The Railways Act 1993 (as amended) provides for Scottish Ministers to provide for the operation and provision of rail passenger services in Scotland. Transport Scotland, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, is conducting and will over the coming period conduct a review of rail policy in preparation for:
— a replacement for the existing ScotRail Franchise at the time of its expiry in November 2014; and,
— the process by which Transport Scotland will prepare and issue the Scottish Ministers’ High Level Output Specification (HLOS) and the related Statement of Funds Available (SOFA) to the Office of the Rail Regulator for Control Period 5 (as part of the wider 2013 Periodic Review (PR13) which will complete in 2014).
During the Franchise replacement and PR13 processes Scottish Ministers require proficient rail financial specialist advice. This advice will be required across a range of areas to include, but not be limited to:
— advice on the practicality/deliverability of service requirements and changes (including in respect of costs, quality, revenue, rolling stock, staffing, and performance and incentivisation through, for example, industry contractual and regulatory structures) of proposed policy interventions and innovations including through franchise contract/ specification drafting,
— advice on the development of the Scottish rail industry output specification for CP5 (HLOS) and across the key themes of the wider periodic review (PR13) process, covering, for example, the determination of Network Rail’s outputs and obligations, the efficient level of funding to support this (as expressed through the SoFA), and the development of the wider regulatory framework, including financial framework and treatment of risk and uncertainty, the structure of access charges, and financial incentives,
— advice on the impact of emerging CP5 interim and final outputs including into the franchising process, including in respect of performance and other regimes, risk split and allocation and grant/ revenue re-allocation; and,
— advice on the output requirements of HLOS, SoFA and appropriate metrics and measures, including performance, network availability, efficiency, safety, capacity, and journey time,
— assistance and support in population, updating and operation of the financial model or suite of models, Long Form Report and re-franchise “data room” including in the context of refinement of a base case comparator model and creation and operation of a shadow bid model,
— critical analysis of bidder’s financial or bid models as demonstrated through the bid template and supporting documentation,
— testing of each of the base case comparator, shadow bid and bidders models in respect of their suitability to accurately reflect variations including complex service enhancements; and,
— support and analysis during financial close and mobilisation in respect of technical issues appertaining to the new franchise.
Across the life of the next Control Period and the franchise replacement, for five years from the date of the award of the Commission, Transport Scotland shall require to have continued access to ongoing rail financial specialist advice in support of their role in securing and seeing delivered the outputs specified through the franchise replacement and Rail Periodic Review process.
Further information concerning the scope of this contract is contained within the Prequalification Documents.
