IN Brief:
- The framework runs for three years with four possible annual extensions.
- Projects between £100,000 and £1.5m are reserved for SMEs.
- Work will cover stations, civils, M&E, utilities, communications, and railway infrastructure.
Merseyrail has appointed 11 contractors to a construction framework covering station buildings, civil engineering, mechanical and electrical systems, utilities, communications, landscaping, and infrastructure work across Merseyside and Cheshire.
Three project-value bands divide the framework, including an SME-only tier for contracts worth between £100,000 and £1.5m. Larger schemes will be allocated through bands covering work valued between £1.2m and £3m, and projects worth more than £2.5m.
Frank Rogers Building Contractors, MPH Construction, Simon Dean Electrical, SIS Projects, and Vallum Associates have secured places on the SME band, allowing them to compete for smaller packages without direct competition from the largest national infrastructure groups.
Amalgamated Construction, Construction Marine, Morgan Sindall, MPH Construction, Pod-Trak, and Spencer Rail Engineering have been appointed to the middle-value band. The upper tier comprises Amalgamated Construction, Construction Marine, Kier Transportation, Morgan Sindall, and Spencer Rail Engineering.
Initially running for three years, the agreement aligns with the end of Merseyrail’s current concession in July 2028. Four possible annual extensions could then take its total duration to seven years.
Individual projects may be allocated through direct awards, quotation exercises, or mini-competitions. With suppliers already assessed against technical, competency, and railway-safety requirements, each package should require less preparatory procurement before entering delivery.
The scope extends well beyond conventional station refurbishment. Mechanical and electrical services, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, utility work, communications, landscaping, civil structures, and projects undertaken beside or within the operational railway can all be procured through the framework.
Station investment regularly combines structural repairs, platform works, drainage, lighting, power, security systems, passenger information, accessibility improvements, and surrounding public-realm work. Much of that activity must proceed while passenger services continue and operational railway assets remain protected.
Rail-specific competence therefore remains important even where the underlying contract value is modest. Possession planning, electrical isolations, restricted access, passenger segregation, safe systems of work, and interfaces with live infrastructure can make a relatively small building package operationally complex.
By reserving the first band for SMEs, Merseyrail is addressing a long-standing problem within infrastructure procurement. Regional contractors can provide local labour, shorter mobilisation distances, and established specialist supply chains, yet may be excluded when financial thresholds and experience requirements are calibrated around major national programmes.
A defined SME pipeline can help smaller businesses establish railway experience while giving Merseyrail a broader delivery base. Over time, successful contractors may also be able to progress into higher-value packages as their competence, financial capacity, and project records develop.
Long-term infrastructure frameworks increasingly use differentiated supplier tiers to combine major-contractor capacity with regional delivery. Comparable principles can be seen within the £1.94bn A9 framework procurement, although the Scottish roads programme carries a substantially larger civil engineering scope.
A framework lasting up to seven years can justify investment in training, equipment, local recruitment, and railway-specific assurance because suppliers gain better visibility of the prospective pipeline. That confidence depends on work being released consistently rather than concentrated into irregular bursts.
Contractors appointed to a long agreement must still maintain specialist staff and compliance systems between individual awards. Where annual expenditure is uncertain, retaining those resources can become difficult, particularly for SMEs with fewer projects across which to spread fixed costs.
The overlap between the middle and upper bands gives Merseyrail flexibility when packaging larger schemes, but allocation decisions will require clear and consistent criteria. Contractors need to understand when projects will be directly awarded, quoted among selected suppliers, or subjected to a wider mini-competition.
Transparent performance information will also become increasingly important as the agreement develops. Safety, programme reliability, quality, cost control, social value, carbon performance, and collaboration should all inform future awards rather than appointment operating as a static approval for the entire term.
Standardised contracts and technical information can further reduce duplicated effort across the programme. Where each station or infrastructure package begins with an entirely new set of commercial terms and design conventions, much of the intended framework efficiency is lost.
The first awards will show how effectively the SME reservation translates into expenditure and whether the framework maintains a workable balance between regional contractors, railway specialists, and multidisciplinary national groups.
