Official UK procurement notice
Existing and New Traction Substation Works Market Engagement
Authority: South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe renewal and enhancements of the traction substations project is part of South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) Mass Transit Programme Outline Business Case (OBC).
The intention is to increase the capacity of the existing Supertram to 6 trains per direction on the yellow route, 6 trains per direction on the blue route, 2 trains per hour on the purple route and 3 tram trains per direction on the black route.
The existing traction substations equipment is life expired and in need of replacement due to lack of maintenance spares. The existing traction substations are 11kV AC input into 750V DC output.
To support the Supertram network increase in capacity, SYMCA are looking to construct new traction substations on the Supertram network. The exact requirements are to be determined through power modelling, but early thoughts are to be in the region of 6 new traction substations.
SYMCA are currently exploring a procurement strategy of provision of employer's requirements and a performance specification to tender for a design and build framework contract but would welcome feedback from the market to help shape our approach.
Indicative budget estimate is in the region of £11.98m for the existing traction substation renewals/refurbishment and £22.5m for the new traction substations.
This market engagement exercise is intended to allow interested organisations with appropriate experience to engage with the contracting authority to help inform decisions regarding the above requirement.
The questionnaire can be found by logging onto ProContract and expressing an interest in project DN814350.
CPV: Locomotive-substations construction works · Railway equipment · Substation construction work
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority buys Construction work for pipelines, communication and power lines, for highways, roads, airfields and railways; flatwork (CPV 4523), and who usually turns up
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Construction work for pipelines, communication and power lines, for highways, roads, airfields and railways; flatwork (CPV 4523) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in Yorkshire and the Humber.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 26 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid4% / 12%
2–326% / 36%
4–633% / 32%
7+37% / 20%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate50% / 42%
Within ±2%45% / 50%
Above estimate5% / 8%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 4523Published estimate£34m
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How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 25 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid12%
2–336%
4–632%
7+20%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Works
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 27 Apr 2026, 14:03 BST
- Last source update
- 27 Apr 2026, 14:03 BST
- Authority reference
DN814350- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-038066- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-068bb2Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
27 Apr 2026 → 1 Nov 2026 · 3 dates- Planning notice published184 days ago27 Apr 2026, 14:03 BST
- Market engagement158 days ago22 May 2026, 23:59 BST
The full details of the project are available at procontract.due-north.com/Home/About ↗.
The engagement is through completion and submission of a market engagement questionnaire for return by 22nd May 2026 at 16:00pm.
- Today28 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 3 days1 Nov 2026
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published27 Apr 2026, 14:03 BSTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender