Australian Rail Track Corporation

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The Australian Rail Track Corporation is a federal government owned corporation established in 1997 that owns, leases, maintains and control the majority of main line standard gauge railway lines on the mainland of Australia.

The interstate rail network of the former Australian National Railways Commission was transferred to the newly established National Rail Corporation in 1992. This network, except for the Tarcoola-Alice Springs Line, was in turn transferred to the Australian Rail Track Corporation in 1997. This consists of the track from Kalgoorlie to Broken Hill and Serviceton, Victoria. The ARTC also manages under lease the interstate standard gauge rail network in New South Wales and Victoria and has rights to sell access between Kalgoorlie and Kwinana to interstate rail operators under a wholesale access agreement with the WA track owner and operator, WestNet Rail. It also "has a working relationship with Queensland Rail about the use of the 127 kilometres of standard gauge line between the Queensland border and Fisherman Island. ARTC intends to start discussions with Queensland about leasing this track once the NSW arrangements are bedded down" (John Anderson, Minister for Transport and Regional Services, media release December 2003).

ARTC does not operate any trains running on its tracks, but rather provides the infrastructure to enable any qualified train operator to run trains on designated train paths. The tracks controlled by ARTC are located in four states, which were previously controlled by 5 separate state railways, in a somewhat unco-ordinated fashion that has given the edge to road transport. By combining the infrastructure under one corporation it is expected that a more co-ordinated one stop shop will be created.

ARTC does not control any of the narrow gauge track in the state of Queensland.