2006 Access Undertaking Amendments + Activities
Coal System Maintenance Costs
On 3 May 2007, Queensland Rail (QR) submitted a voluntary draft amending access undertaking (DAAU) to the Queensland Competition Authority. In it, QR sought to revise its reference tariffs in the central Queensland coal region (CQCR) for 2007-08 and 2008-09 due to an increase in maintenance costs.
In accordance with the Queensland Competition Authority Act 1997 (the QCA Act), the Authority published and invited submissions on QR's application and on a draft decision published in September 2007. All submissions received in relation to this matter are available for download below.
On 22 November 2007, the Authority released its final decision to not approve QR's maintenance cost DAAU. In it, the Authority accepted QR's proposal to increase its maintenance costs, but did not accept all of QR's claims, particularly those in respect of ballast cleaning.
In arriving at its decision, the Authority noted that, while there is significant benefit in providing for stable and certain arrangements over the term of the access undertaking, in this case this is outweighed by the adverse impacts from maintaining current arrangements.
On 26 November 2007, QR submitted a new voluntary DAAU for the Authority's approval that contains revised coal system maintenance costs and associated reference tariffs which reflect the Authority's November 2007 decision on its previous maintenance cost claim.
Interested parties were invited to make written submissions to the Authority in respect of QR's revised DAAU by 4 December 2007. The Authority received one submission, from the Queensland Resources Council.
On 17 December 2007, the Authority released its final decision on QR's Revised Maintenance Cost DAAU. The Authority's final decision is to approve the DAAU, for the reasons stated in the final decision, which is available for download below.
Decision/Recommendation
Interim Reports/Papers
Submissions
