OpenStage · tender 20 days to close

Legal Advisers for Rail Matters

Business ServicesCPV 79100000

Value£6.5m

Deadline8 Sept 2026

Published14 Aug 2026

RegionNationwide

Timeline

Published 14 Aug 202620 days leftCloses 8 Sept 2026

Who to contact

Procurement@liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk

The procurement contact named on the official notice.

How to submit

Open the submissions portal

To participate in this tender, suppliers must either log into, or register on the Chest portal. Login here: https://procontract.due-north.com/Login Register an account here: https://procontract.due-north.com/Register

The submission route named on the official notice.

Contract value in context

£6.5mtotal contract value

median £66k

this tender£0£7.0m

This is a large award for Business Services — above three-quarters of comparable contracts. Based on 57,319 valued Business Services tenders in our corpus.

When this comes round again

Merseytravel publishes Business Services work continuously — 46 notices, roughly one every 43 days. This is a stream to watch, not a cycle to wait for.

36% of Merseytravel’s awards go to a supplier it has used before.

Which is the argument for getting on the list rather than winning this one. The incumbent is rarely the last winner — it is the roster. See the retention odds by category →

Match for your company

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The brief

Merseytravel and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) wish to appoint a single law firm (or alternative business structure practice) to act as their principal external legal advisers in relation to rail matters.

The appointed legal advisers will advise a variety of staff within LCRCA / Merseytravel including: Directors Place Directorate (Transport, Transport Infrastructure Programmes, Customer Delivery) Legal Team Finance Team Key focus areas include: Existing Operations Transition Arrangements Future Operations Future Operations Supporting Public Control Initial term: Three years.

Optional Contract Extensions: 12 months, with the option to extend for a further 12 months.

What it takes to bid this

25–40 daysof bid-team effort

£17.1k–£27.4kat typical UK bid-team rates

Compressed window — start the same week

Typical UK bid effort for the £1m–£10m band — an estimate, not a quote.

Qualify & bid/no-bid ~10% · SQ / PQQ ~20% · Written response ~55% · Review & presentation ~15%

Typical for this category — confirm against the ITT pack

Hold at bidProfessional indemnity insurance
Show at bidNamed engagement team with CVs
Show at bidComparable references / case studies
Hold at bidFinancial standing (accounts, often ~2× contract value turnover)
Hold at bidInsurance cover (PL / EL, often PI)
Show at bidSocial value commitments

Hold at bid = pass/fail conditions of participation. Show at bid = scored in the quality response. Plan for delivery = contract obligations from day one.

Short a bid team? Get matched and we’ll help you scope the bid →

Buyer intelligence

Make the case to bid

Reveal who to approach at Merseytravel, and generate a go-to-market strategy from their news, accounts and people.

Free to start. Named contacts come from published notices; the strategy is generated from the buyer’s news, accounts and people.

Deep dive · beta

The full intelligence dossier

Our agent reads Merseytravel’s accounts, hunts live signals, finds the people who decide — and hands you a bid strategy plus a go-to-market influence plan, including what your team should post this week. You approve every paid step.

Five included while we’re in beta, and the agent asks before it spends on any paid step.

Source & provenance