Services contractor beat rival Mitie to five-year Tyne and Wear network contract

Services contractor Connaught has beaten Mitie to a multi-million pound contract to clean the Tyne and Wear Metro network for the next five years.

Nexus, the city’s passenger transport executive awarded the contract, thought to be worth £10m, to clean sixty stations, five bus interchanges and support offices.

Employment contracts of the 130 Mitie employees will be transferred to Connaught under TUPE.

The 30-year-old light rail service is undergoing a £300m modernisation programme over the next 10 years which will include refurbishing trains and stations, installing ticketing machines and renewing infrastructure and technology. Most infrastructure works will be undertaken by the metro’s in-house team, while specialist contractors will be sought for longer jobs, which, says a company spokesperson, might last up to nine days. Contracts will be let shortly.

The transport executive is seeking a new concessionary to manage the network for the public body. Bidding against the in-house team for the “limited” concession, whereby the metro will continue to set fares, are German firm, DB Reggio, MTR, the Hong Kong metro manager and a CERCO-NED joint venture. One of the firms will manage the Connaught contract from April 2010.

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