Award

ITSO Standards Update Contract - Vix

RAIL DELIVERY GROUP LIMITED

This public procurement record has 3 releases in its history.

Award

22 Jan 2026 at 09:57

Award

11 Dec 2025 at 06:50

Award

11 Dec 2025 at 06:45

Summary of the contracting process

The procurement process undertaken by Rail Delivery Group Limited (RDG), located in London, involves the update of ITSO standards, specifically focusing on their ITSO on Mobile initiative. The project was awarded to VIX Technology UK Limited, a small-to-medium-sized enterprise based in Surrey, and involves a direct award contract with a value of £885,795. The contract period began on 22nd December 2025 and is set to conclude on 22nd December 2026, with the procurement process reaching completion as of January 2026. The initiative falls under the category of information technology services and railway equipment, impacting various regions across the UK, including London, Surrey, and other key areas. The procurement method employed was a direct award, reflecting specific technical and intellectual property requirements.

This tender offers substantial opportunities for businesses focusing on digital ticketing, contactless payment technologies, and public transport services. Companies specialising in IT and rail industry solutions stand to benefit, especially those capable of enhancing or integrating current infrastructure without the need for additional hardware investments. The project supports wider rail reform objectives, making it suitable for those with expertise in improving public service and streamlining transport operations. By participating in such tenders, businesses can contribute to the evolution of smart ticketing solutions in the UK, ultimately fostering growth through innovation and technological advancement.

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Notice Title

ITSO Standards Update Contract - Vix

Notice Description

The ITSO on Mobile (IoM) enables customers to purchase digital smart tickets, which are stored in the wallet of their mobile phones. Smart tickets already exist in the form of a physical card, but currently, customers must scan the card with an app each time they want to know what ticket(s) they are currently holding. The advantages of ITSO over existing ticketing media: * Fraud reduction - Tickets marked as lost of refunded can be removed through native wallet commands, and are immediately rendered unusable. Copying of tickets is also prevented * Ability to facilitate removal of magstripe - Existing infrastructure can be utilised for complex use cases currently still on magstripe tickets, avoiding costly hardware retrofits. IoM gives an option for the removal of magstripe ticketing at a potentially lower cost. * Cost of completing the infrastructure rollout - Barcode is the single largest used ticket format in the railway industry today. However there are still some considerable challenges to completing the rollout to the remaining parts of the network and journey connections where through ticketing acceptance is in place. IoM provides an opportunity to resolve this issue. * Speed of throughput - Such as Google Wallet with Skip Device Unlock, can be expected to achieve the same throughput speed as contactless payment on mobile, as they both use the same NFC technology. Contactless is almost 40% faster than paper barcode tickets, and much more reliable. * Speed of CPAY and cEMV expansion - IoM allows customers to bring their own device for ticketing, with similar ease of travelling and validation as cEMV, without the need for a new back office. ITSO provides a smartcard standard in use across the UK public transport sector. The specification has been recently updated to version 2.1.5. The supplier's efforts are concentrated on delivering software and integration for all outboundary readers as a single, unified phase. These updates are required to achieve ITSO 2.1.5 specification compliance. This consolidated approach is enhanced by a vanguard period preceding the full rollout, facilitating early validation and refinement of the solution before network-wide implementation. Inboundary gates remain outside the scope at this stage. The Supplier will design, develop, test and deliver the Supplier gate reader and back office changes required to support the ITSO 2.1.5 and RSPS3002 specifications. The work focuses on enabling ITSO 2.1.5 functionality across existing Supplier devices. No new hardware is introduced, and development will occur on the current infrastructure. As such, there are no proposed changes to the overall solution architecture. The impacted components include Reader Software, TR3 and IPV Software, and TOC back-office systems such as the BDP and DGC. Components such as the DPF, SCU, and SC remain unaffected. A number of key enhancements are required to support ITSO 2.1.5. These include enhanced contactless polling (v2.3), and acceptance of CMD11 and CMD12 commands on TR3 and MM6 devices. Additionally, updates to PDB Table 3810 are necessary to support these new commands. Remote ISAM querying functionality will be introduced, enabling new ITSO request and response messages to be handled by both the TOC DGC and MM6 systems. Epoch handling is also addressed, with changes to support new DateTime stamp formats and message structures. These updates ensure compatibility with evolving ITSO standards and improve system resilience. The RSPS3002 component of the work involves addressing gaps in validation logic and implementing necessary fixes. This includes validation of concessionary pass cost centres and class fields, as well as checks for TYP22, TYP23, and TYP24 product attributes. Fulfilment actions and expiry date updates are also covered. Fixes are required for a range of journey validation scenarios, including break-of-journey logic, check-in and check-out behaviour, and OSI (Out of Station Interchange) handling. These updates ensure that the system behaves consistently and accurately under all expected operational conditions. Testing will be begin using the I2F ITSO test environment at AFC House. This will include device-to-back office testing, regression testing of ITSO functionality. Scripted and ad hoc testing will be managed via the TestRail test management tool, with defects triaged and prioritised based on customer impact. Further end-to-end testing will be carried out at RDG test facility and final accreditation by ITSO. Deployment activities include firmware and profile updates for CMDs 11 and 12, rollout of updated software to selected stations, and updates to BaseData including the TOC BDP and Table 3810. It should be noted that other table changes are required but these relate to content changes and not design changes. Training may be required to support these changes, and deployment will be managed as part of business as-usual (BAU) processes. The biggest risk to the industry by not going ahead with this programme will be detrimental to the customer. DfT have funded for the programme to go ahead and the funding amount for the Supplier has come in below the expected cost in the GFA. The timeline is tight, especially with managing other key integrated suppliers that if this was not approved, the programme would not be able to move forward. The Supplier is a key component to the programme as one of our gate suppliers. Any incompatibility between existing systems/equipment and new goods, services or works could also result in time consuming and complex redesign and modification which could be unacceptable in the circumstances, for example, resulting in significant cost and/or delay to an important service.

