Network Rail has published a transparency notice setting out its intention to place up to £650 million of further East West Rail design and construction work with the existing alliance of AtkinsRéalis, Laing O’Rourke and VolkerRail. The UK5 transparency notice, published on 14 October 2026, is for an intended direct award rather than a completed contract award. Network Rail gives an estimated maximum value of £650 million excluding VAT, or £780 million including VAT.
Atkins Realis UK Limited, Laing O’Rourke Delivery Limited and VolkerRail Limited are named as the proposed suppliers. The earliest stated contract signature date is 4 November 2026, with an estimated contract period from 9 November 2026 to 24 November 2036. The procurement therefore remains at intended direct-award stage. The notice also makes clear that the proposed works are subject to funding and other required internal and external approvals.
Illustrative image of East West Rail infrastructure. Image: London Construction Magazine.
What the £650m East West Rail Package Covers
The package combines rail systems design, station work, civils and enabling activity across the Marston Vale Line between Bletchley and Stewartby, the OXD line between Oxford Parkway and Bletchley, and design services and works at Milton Keynes Central. Network Rail's scope includes re-signalling and track upgrades, with double tracking proposed between Bletchley and Fenny Stratford, a new track layout at Stewartby and additional passing loops.
Electrification also forms part of the notice, although the procurement document does not define the extent or configuration of the electrification works. Other confirmed elements include level-crossing closures, bridges and underpasses, station works at Winslow, Bletchley and Stewartby, earthworks and drainage resilience.
The enabling programme is substantial in its own right. Network Rail lists site clearance, construction compound set-up, flood-storage areas, environmental compensation sites and utility diversions, together with timetable modelling and possession planning needed to integrate the new scope with work already under way. Several final station arrangements within the Marston Vale signalling area are excluded from the notice, as is an option for a train maintenance depot on the OXD line. Network Rail says those requirements will be procured separately.
Why Network Rail Is Proposing a Direct Award
The procurement route is central to the story. Network Rail is using the direct-award provisions of the Procurement Act 2023, with the notice classifying the requirement as additional or repeat works involving an extension or partial replacement. Its case is that the new package cannot be cleanly separated from the Marston Vale Line Core Works already being developed and delivered by the East West Rail Alliance.
The existing programme already covers design development, rail access, staging, signalling interfaces, timetable work, consenting and physical construction interfaces. Network Rail argues that introducing a second main delivery team into the same railway systems and geographic area could result in incompatible design assumptions, duplicated assurance and engineering processes, blurred responsibilities and additional safety interfaces.
A particular issue identified in the notice is the relationship between current track restoration work and the proposed final double-track arrangement towards Fenny Stratford. Network Rail also points to the risk of duplicated or abortive signalling work if interlocking and control-system alterations were designed through separate delivery arrangements. Possession planning is another constraint. The existing and proposed works will require coordinated access to the operational railway, meaning design, enabling works and construction sequencing need to be developed against the same access strategy.
Universal Resort Adds a 2031 Capacity Requirement
The transparency notice says the works are required both to increase operational capacity progressively from the early 2030s and to support the railway's response to a new theme park expected to open in 2031. The procurement notice itself does not name the development. Separately, East West Railway Company's 2026 proposals explicitly link accelerated Marston Vale improvements and a new Stewartby station with the planned Universal Resort near Bedford.
EWR Co's wider proposals now provide for a core service of four trains per hour across the route, with an additional fifth train when required, together with five-carriage trains to respond to forecast demand. Those service proposals form part of the wider East West Rail programme and should not be read as contractual outputs of the £650 million package unless confirmed through the final scope. The company completed its latest route-wide consultation in June 2026 and is working towards submitting a Development Consent Order application in 2027. That application has not yet been submitted, so DCO-dependent elements of the programme remain subject to the statutory planning process.
How the New Works Fit with the Existing Alliance
Network Rail first appointed Atkins, Laing O’Rourke and VolkerRail under an East West Rail alliancing contract in 2015. The same delivery structure has since been used across the Bicester–Bletchley infrastructure programme, including track, signalling, station and structural works. The proposed £650 million package would extend that delivery relationship into the next capacity works rather than establishing a new competitively tendered tier-one arrangement.
It also sits alongside the earlier £240 million government allocation announced to accelerate work on the Marston Vale Line. That funding supported the acceleration programme, but the new transparency notice does not establish whether the £240 million is entirely separate from, included within or overlaps with the £650 million maximum value. The two figures should therefore not be added together as a combined contract value.
For the construction supply chain, the confirmed scope points to future demand across rail civils, permanent way, signalling, structures, drainage, utilities, electrification, environmental works and possession-led delivery. No evidence in the notice indicates that individual subcontracts have yet been tendered or awarded. The next procurement date to watch is 4 November 2026, the earliest date on which Network Rail says the contract can be signed. Until a subsequent contract or award notice confirms that step, the £650 million package remains an intended direct award rather than a completed appointment.
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