Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2018-07-20
Buyer: Transport for the North
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 30144200 | 30144400 | 30160000 | 30200000 | 30233300
Estimated value: 100000000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2018-08-20
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: TfN is a sub-national transport body working in partnership with transport operators, local transport authorities (LTAs) and the Department of Transport (DfT) on its Integrated and Smart Travel (IST) Programme to deliver a multi-operator, multi-modal account-based ticketing solution. Central to the programme’s proposition is the Account-Based Back Office for Travel (ABBOT), the shared ‘back office’ to be used by third party operators. ABBOT will collect information on all trips (across multiple operators and modes initially in the North with potential of a national scope exc. London), reconstruct journeys, charge the best price for the completed journeys and disburse revenue appropriately to Transport Operators / LTAs.
This Contract Notice covers the procurement of 2 lots to deliver the ABBOT managed services which include the design, build and run of the service and a pre-paid account solution.
The contracting authority reserves the right to award contracts combining the following lots or groups of lots: Lot 1 and Lot 2
— Data collection — gather or receive the ‘taps’ generated each time a customer presents their contactless bankcard or alternative customer media to a front office device e.g. rail gate or bus ticket machine,
— Customer journey reconstruction — determining the journeys a customer has made from those taps received,
— Delivering the programme’s ‘Fair Price Promise’, including capping and multi-operator products. This is identifying the best value cap, product or combination of products to charge a customer,
— Revenue inspection – following the generation of taps from revenue inspection devices determining if a customer has tapped correctly in the course of their journey and if the customer should be charged an inspection charge and / or be prevented from further travel,
— Providing a central source of Customer data to Operator contact centres to facilitate customer support.
It is TfN’s intent that the two ABBOT contracts (Lot 1 and 2) will be let for an initial period of 6 years (with a break clause after 3 years) with options to extend for a further 6 (3+3).
The Lot 1 provider will act as the service integrator for additional services required to deliver the complete value chain (including, but not limited to, Lot 2).
Although TfN require fully compliant bids, bidders will be allowed to propose alternative contracting approaches that meet TfN’s requirements.
The scope of this Lot includes the design, build and ongoing management of a prepaid account solution for the unbanked or those not wishing to use a bank card, providing a provision of appropriate transit token for customers to use and a means of managing the funding on those accounts.
It is TfN’s intent that the 2 ABBOT contracts (Lot 1 and 2) will be let for an initial period of 6 years (with a break clause after 3 years) with options to extend for a further 6 (3+3).
Although TfN require fully compliant bids, bidders will be allowed to propose variant alternative contracting approaches where these meet TfN’s requirements.
Where there is more than one economic operator, TfN requires a grouping of economic operators to take a particular legal form or a single economic operator to take primary liability or all parties to undertake joint and several liability.


Award value: 100000000