How it works
How the Atlas is compiled
The Atlas is a record, not a research note: everything on it is public, sourced on the page, and checked before it ships. This page sets out where that record comes from, how it is graded, what qualifies for it, and what does not.
1. What the record is
Every entry on the Atlas is drawn from the public record: tenders, awards, sanctions and published documents. No rumour, no private tip, no paid placement. If a claim cannot be sourced on the page it carries, it does not ship.
2. Where it comes from
Watchtower checks the platform's source register — procurement portals, ministry releases, trade pages, and the open procurement data services (TED, Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, SAM.gov, CanadaBuys) — every Monday. The register currently runs to 875 sources across five markets. The automated share — 599 sources — is read by connectors every week. The remainder are portals that block crawling or publish only PDFs; they are read by hand on a monthly rotation. A source that fails to answer is listed in the week's run report and read by hand before the next run.
3. Source tiers
Every claim on the Atlas carries a tier. Primary is the buyer's or the player's own published record — a notice, an annual report, a filing. Secondary is trade press, cross-checked against another source before it is used. The tier shows on the page next to the claim, as a tier dot or a "(Primary)" label; nothing ships ungraded.
4. What enters and what does not
Each market carries its own tender floor — ₹50 crore in India, £5m in the United Kingdom, €5m in the European Union, US$5m in the United States, C$5m in Canada — and notices below it are excluded. An open solicitation with no published value is still carried, on scope, with its value band left empty; it is never estimated. An award needs a published figure to enter. Events on the calendar are organiser-sourced.
5. The fact is free, the figure is paid
Every market, buyer, player and tender on the Atlas is free to browse, with no email required. What is behind an edition is the detail underneath a record you have already found — exact values, dates and structure. The editions and how they work are on one page.
6. Corrections
Every correction is owned by the Managing Partner, who spot-checks output and signs off on fixes. Spotted an error in the data? Write to partners@mainline-railway.com. A corrected record shows the change on the page.
Every field-level change on the free surface in the last 90 days, and every correction applied, is listed on What changed in the Atlas.
7. What is not covered
A market not yet live is not described as covered. The Atlas profiles no people — only buying bodies, players and their relationships. It carries no private deal intelligence: if it is not on the public record, it is not on the Atlas.