Forrest bound on rail access FORTESCUE Metals Group has no choice but to start negotiations aimed at granting iron ore hopeful Brockman Resources access to the miner's vast Pilbara rail network, the head of Western Australia's Economic Regulation Authority has warned. Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest signalled last month that the company he founded 10 years ago would resist the ERA's order to begin talks with Brockman, saying it would prefer to reserve capacity on its railways for others. But ERA chairman Lyndon Rowe told a business lunch in Perth yesterday that Fortescue was bound by the agreement it signed with the WA government to enter negotiations with the Hong Kong-backed Brockman. Failure to do so would result in the appointment of an independent arbitrator, whose decision would be enforceable by law. Mr Rowe's warning came as the ERA prepares to release floor and ceiling access costs that will be negotiable between Brockman and Fortescue's wholly owned infrastructure arm, The Pilbara Infrastructure. Fortescue has said the price it would charge Brockman for access to 200km of its railway would be between $73 million and $576m. The ERA will release its own price range today or tomorrow. Mr Rowe told the American Chamber of Commerce lunch that Fortescue and Brockman would be free to negotiate within the ERA's floor and ceiling costs, and could do so with the help of an independent arbitrator. The ERA's only role in that process was the ability to comment on the fairness of the proposed charges. "Apart from that, the parties have to be grown up enough to come to their own conclusions," he said. Brockman and fellow junior Flinders Mines have applied to the ERA seeking permission to run trains on Fortescue's rail line under WA's railways access code. Last month the ERA rejected Fortescue's argument that allowing Brockman access to its railway would preclude other third parties from accessing the infrastructure. It ordered the start of negotiations between the two companies. But Fortescue claimed Brockman had failed to meet requirements under other sections of WA's railways access code not tested in the ERA decision. "Fortescue is a strong proponent of third-party access to infrastructure and is the only company to have provided junior miners access to its Pilbara rail and port infrastructure, having shipped in excess of 11 million tonnes of iron ore for third parties," the company said. Mr Forrest said Fortescue was willing to provide access to parties with stronger projects than Brockman. "What we won't do is waste those other companies' chances of getting their commercial projects up . . . and waste capacity helping projects who don't bother negotiating and go straight to the ERA," Mr Forrest said. We are not willing to subsidise uneconomic projects.