interest following the process outlined in the EoI. If successful, you may then be invited to tender. DfT considers passport holders to be one of the groups that are representative of the passenger rail market. DfT may wish to involve them in certain market engagement activities. In conducting these activities, DfT will take measures to ensure fairness, equal treatment and transparency. The nature and extent of market engagement activities will remain at the discretion of DfT but may include: policy development and franchise design; strategic issues affecting rail franchising and the wider industry; and early engagement on specific franchise competitions for the purposes of continuously improving DfT’s approach. Please note that early engagement on a specific franchise competition may commence prior to the relevant application date. If you are interested in contributing to discussions on a specific franchise competition you are encouraged to obtain a passport as soon as possible. Please visit www.gov.uk/government/publications/rail-franchising-pqq-passport-documentation for more details on the rail franchise passport and how to apply for one. The department is currently reviewing the rail franchise schedule (www.gov.uk/government/collections/rail-franchising). The secretary of state has commissioned Keith Williams to undertake a root and branch review of the rail network, including franchising. All currently contracted franchises, ongoing franchise competitions and other live rail projects are outside the scope of the review. Interested economic operators will be required to sign a Passport Process Agreement (PPA). To receive the Passport PQQ Pack and gain access to the franchising procurement e-sourcing portal and PPA please register by email at PQQpassport@dft.gov.uk Except in the very limited circumstances described in the passport process document, a passport can only be relied upon by the specific economic operator or specific group of economic operators which made the original Passport application. DfT recommends that Applicants interested in bidding as a group for particular future rail franchise competitions consider potential partners promptly so that the relevant group can apply for a Passport in time. DfT reserves the right to cancel, change or replace the passport system or its validity period at secretary of state’s sole discretion for any reason.