What the ACCC does

  • We regulate the Hunter Valley rail network through a voluntary access undertaking.
  • We carry out a compliance process every year to assess recovery of revenue.

What the ACCC can't do

  • We don’t set the prices or provide access to the rail network.
  • We don’t direct the Australian Rail Track Corporation.
  • We don’t set technical standards for the rail industry.

On this page

About the Hunter Valley rail network

The network is mainly used to transport coal

The Hunter Valley rail network is in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales. The full title of the undertaking document is the Hunter Valley Coal Network Access Undertaking.

The network is mainly used to transport coal:

  • from mines in the Hunter Valley region to the Port of Newcastle for export
  • to domestic customers, such as power stations.

It is also used by non-coal traffic, including:

  • general and bulk freight services, such as grain
  • passenger services.

The provider is the Australian Rail Track Corporation

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) manages the Hunter Valley rail network.

It is a rail infrastructure provider that:

  • was formed out of a 1997 inter-governmental agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia
  • is vertically separated, providing ‘below-rail’ services, such as the rail track infrastructure, but not ‘above-rail’ services, such as haulage
  • provides a single contact for parties wanting to run trains on the Interstate rail network and the Hunter Valley rail network in New South Wales.

Hunter Valley rail network regulation

About the access undertaking and rail network regulation

Access for coal producers and customers to the Australian Rail Track Corporation’s Hunter Valley rail network is regulated through a voluntary access undertaking.

Access undertakings allow infrastructure owners and operators to give other parties access to their infrastructure services. Undertakings are one method to facilitate access to services under the national access regime and are described in Part IIIA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

The access undertaking covers the terms and conditions of access to the Hunter Valley rail network.

Current version of the access undertaking

We accepted Australian Rail Track Corporation’s access undertaking on 29 June 2011.

Since we accepted the first undertaking in 2011, we have accepted numerous variations to the undertaking.

The current version is:

Access undertaking application projects

See a complete list of rail projects.

Current undertaking application projects

There are currently no undertaking application projects.

Past undertaking application projects

Past applications to vary or extend the 2011 undertaking

This is a list of past projects considered by the ACCC. It includes applications submitted by the Australian Rail Track Corporation to vary or extend an existing Hunter Valley rail network access undertaking.

Previous undertaking applications

The following lists previous Hunter Valley rail network access undertaking applications submitted by Australian Rail Track Corporation.

Annual compliance assessment

About the annual compliance process

The Hunter Valley rail network access undertaking requires the Australian Rail Track Corporation to submit documents to the ACCC for a compliance process every year.

The ACCC assesses whether:

  • the Australian Rail Track Corporation has complied with the financial model and pricing principles specified in the undertaking
  • there has been any under or over recovery of revenue from users that needs reconciling.

The compliance process is carried out under section 4.10 and Schedule G of the Hunter Valley Coal Network Access Undertaking 2011.

Current compliance assessments

Past compliance assessments

Other Hunter Valley rail network projects

The ACCC occasionally undertakes other ad-hoc projects relating to the Hunter Valley rail network, to assist with fulfilling its undertaking and compliance assessment obligations.

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