Under section 2.2(b) of the 2008 Interstate Access Undertaking (IAU), ARTC must submit to the ACCC a written statement outlining whether or not it intends to submit a new undertaking to the ACCC for its consideration, no later than six months prior to the expiry of the 2008 IAU. ARTC’s 2008 IAU was due to expire on 30 June 2020.
On 20 December 2019, ARTC sent a letter to the ACCC stating that it intended to extend the term of the 2008 IAU. However, given the ACCC was in the process of engaging a consultant to revalue the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) for the Interstate network, ARTC intended to wait until this process was further developed to understand the length of extension required before submitting an application to extend the term of the 2008 IAU.
On 23 April 2020, the ACCC engaged GHD Advisory to conduct the Depreciated Optimised Replacement Cost (DORC) valuation of Australian Rail Track Corporation's RAB on the Interstate network. The DORC valuation was expected to take six months to complete. On 5 May 2020, ARTC submitted an application to extend the term of the 2008 IAU to 30 June 2021.