AUSTRALIA: The part of Aurizon that doesn’t haul a single tonne of coal — it just charges other trains to use its tracks — grew its earnings faster than the company’s freight operations did in the past fiscal year.

Rail track infrastructure on Aurizon’s Central Queensland Coal Network
Track infrastructure on the Goonyella system in Queensland’s Central Queensland Coal Network. Illustrative photo. Photo: Germany7234, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Aurizon Network, the regulated arm that manages access to the company’s Queensland coal rail network, reported adjusted EBIT of $640 million for FY2026, up 10% year over year, according to a company announcement cited by Kalkine Media.

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Why track access, not haulage, drove the growth

Aurizon Network earns revenue by granting other operators access to its rail infrastructure in Queensland’s Central Queensland Coal Network — a regulated business whose returns depend on how much coal moves through the system, rather than on Aurizon’s own haulage volumes. A 10% rise in that segment’s earnings signals broader activity across the coal network, not just growth specific to Aurizon’s own train operations, which is why the figure sits alongside the company’s separate BMA coal haulage renewal as a marker of overall network health.

What the announcement leaves out

The company did not detail how much of the EBIT growth came from higher regulated access charges versus higher tonnage moved through the network, and the announcement does not specify a forecast for the current fiscal year. The result also does not include performance figures for Aurizon’s separate Coal or Bulk haulage divisions.

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