Tarcoola to Darwin Railway - Ten year review of revenues - Archived

19 Nov 2014

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Under the terms of the AustralAsia Railway (Third Party Access) Act 1999, the Essential Services Commission of South Australia (Commission) is required to undertake a review of the revenues received from the provision of access to the Tarcoola – Darwin Railway (the Review) during the ten-year period ending 30 June 2013.

The purpose of the Review is to determine if excessive revenues have been earned by the operators of the Tarcoola - Darwin Railway (the Railway) for the provision of non-competitive railway infrastructure services during the ten-year period ending 30 June 2013. If the Commission determines that excessive revenues for those services had been earned (if revenues exceed costs, including a reasonable cost of capital), the Railway operator (GWA (North) Pty Ltd (GWAN)) and the Commission will seek to agree a “remedial plan” to ensure that revenues for the next five years are not excessive. Failure to agree would result in the Commission making a price determination to ensure that the future revenues are not excessive.

The Issues Paper invites comments on a threshold question for this Review: what Railway services have been subject to sustainable competition during the first ten years of operation? In addition, this Paper briefly outlines the scope and principles that the Commission intends to apply in this Review and requests any information, or evidence, that any party wishes to provide to the Commission, for it to take into account in this Review.

The Commission is seeking submissions on the Issues Paper by Friday 19th December 2014

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