Rail Bid Writing

Kittle Group supported a joint venture (JV) between a global transport provider, a Japanese rail operator, and an international trading company to prepare their tender for the operation of the Elizabeth line on behalf of Rail for London. This concession contract is estimated to be around £2.5 billion over its duration.

As we had just supported one of the JV partners with their bid to operate the Docklands Light Railway, we transitioned many of the same writers to this next exciting assignment. This provided excellent continuity for the client who had already built a great rapport with our team and had given feedback about how impressed they were with the quality of work and collaboration. The client was delighted that many of the same writers would support them, and it also meant our team could hit the ground running given we had a matter of weeks to prepare documents running at over 450 pages.

As with all major assignments of this nature, our client’s resourcing requirements changed, but the size of our in-house team allowed us to flex the number of writers – starting with four, then scaling up to seven, before reducing again to three at the very end. The writers were co-located together throughout – whether at the client’s London office alongside their subject matter experts or in our Reading office – which built collaboration between them, consistency, and a high-quality narrative.  Work was also reviewed by one of our Directors as part of our quality assurance process.

Our client was awarded the £2.5bn contract and described Kittle Group’s support as ‘stellar’ and ‘10/10’.

A joint venture between a UK-based global transport provider and an international engineering consultancy commissioned Kittle Group to support their bid to operate and maintain the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) for Rail for London.

We were brought on to this bid late in the client’s process, with only three weeks remaining until the initial submission deadline. Our client contacted us on a Thursday afternoon, and we onboarded two senior writers and one of our managing directors the following Monday.

Upon our initial review, we recognised that the bid would be improved with increased consistency across the responses and additional sections to define a more complete solution. We shared this with the client, and quickly offered additional senior and experienced writers, explaining the benefits of having multiple writers from one company join their almost exclusively external bid team (e.g., consistency and ease of collaboration).

Ultimately, our team of two writers increased to seven, and Kittle Group re-worked six of the eight responses, totalling c.430 pages out of the final 650-page submission. Each of our writers worked over late hours and weekends to get the bid ready for submission and significantly eased the drastic increase in the volume of work required.

In the bid’s final stage, the client’s senior reviewers scheduled several additional review gates in close succession. As new additions to the team, our writers were able to filter review feedback, lessening some frustrations and enabling SMEs to focus on improving the solution.

The transformational support our writers provided on this project meant that we were requested to support the client on their next major bid. They also recommended our services to their bus division for an upcoming tender.

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) invited a long-term Kittle Group client to bid for the ‘Technology Partner’ role for the South Yorkshire tram network. This was a technically complex bid that included providing a new tram management system. The difficulty of the bid and the importance of the contract prompted the client to commission Kittle Group’s support.

We were brought on a week ahead of the SQ deadline to write eight 4000-word case studies illustrating the client’s experience in managing train and tram services. We initially assigned eight writers to this project, led by a senior writer with substantial experience of time-pressured, complex bids. We also deployed one senior writer and two company directors to provide quality assurance.

SYMCA ultimately issued an extension to the SQ deadline, so we reduced the bid team to two experienced writers who could progress the responses through the review stage. In the final week, when the workload increased again, we reassigned much of the original team to see the bid through.

We engaged with the client on regular calls throughout the bid to receive the necessary information and keep our client updated on the bid’s progress. For the final week, two of our writers co-located in our client’s Glasgow office, enabling face-to-face collaboration to close out one of the most complex responses of the SQ.

Our client was left impressed by our work and commitment, describing our team as ‘fearless’. They passed the SQ stage and intend to use Kittle Group again for the ITT stage.

Kittle Group supported a multinational rail client with the preparation of its bid into Rail for London for major infrastructure projects across the London network. This framework had a total contract value of over £200m and included the construction of new stations through to upgrades and refurbishments of the existing structures, such as platforms, canopies, and ticket halls.

Our team of four writers supported the client with both its selection questionnaire and main tender over six months. While our client was the prime contractor, our team also worked with representatives from six significant subcontractors based in the UK, Hong Kong, and Australia. Our writers therefore had to ensure that the bid was consistent across responses and inputs from various SMEs.

Our responses demonstrated our client’s experience and expertise in construction works within an operational rail environment, and their compliance with rail legislation and regulations.

This was a successful project for the client, winning first place on the Rail for London framework.

Our client’s Infrastructure Director gave a gleaming review: “Kittle Group’s input to our recent bids was nothing short of outstanding. The quality of delivery, the strength in depth of their team & their flexibility and agility all go towards making them one of the most effective consultancies of their type.”

An international Tier 1 engineering and construction company sought Kittle Group’s support in their bid to design and build the new HS2 Interchange Station in Solihull, a £275million contract.

We joined our client’s internal bid writing team close to the PQQ deadline. We initially assigned two writers, who provided quality assurance and conducted a review of the drafted responses. Following this review, the client asked us to take ownership of some critical responses and redraft where necessary. We onboarded a third writer to support this request.

Following the successful PQQ stage, the client requested a writer to support the ITT stage from the outset, and our writer was given responsibility for all eight responses, drafting 68 pages in total. As the client’s internal approach to bidding varied from that of Kittle Group, we presented to their bid team to detail our method and ensure an aligned effort.

Across all responses, we provided detailed evidence of experience in similar projects. We explored the client’s previous successful rail and infrastructure projects, applicable lessons learned, and added value, and suitably tailored these case studies to HS2’s requirements.

We submitted all of our responses for five rounds of client reviews, in which we proactively flagged areas that we felt were weak and needed more work. After each review, we worked with the client to address information gaps, expand on certain details, and confirm consistency across responses. Our transparency meant the client always had an accurate picture of the project’s progress.

Kittle Group remained flexible throughout the bid process. At the client’s request, we extended our writer for a further month to best close out the bid. Ultimately, we submitted a well-evidence, high-quality tender, and our client was successful in winning the contract.

A consortium of a global Big 4 and two smaller specialist consultancies was bidding to the Department for Transport (DfT) to be named as the project representative for HS2. Responses for the ITT stage were divided between the consortium partners, and Kittle Group acted on behalf of one of the specialist consultancies to draft their significant contributions.

The contract required our client to provide expert advice to assure that the HS2 project was meeting the DfT’s requirements; delivered in a value-for-money way; and realised the intended benefits.

Our writer provided an end-to-end delivery of all of our client’s responses – they organised storyboard interviews with the client’s SMEs, planned each answer, and drafted each response to tight internal deadlines. They also supported on the other partners’ responses in an editorial role to close out the bid.

We are pleased to say that our client’s consortium was successful in securing this £50million contract.