Review of rail guidelines for access regimes 2017 - Archived

15 Dec 2016

The Commission is the regulator under the AustralAsia Railway (Third Party Access) Act 1999, which establishes the Tarcoola-Darwin rail access regime, and the Railways (Operations and Access) Act 1997 which establishes the South Australian rail access regime.

The regimes encourage commercial negotiation of access to railways and establishes processes for conciliation and arbitration should access disputes arise.  The Commission issued four guidelines under the AustralAsia Railway (Third Party Access) Act 1999, which detail the responsibilities of the regulator and industry participants, as follows:

• Guideline No 1 – Access provider reference pricing and service policies – Feb 2004
• Guideline No 2 – Arbitrator pricing requirements – Sep 2008
• Guideline No 3 – Regulatory information requirements – Jun 2004
• Guideline No 4 – Compliance systems and reporting – Jun 2005.

In relation to the South Australian rail access regime, the Commission published an Information Kit in 2010 as the primary guideline which, among other things:

• establishes pricing principles
• sets out information that an access provider must provide to an access seeker, and\
• establishes reporting and compliance requirements.

In fulfilling its obligations under the ESC Act (Part 2, 5(c)), the Commission is required to monitor the operation of, and review from time to time, codes and rules relating to the conduct or operations of a regulated industry or entity

To achieve that requirement, the Commission has, therefore, initiated the guidelines review to ensure that they;

• continue to provide effective protection to existing and prospective railway users while ensuring that regulatory costs are kept to a minimum,
• are clear and represent contemporary practice, and
• anticipate, as much as practicable, future changes in the rail industry.

The Commission seeks information from stakeholders to identify any improvements that can be made to the guidelines and Rail Access Regime, and to seek views on improvements that might be made, within the limits of the relevant legislation.

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Review of rail guidelines – Tarcoola-Darwin rail and the South Australian rail access regimes