Getting started
How to read the Atlas
The Atlas is organised by question, not by data type. Open a market, a lens, or search for a buyer — here's what you find in each view, and how the free surface and paid editions work.
Home
The starting point: a world map showing all five market editions — the European Union, United States, United Kingdom, India and Canada — with their status and live region counts. Start with a question: pick a market, browse tenders, or search for players across all editions.
Lenses: Buyers, Players, Tenders
Three cross-market tables you can filter and sort. Use the Buyers lens to find a procurement authority across markets; the Players lens to track a manufacturer or contractor; the Tenders lens to scan what is being bought. Each has facets for market, status, segment, technology area and more. A quick-filter box and result count help you narrow down.
Market overview
Pick a market from the home page or the lens. You see key figures for that market, how it is structured, which buyers are most active, who holds the most contracts, and recently awarded tenders. Tabs let you dive deeper: browse the market's buyers, players, and tenders, or read how the market works and which regions are live.
How it works
Understand a market's structure: the layers of authority from policy makers down to delivery bodies, and the relationships between them. This tab shows the typed connections — who regulates, funds, owns, and operates what. For paid readers, procurement routes explain who lets contracts, at what threshold, and through which portal.
Region
Zoom into a region within a market. See regional counts, the technology areas active there, most-active buyers, incumbent players, live and awarded tenders, and cities with their networks. Tabs provide the same scoped tables and deep dives as the market view, plus city-level detail.
Entity pages: Buyers, Tenders, Players
Every buyer, tender, and player has its own page. A buyer page shows its role, which tenders it has issued, and who supplies to it. A tender page displays the scope, status, next key date, and (in paid editions) exact value and bidders. A player page lists its footprint, contract positions, and competitors. All carry source lines and tier grades.
Search
Search across all entities by name. Results are grouped by type — markets, buyers, tenders, players, events — so you quickly find what you need. Press the forward slash key (/) or Cmd+K anywhere to focus the search box.
Compare
Side-by-side comparison of two or three markets or players. Compare India and Canada tender volumes, or see how three OEMs differ by footprint and segment focus. Reached from a picker on market and player pages.
Events
The calendar of trade fairs, conferences and summits in each market. Every event is free to browse — see the dates, venues, and organisers. Filter by market, kind, segment or month. Download an .ics file to add events to your calendar.
Your editions and account
Your chosen markets and technology areas, saved views, watchlist and editions. Manage billing and cancel any time through the billing link. Team edition readers are named by writing to partners@mainline-railway.com. The account view is yours alone — sign in with your email to reach it on any device.
Worked examples
Each market has one buyer and one tender with all their gated details open for free, so you can see exactly what your paid edition unlocks before you choose. European Union: DB InfraGO and its permanent-way frameworks. United States: NJ Transit and the Portal North Bridge. United Kingdom: HS2 and STAR Four. India: MMRDA and its Line 4 systems tender. Canada: Metrolinx and the Ontario Line rolling stock contract.
Pre-filtered links and export
Every table has state — your filters, sort order, and quick search — and you can share links to your exact view across your team. CSV export from any table includes all columns: buyer, tender ID, status, next date, value band, and (in paid editions) exact values and bidder lists. Export follows your current filters.
What is free and what an edition opens
The whole map is free: every market, region, buyer, player, tender and relationship, plus every source line and tier grade. Search and filters are free. One email opens one edition in full — exact values, exact dates, procurement structure, incumbent positions, and CSV export with all columns. The other editions are paid subscriptions. One worked example per market stays fully open for everyone.