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
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.
On 30 March 2021, the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) submitted a new variation application for the current Hunter Valley Coal Network Access Undertaking. The ACCC published its Final Decision to consent to ARTC's 30 March variation application on 2 June 2021.
On 23 December 2020, the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) applied to the ACCC to vary the Hunter Valley Coal Network Access Undertaking. On 30 March 2021, ARTC withdrew its 23 December 2020 variation application and submitted a new variation application.
On 28 September 2018, ARTC applied to the ACCC to vary its 2011 Hunter Valley Access Undertaking.
On 21 December 2017, ARTC applied to the ACCC to vary its 2011 Hunter Valley Access Undertaking.
On 6 June 2017, ARTC applied to the ACCC to vary its 2011 Hunter Valley Access Undertaking.
On 18 October 2016, ARTC applied to the ACCC to extend the term of its 2011 Hunter Valley Access Undertaking by a further six months to 30 June 2017.
On 20 May 2016, ARTC applied to the ACCC to vary its 2011 Hunter Valley Access Undertaking to extend the term of the undertaking by six months to 31 December 2016.
These letters from the ARTC document the progress of various reviews related to the 2011 Hunter Valley undertaking.
In January 2014, ARTC submitted a proposed variation to the accepted Hunter Valley access undertaking to the ACCC for assessment.
On 28 June 2013 ARTC submitted a request to vary its 2011 undertaking to the ACCC.
On 24 December 2012, ARTC withdrew its proposed non-TUT related performance incentives variation.
ARTC lodged a variation request on 7 September 2012 which the ACCC consented to on 12 October 2012.
ARTC lodged a variation request on 2 December 2011 which was then withdrawn on 15 August 2012.
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.
The 2011 Hunter Valley Coal Network Access Undertaking (HVAU) requires the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) to send documents to the ACCC for an annual compliance assessment. As part of this assessment, we examine ARTC's operating costs, including overheads.