ACCC to consider revised Rail access undertaking from Australian Rail Track Corporation
On 20 December 2007 the Australian Rail Track Corporation Ltd submitted a revised voluntary rail access undertaking to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for assessment under Part IIIA of the Trade Practices Act 1974. A copy of ARTC's undertaking and supporting documentation is available on the ACCC website.
The undertaking is a revised version of an undertaking lodged with the ACCC on 8 June 2007 but subsequently withdrawn by ARTC on 15 October 2007. The revised undertaking contains a number of changes to the June undertaking.
As part of the assessment process, the ACCC has distributed an Issues Paper to stakeholders identifying and asking for comments on the changes to the undertaking.
The due date for submissions is Friday 8 February 2008. A copy of the Issues Paper is available on the ACCC website, www.accc.gov.au. The assessment process will also include a draft decision and a further round of submissions.
ARTC's revised undertaking submitted to the ACCC on 20 December 2007, sets out the terms and conditions for providing access to the interstate mainline standard gauge track linking Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, Adelaide, Wolseley and Crystal Brook in South Australia, Melbourne and Wodonga in Victoria, and Broken Hill, Cootamundra, Albury, Macarthur, Moss Vale, Unanderra, Newcastle (to the Queensland border) and Parkes in New South Wales.
The undertaking does not cover access to tracks in the Hunter Valley coal network as these will be the subject of a separate access undertaking that ARTC is expected to lodge with the ACCC this year.
Part IIIA of the Trade Practices Act 1974 requires the ACCC to assess the undertaking. If the ACCC accepts the undertaking then the services covered by the undertaking cannot be declared and the undertaking forms the basis for third parties to negotiate access to these services. Australian Rail Track Corporation.