Procurement Information

The ITSO on Mobile (IoM) enables customers to purchase digital smart tickets, which are stored in the wallet of their mobile phones. Smart tickets already exist in the form of a physical card, but currently, customers must scan the card with an app each time they want to know what ticket(s) they are currently holding. The advantages of ITSO over existing ticketing media: * Fraud reduction - Tickets marked as lost of refunded can be removed through native wallet commands, and are immediately rendered unusable. Copying of tickets is also prevented * Ability to facilitate removal of magstripe - Existing infrastructure can be utilised for complex use cases currently still on magstripe tickets, avoiding costly hardware retrofits. IoM gives an option for the removal of magstripe ticketing at a potentially lower cost. * Cost of completing the infrastructure rollout - Barcode is the single largest used ticket format in the railway industry today. However there are still some considerable challenges to completing the rollout to the remaining parts of the network and journey connections where through ticketing acceptance is in place. IoM provides an opportunity to resolve this issue. * Speed of CPAY and cEMV expansion - IoM allows customers to bring their own device for ticketing, with similar ease of travelling and validation as cEMV, without the need for a new back office. ITSO provides a smartcard standard in use across the UK public transport sector. The specification has recently been updated to version 2.1.5. The requirement expected from Vix will be to certify their software to ITSO 2.1.5 and against the RSPS3002, 3016 standards. The scope of the work describes changes to Vix applications in use across the UK National Rail estate that are required to achieve compliance.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-05f344
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/005600-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
SME

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

34 - Transport equipment and auxiliary products to transportation

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support


CPV Codes

34940000 - Railway equipment

72222300 - Information technology services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
£885,795 £500K-£1M

Notice Dates

Publication Date
22 Jan 20261 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
22 Dec 20252 months ago
Contract Period
22 Dec 2025 - 22 Dec 2026 1-2 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
RAIL DELIVERY GROUP LIMITED
Contact Name
Not specified
Contact Email
procurement@raildeliverygroup.com
Contact Phone
Not specified

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
EC4V 3DS
Post Town
Central London
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified

Local Authority
City of London
Electoral Ward
Castle Baynard
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

VIX TECHNOLOGY

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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