Network Rail Plans a GBP 650m East West Rail Direct Award to Its 2015 Alliance. On a Part-Built Railway the Interface Is the Competition

I have watched this choice land on three part-built railways in two years. The real answer each time was that no competition was left to run. Network Rail has now written that reasoning into a notice.

A UK5 transparency notice, reference 096761-2026, was published on 14 October 2026. London Construction Magazine reported it the same day. It sets out an intended direct award with an estimated maximum of GBP 650m excluding VAT. The named suppliers are AtkinsRealis UK Limited, Laing O'Rourke Delivery Limited and VolkerRail Limited. Those are the three private members of the East West Rail Alliance. Network Rail formed that alliance with them in December 2015.

What the notice buys

The package covers rail systems design, civils, enabling works and station work. It runs across the Marston Vale Line from Bletchley to Stewartby. It also covers the Oxford Parkway to Bletchley route and Milton Keynes Central. The physical scope is double tracking between Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Add a new track layout at Stewartby, extra passing loops, re-signalling and electrification. Level crossing closures, bridges, underpasses, earthworks and drainage sit inside it too.

Construction Enquirer reported the package on 15 October 2026. Some final station arrangements in the Marston Vale signalling area sit outside it. So does an optional train maintenance depot on the Oxford line. Both will be procured separately.

Two dates matter more than the number. The earliest contract signature is 4 November 2026. The estimated contract period runs from 9 November 2026 to 24 November 2036. That is a ten year engagement awarded without a tender.

Why a second contractor was never priced

Network Rail relies on the direct award grounds in the Procurement Act 2023 for additional or repeat works. Its stated reason is simple. The new scope cannot be cleanly separated from the Marston Vale core works. The same alliance already delivered those.

Read the justification as engineering rather than law. Track restoration now has to match a final double track arrangement towards Fenny Stratford. Signalling split between two parties needs temporary arrangements that are later removed. Access to an operational railway needs one possession strategy held by one party. Each of those lines turns into money the moment a second team arrives.

That is the finding worth carrying away. On a part-built railway the incumbent holds three things nobody else can buy. It holds the design assumptions, the assurance evidence and the access plan. A competition would be priced against that holding. The sponsor was choosing between one team and a duplication bill.

A ceiling is not a price

GBP 650m is an estimated maximum excluding VAT, or about GBP 780m with it. The notice publishes no price. The works also remain subject to funding and to internal and external approvals.

So the commercial content of this deal sits in the mechanism and the gates. A term running to November 2036 puts the weight on target cost and change control. East West Rail announced GBP 240m for Marston Vale upgrades in March 2024, from existing funding. The relationship between that sum and this one is not set out. Treat them as separate until a contract award notice lands.

The competed route still exists

The contrast is twelve days old. On 7 October 2026 Czechia named ViAlliance35 preferred bidder for the D35 motorway PPP. The concession is worth about EUR 2.9bn over 28 years. Strabag, Ferrovial's Cintra and Budimex, and the investor Invesis sit in the consortium. That scheme is a new 35.4 km section plus 17 km of existing road.

The difference is the starting condition. A new alignment can be competed because no incumbent owns the interface. A half-finished line cannot. Sponsors who stage a railway are therefore pricing their whole programme at the first award.

What to watch next

Three things decide whether this award ages well. The first is the contract award notice, which starts the standstill. It also starts the thirty day clock for any challenge under the Act. The second is the target cost agreed behind the ceiling. A direct award with a soft price is how a programme drifts. The third is the separately procured work, because the depot and the remaining stations reintroduce interfaces.

For contractors the lesson is about position rather than price. Winning the first phase of a staged railway buys an option on the next one. That option is often worth more than the margin on the original job. For public sponsors the first award sets the cost of everything after it. For investors in listed contractors, a notice like this is order book news. It never passes through a tender result, so it has to be read in the notices.