REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2018/643 on rail transport statistics
Date: 2020-12-18
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, data collection, rail transport, transport statistics

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 18.12.2020  COM(2020) 838 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2018/643 on rail transport statistics      
 
 
1.  

INTRODUCTION  

1.1  

AIM OF THE REPORT  

Article  9  of  Regulation  (EU)  2018/643  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of 
18 April 2018  on  rail  transport  statistics 1  specifies  that,  after  consulting  the  European 
Statistical  System  Committee,  the  Commission  must  submit  a  report  to  the  European 
Parliament  and  to  the  Council  on  the  implementation  of  this  Regulation  and  on  future 
developments by 31 December 2020 and every 4 years after that.  

The first section of this report outlines the background to the Regulation, the policy context, 
and the countries and statistics to which the Regulation applies. The second section presents 
issues  linked  to  the  implementation  of  the  Regulation,  while  the  third  and  fourth  sections 
contain a description of possible future developments and conclusions.  

1.2  

BACKGROUND TO THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK  

The initial legal basis for rail transport statistics was Regulation (EC) No 91/20032. As this 
Regulation was substantially amended several times, it was recast in 2018 in the interests of 
clarity as Regulation (EU) 2018/643, gathering all the changes into one new legal text.  

Regulation  (EC)  No  91/2003  was  designed  to  provide  the  Commission,  other  EU 
institutions,  national  governments  and  the  general  public  with  comparable,  reliable, 
harmonised,  regular  and  comprehensive  statistical  data  on  the  rail  transport  of  goods  and 
passengers.  

The  amendments  introduced  in  2016  by  Regulation  (EU)  2016/2032  aimed  to  update  and 
simplify the original act (and thus reduce the burden for Member States). They also aimed to 
optimise the existing legal framework for European statistics on rail transport and to align it 
with the Lisbon Treaty.  

1.3  

POLICY CONTEXT  

Over  the  last  25  years,  the  Commission  has  been  actively  proposing  to  restructure  the 
European rail transport market in order to strengthen the position of railways in relation to 
other  modes  of  transport.  The  Commission’s  efforts  have  concentrated  on  three  major 
objectives,  which  are  all  crucial  for  developing  a  strong  and  competitive  rail  transport 
industry:   

(1)  open the rail transport market to competition;  

(2)  improve the interoperability and safety of national networks;   

(3)  develop rail transport infrastructure.  

The  policy  relevance  is  very  high.  The  White  Paper  Roadmap  to  a  Single  European 
Transport  Area  –  Towards  a  competitive  and  resource  efficient  transport  system3 set  out 
several goals for a competitive and resource-efficient rail transport system. The priority has 
since  been  to  achieve  a  single  European  railway  area  by:  i)  abolishing  technical, 
administrative  and  legal  obstacles  which  impede  entry  to  national  railway  markets;  and  ii) 

1 OJ L 112, 2.5.2018, p. 1.  
2 Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on rail 
transport statistics (OJ L 14, 21.1.2003, p. 1).  
3 COM(2011) 144 final. 

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completing  the  European  high-speed  rail  network  by  2050,  when  most  passenger  journeys 
over medium distances should be made by rail.  

Apart from  supporting policy needs, the data collected under Regulation  (EU) 2018/643  is 
also valuable for transport companies, universities, researchers and modellers working in rail 
transport.  

In  a  questionnaire  sent  in  April  2020,  Member  States  specified  the  benefits  of  the  data 
derived  from  rail  statistics.  According  to  their  feedback,  the  data  is  used  by:  national 
authorities;  research  institutes;  the  railway  industry  itself,  for  analysis  and  planning;  EU 
institutions;  international  organisations  such  as  the  International  Transport  Forum  and  the 
United  Nations  Economic  Commission  for  Europe;  and  policymakers,  for  planning,  target 
monitoring and decision-making. Furthermore, the Member States noted that data is needed 
in order to: observe the evolution of rail transport activity by short-term monitoring (using 
quarterly  data)  and  by  long-term  monitoring  (using  yearly  data);  conduct  national  trend 
analyses  and  run  benchmarks  with  other  countries;  and  follow  how  the  share  of  railway 
transport  in  the  overall  European  transport  is  evolving  compared  to  other  modes  (modal 
split).  
The European Green Deal4 is the new growth strategy that aims to make the EU’s economy 
sustainable by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities in all policy 
areas and by making the transition just and inclusive for all. The European Green Deal calls 
for a 90% reduction in transport emissions by 2050, including the following priority actions 
for a shift to sustainable and smart mobility:  

  boosting ‘multimodal’ transport;  

  supporting automated and connected mobility across transport modes; 

  better addressing external costs of transport activities through pricing;  

 

 

increasing the production and deployment of sustainable alternative transport fuels; and 
reducing pollution from transport, especially in cities. 

