Transport equipment and auxiliary products to transportation

Tender description

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (‘PIN’) is to engage with the supply market in relation to the design and build of road rail cranes to assist Network Rail’s understanding of: — the level of interest in the project, — the capacity within the market to deliver the requirements, — any barriers that may prevent organisations from participating in a tendering exercise for this requirement, — potential new and innovative solutions to meet Network Rail’s requirements, — the market’s appetite for different commercial delivery options to meet the requirements. For the sake of clarity, this is not a call to competition and no contract(s) will awarded to any supplier as a result of participating in this exercise. Network Rail’s success relies on highly technical and complex systems engineering which allows it to operate and maintain one of the most intensively used railway networks in the world, whilst delivering major upgrades to the infrastructure. Network Rail works closely with its partners, suppliers and stakeholders from across the rail industry to achieve this capability in a future that challenges the limits of its technical approaches. To this end, Network Rail is looking at options for an alternative to the rail only cranes with multi-purpose road rail cranes that would offer cost effective, higher performing, flexible machines with opportunities to increase utilisation and productivity. In this present instance Network Rail wishes to hold a pre-procurement engagement exercise with the market in particular with those suppliers interested in aspects of the following: the design, manufacture, commissioning and acceptance/certification of multi-purpose road rail cranes. In the forthcoming procurement exercise, Network Rail will be looking for proven or innovative design solutions to meet its requirements. Network Rail wishes to explore what the market can best offer and determine the best way to design an efficient delivery model for this requirement. In broad terms, Network Rail in the forthcoming procurement exercise will be seeking to appoint a supplier(s) to design, build, test and commission multi-purpose road rail cranes that: — can offer substantial lift capacity to increase utilisation: SWL Range; greater than 27 000 Kg at 7 m radius to greater than 15 000 kg at 13 m radius while mounted on rail, — can access track using a compliant RRV RRAP (NR/L2/RVE/0007, Issue E1, Specification for on and off tracking of road-rail vehicles), — W6a gauge compliant, — can be transported by road thus removing the reliance on train paths to transport by rail to ensure flexibility, — can deploy many modern technologies within its concept e.g. data logging, tandem operation wireless link and camera system, critical safety innovations, etc. — can operate with full remote control increasing the field of vision of the operator and removes personnel from the area of lift thus enhancing safety for operators, — has Robot Operating System (ROS) incorporated into the design and build thus a greater degree of automation can be progressively added up to full autonomy, — has a chassis with rugged design, which in turn allows functionality on road, on rail, and on the ballast formation. Throughout this exercise, Network Rail with the help of the market wishes to explore and consider optimal options and delivery models for this requirement including exploring the best commercial delivery models. Interested parties should contact Arnold Lupunga (Arnold.Lupunga@networkrail.co.uk) to request a soft market questionnaire. 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 or to award any contract, and where it commences a tender exercise reserves the right to cancel the tendering process at any time.