UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

Network Rail currently operates two platforms (EMS Hub and LINX) that perform broadly similar roles in transporting operational data and enabling system‑to‑system messaging across the railway ecosystem. The EMS Hub has been in use since 2005 as a real‑time messaging platform serving Network Rail and industry partners across multiple business sectors. LINX, introduced in 2017, was initially designed to act as a linkage layer between newer train management services and legacy systems. Over time, both platforms have evolved in parallel, resulting in significant functional overlap, duplicated dataflows, and an unclear delineation of responsibilities between them. LINX is a specialist platform for Traffic Management and operational railway data, providing controlled, resilient and standardised real‑time data exchange. EMS Hub is a flexible, enterprise integration platform supporting a wide range of business domains, including finance, maintenance, operational reporting and web services. Both EMS Hub and LINX provide real‑time messaging and data exchange between operational systems used to manage train movements, timetabling, maintenance, and performance reporting. Because the two platforms are built on the same underlying IBM MQ and IBM ACE technology stack (on-premises IBM zLinux technology), data is shared between them, with both systems exposing this data to external customers in real time. This results in: - Duplicated data transmission, where systems feed separate dataflows into each platform. - External consumers having to subscribe to both platforms to obtain a complete picture. - Parallel technology footprints without a clear business rationale for maintaining two distinct platforms. This duplication of external feeds has introduced unnecessary cost, complexity, and operational inefficiency. EMS Hub in particular has historically acted as the “default” integration layer and now supports a wide mix of operational, financial, and maintenance services. LINX, by contrast, was designed to serve the Traffic Management System, and today provides the core dataflows that underpin real‑time railway operations. LINX also depends on several key EMS Hub feeds creating further cross‑platform interdependencies. Despite the challenges inherent in the current landscape, both EMS Hub and LINX continue to provide reliable and resilient services that underpin Network Rail’s operational data exchange. Together, the platforms enable high‑volume, near‑real‑time data sharing between internal operating centres and external third parties, supporting critical operational and customer‑facing use cases. Any future platform should build on these outcomes, providing a generic, scalable, and cost‑effective integration capability that supports high‑throughput data distribution, interoperation with legacy technologies, and secure connectivity with both internal and external consumers, rather than seeking to replicate the existing solutions on a like‑for‑like basis. Requirements: Network Rail is exploring options to move toward a single, modern strategic platform to reduce duplication, improve efficiency, and realise long-term operational and financial benefits. Any future platform would need to provide a fully generic messaging capability to support all Network Rail services and departments, not solely train‑related data, enabling consistent system‑to‑system integration across the organisation. This includes understanding both transition considerations and the ongoing cost to operate and maintain any future solution. The intent of this RFI is to understand strategic options for providing this capability in future, rather than to specify a detailed solution or architecture. The information provided is therefore indicative and intended to help suppliers form a view on scale, criticality and operational context, rather than to define prescriptive technical requirements. ------ Further, more detailed, information can be accessed within the 'Current Opportunities' option at the following link, under the title of 'Operational Data and System-to-System Messaging Platforming': https://networkrail.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.html Any requests for clarification concerning this RFI, and to submit a response, please email supporting documentation as an attachment to tom.weatherley@networkrail.co.uk with the email subject 'LINX/EMS Re-Platforming RFI'. Any future procurement, if undertaken, would be subject to a separate competitive process and is not committed to at this stage.

Network Rail requires a supplier to administer its private healthcare trust offering to its management grade employees (Bands 1-4). High level requirements are: 1. Supplier to administer Network Rail’s contractual private medical healthcare benefit to management grade employees (Bands 1-4) and controller grades. This is approximately 13,900 employees. 2. This is to be a Healthcare Trust scheme. This will be through a Trust Deed, as is being used now, not a Master Trust. 3. The scheme must be administered with a specific stop loss (SSL) agreement set at appropriate levels. 4. The scheme must offer senior leaders family cover and for everyone else the ability to add on partners and dependants at an additional cost. There should be four levels of cover: Single, Married, Single Parent Family and Family. 5. The scheme must offer clinical pathways to treatment without a need for a General Practitioner (GP) referral, such as (but not limited to) certain types of cancer, physiotherapy, osteopathy, and mental health support. 6. The scheme rates should offer affordability to all Network Rail employees, taking into consideration the demographics within the organization. 7. The scheme must have geographic coverage across Great Britain to cover all routes and regions Network Rail operates in. 8. The number of employees utilizing the service may vary depending on how the business develops; as such, the services must have flexibility to be scaled at short notice. 9. As a public sector organization, Network Rail abides by the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and takes its duties to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between different people when carrying out its activities very seriously. We require all our suppliers, as representatives of the company, to adhere to the same standards in everyday practices.

The project scope is for surveys and monitoring in the W&W route for Geotech. This will roughly consist of four key workstreams. The first work stream is the installation of Earthwork Failure detection systems, these are utilised to detect failures and inform Route Control of earthwork movement. The second is Cant and Twist Sensors, these are track sensors installed at rail level to detect movement in embankments. The third is survey works called Ground Investigation Assessments (GIA), this is pre renewals works to install monitoring such as Piezometers/inclinometer to detect movement or changes in earthworks, technical reports and further recommendations may be requested as part of this workstream. The final is the ongoing maintenance of existing assets, ensuring they are kept live, functional and the systems communicate with route control. For EFD sites this might mean vegetation clearance around cameras, replacement when they are damaged and similar with the Cant and Twist schemes.