The scale of the deal behind ScotRail’s new ticketing system is now public: £83.763 million for technology spanning the website, app, ticket machines, on-train sales and ticket offices. The award notice records one final tender.
A difficult morning with a railway app can look like a relatively contained technology problem. A contract notice published on Friday places ScotRail’s recent ticketing difficulties on a rather larger canvas.
ScotRail Trains Limited has formally disclosed that SilverRail Technologies was awarded its new retail systems contract at a total value of £83,763,400 excluding VAT. The contract was concluded on 29 May and the award notice published on 14 August. It covers considerably more than the mobile application passengers encountered for the first time last month.
The agreement encompasses ScotRail’s website and app, new ticket vending machines and the central ticket issuing system behind them. It also covers systems for mobile ticket sales on trains and ticket-office sales, together with implementation, continuing support and maintenance. The notice says 53 per cent of the contract is likely to be subcontracted, principally for the manufacture, supply and maintenance of ticket vending machines and for equipment and software used in on-train and ticket-office sales.
The number attached to the contract needs care. £83.763 million is the value stated in the award notice; it should not be read as £83.763 million already paid to SilverRail. The original procurement envisaged an initial four-year term with as many as five further one-year extensions, giving the arrangement the potential to extend over nine years. Technical expertise carried 70 per cent of the original evaluation weighting and price 30 per cent.
There is another figure in Friday’s notice which warrants attention. ScotRail records one tender received, from SilverRail. The process launched in 2024 was structured so that between two and five suppliers could be selected from the initial qualification stage and taken forward. The final award notice tells us that one tender was received at the award stage; it does not explain in the published material how the field narrowed to one.
A competitive procurement can end with a single final tender for perfectly legitimate reasons. What the record establishes is simpler: a public contract worth nearly £84 million was ultimately awarded following receipt of one tender, and the published notice does not provide the history necessary to explain that outcome.
Passengers had their first direct encounter with part of the new system on 30 July, when ScotRail switched its app and website booking engine. ScotRail’s own terms identify SilverRail as the provider behind the new booking service.
The launch did not proceed cleanly. Passengers reported failures involving account access, journey searches, stations, railcards and ticket purchasing. ScotRail apologised and permitted customers experiencing difficulties to continue using the previous app while technical teams worked with the supplier. Subsequent complaints continued beyond launch day.
ScotRail’s 2024 procurement notice expressly said that a number of key performance indicators would be attached to the final contract. Those KPIs were to be detailed later in the tender process and are not set out in the award notice now available publicly.
