East West Rail begins market engagement for £300M programme assurance partner contract
05 Jun, 2026 By Lee Kenny
East West Rail Company (EWR Co) has launched preliminary market engagement for a long-term consultancy contract worth up to £300M to support the delivery of the East West Rail programme between Oxford and Cambridge.
The future contract will support delivery of East West Rail, the nationally significant infrastructure project that will create new and upgraded rail connections linking Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge.
The company is seeking feedback from the market ahead of procuring an Integration, Technical, Operations, Assurance and Environmental (ITOAE) Partner, which is expected to play a strategic role throughout the development and delivery of the railway.
The proposed contract would run for up to 12 years from August 2027 to August 2039 under an NEC4 Professional Services Contract. EWR Co estimates the contract could generate between £150M and £200M of work over its lifetime, although it has set a £300M budget envelope to provide flexibility for scope changes, programme delays and additional service packages.
According to the market engagement notice, the ITOAE Partner will provide programme-level oversight and assurance across multiple phases of the scheme, helping EWR Co ensure that design and delivery outputs are coordinated, technically robust, affordable and ready to support construction procurement and delivery.
The role will include design integration and coordination, technical assurance, environmental and operational advice, digital and information management, constructability support, and client capability development.
EWR Co stressed that the partner will not act as lead designer and is not expected to hold Principal Designer duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. Those responsibilities are expected to remain with separately appointed designers and future main works contractors.
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The authority said the role would span a broad range of infrastructure disciplines, including railway systems engineering, timetabling and operations, stations, rolling stock interfaces, earthworks and structures, tunnels, mechanical and electrical systems, asset management, digital engineering, and environmental and sustainability considerations.
Under the proposed model, the contract would comprise a retained core services element supplemented by time-limited authorised service packages instructed through a service delivery plan.
The procurement is also expected to introduce organisational separation between the ITOAE Partner and a separate Client Support Framework (CSF) that EWR Co is considering procuring. Under the current proposal, the successful ITOAE contractor and companies within the same corporate group would be prevented from securing work through the CSF for the duration of the contract.
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EWR Co said the separation is intended to preserve the independence of assurance activities, reduce actual or perceived conflicts of interest, and align with recommendations from major project governance reviews, including the Stewart Review published in 2025.
The market engagement exercise will inform the final procurement structure, scope and commercial model.
Interested suppliers must register by Friday 12 June.
EWR Co will issue a briefing pack and recorded presentation on 15 June, with questionnaire responses due by 26 June. Following evaluation, four to five participants will be invited to structured one-to-one discussions during the week commencing 6 July.
EWR in focus
The project is overseen by the East West Railway Company (EWR Co), a non-departmental public body established in 2017 to focus entirely on the line’s delivery.
It aims to stimulate economic growth across the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, linking world-leading research hubs in life sciences, biotechnology and artificial intelligence.
The scheme is being delivered in three distinct Connection Stages (CS) to reinstate and upgrade rail links that were largely disconnected decades ago. They are:
Connection Stage 1 (Oxford to Milton Keynes): This phase involved reconstructing the line between Bicester and Bletchley. Infrastructure work was completed in late 2024.
Connection Stage 2 (Oxford to Bedford): This stage focuses on extending services from Bletchley to Bedford, including significant upgrades to the Marston Vale Line.
Connection Stage 3 (Oxford to Cambridge): The final phase will complete the full link to Cambridge. This section requires a Development Consent Order (DCO) for construction to proceed.
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