Queensland Rail 2020 draft access undertaking

We have published our decision not to approve Queensland Rail’s 2020 draft access undertaking (2020 DAU). We have issued Queensland Rail with a secondary undertaking notice asking it to submit an amended 2020 DAU by 27 April 2020.

The decision and secondary undertaking notice, Queensland Rail’s 2020 DAU and related documents are available below.

Consultant report

We have published, along with the decision, a report prepared for the QCA by Systra Scott Lister (Systra), on Queensland Rail’s proposed maintenance, capital and operating expenditure. Queensland Rail has claimed that some of the information in Systra’s report is confidential.

The unredacted Systra report is available to interested parties, subject to agreement with Queensland Rail about the treatment of information that it has claimed is confidential.*

Reference tariff model

Our West Moreton and Metropolitan system reference tariff model is available on request to interested parties, subject to agreement with Queensland Rail about the treatment of information that it has claimed is confidential.

* In light of these measures, formal assessment of Queensland Rail’s confidentiality claim by the QCA (pursuant to s. 187 of the Queensland Competition Authority Act 1997) has not as yet been required.

We issued Queensland Rail on 14 September 2017 with an Initial Undertaking Notice under section 133 of the QCA Act, requiring it to submit a draft access undertaking (the 2020 DAU) by 30 April 2018. Two extensions were granted at Queensland Rail’s request, extending the deadline to 14 August 2018.

On 6 July 2018, we published a statement of regulatory intent for considering Queensland Rail’s 2020 DAU. The statement explains how we intend to manage the regulatory process so that an appropriate undertaking is ready to replace the 2016 access undertaking when it terminates in June 2020.

Queensland Rail submitted its 2020 DAU on 14 August 2018, and we began investigating whether or not to approve it.

On 29 April 2019, we published a draft decision on the 2020 DAU. We also published two reports prepared for the QCA: one by Incenta Economic Consulting on aspects of Queensland Rail’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC) and the other by Systra Scott Lister (Systra) on Queensland Rail’s proposed maintenance, capital and operating expenditure.

On 24 October 2019, we published a discussion paper seeking further comment on the appropriate pricing approach for West Moreton coal services. On 22 November 2019, Queensland Rail submitted a revised proposal for access pricing for coal services on the West Moreton system at low volumes.

The 2020 DAU and related documents are available below.

* s. 147 of the QCA Act gives the QCA 6 months for making a decision and describes the periods that should not be counted towards the 6 months.