To accelerate this shift, a substantial proportion of road freight should move onto rail and 
inland waterways (today, 75% of inland freight is carried by road). 

1.4  

COVERAGE OF MEMBER STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES  

Regulation (EU) 2018/643 applies directly and entirely to all Member States.  

All Member States are required to provide the data stipulated in the Regulation, except for 
Malta  and  Cyprus,  which  do  not  have  rail  infrastructure  and  therefore  no  rail  transport 
activity.  

Data on rail transport is also provided by three European Free Trade Area (EFTA) countries 
-  Norway,  Switzerland  and  Liechtenstein.  Three  candidate  countries  (Montenegro,  North 
Macedonia and Turkey) and one potential candidate (Bosnia and Herzegovina) provide data 
on a voluntary basis.  

In  compliance  with  Article  6  of  Regulation  (EU)  2018/643,  countries  send  to  Eurostat:  (i) 
detailed annual statistics on goods and passenger transport; (ii) quarterly statistics on goods 
and  passenger  transport;  (iii)  regional  statistics  on  goods  and  passenger  transport  (every  5 
years,  for  a  reference  period  of  1  year);  (iv)  statistics  on  traffic  flows  on  the  rail  network 
(every  5  years,  for  a  reference  period  of  1  year);  and  (v)  annual  statistics  on  the  level  of 
transport activity in goods and passenger transport. 

4 COM(2019) 640 final. 

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Since  1 February 2020,  when  the  United  Kingdom  left  the  European  Union,  Eurostat  has 
added  to  its  datasets  the  new  aggregate  ‘European  Union  -  27  countries  (from  2020)’  that 
excludes the United Kingdom. During the transition period until the end of 2020, the United 
Kingdom is continuing to send data to Eurostat, and this data is made available to users. 

  2.  

FOLLOW-UP TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION 

2.1  

COMPLIANCE WITH THE LEGAL OBLIGATIONS  

There is very good compliance with the obligations defined in Regulation (EU) 2018/643 for 
providing data, with all Member States delivering the requested datasets. Short delays may 
sometimes  occur  due  to  changes  at  national  level  (e.g.  IT  changes  or  changes  in  the  rail 
market). However, these delays have never had an impact on the production of rail transport 
statistics. Countries follow the agreed methodology, ensuring the production of high-quality, 
reliable statistics on rail freight and passenger transport in Europe.  

2.2  

DATA COLLECTION METHODS USED IN MEMBER STATES  

Rail  undertakings  collect  data  using  the  methods  adopted  by  each  country  and  send  it  to 
national  authorities,  which  are  in  charge  of  processing  the  data.    Eurostat’s  Reference 
Manual on Rail transport statistics5 includes a chapter dedicated to national methodologies 
with a subchapter on data compilation and quality management.  

2.3  

ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN FOR MEMBER STATES  

Reducing  administrative  burdens  and  simplification  are  continuous  concerns  for  Eurostat. 
Based on feedback from Member States, Eurostat, in cooperation with the national statistical 
institutes, implements specific actions to reduce the burden of data collection and reporting.  

Following requests from Member States, Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 was amended in 2016 
to  reduce  and  simplify  the  administrative  burden  for  them.  The  following  annexes  were 
modified:  

-  Annex B - ‘Annual statistics on goods transport (simplified reporting)’ - was removed;  

-  Annex  C  -  ‘Annual  statistics  on  passenger  transport  (detailed  reporting)’  -  was 
simplified  by  removing  Tables  C1  (‘Passengers  transported,  by  type  of  transport  - 
provisional  data,  number  of  passengers  only’)  and  C2  (‘International  passengers 
transported, by country of embarkation and by country of disembarkation - provisional 
data, number of passengers only’);  

-  Annex  D  -  ‘Annual  statistics  on  passenger  transport  (simplified  reporting)’  -  was 

removed;  

-  Annex  H  -  ‘Accidents  data  in  rail  transport’  -  was  removed.  Until  2016,  Member 
States  provided  data  on  accidents  to  Eurostat  and  the  European  Union  Agency  for 
Railways. Since 2016, such data is provided only to the Agency in order to reduce the 
burden  for  Member  States.  The  Agency  then  sends  the  data  to  Eurostat  for 
dissemination through its database6;  

-  Annex I - ‘List of undertakings (reporting on list of undertakings)’ - was removed.  

5

 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/29567/3217334/Reference+manual+on+Rail+Transport+Statistics+ 

%28Version+8.01%29/ed767b61-7fca-470a-a9e2-582e4aabedcb (Available only in English).  
6 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database (Available in English, French and German).  

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Eurostat  has  been  working  to  develop  stronger  procedures  for  data  validation  and  quality 
checks  that  will  provide  quick  feedback  to  Member  States  at  a  very  early  stage  of  data 
transmission.  

According to the input collected from the questionnaire sent to the Member States in April 
2020,  the  framework  defined  by  Regulation  (EU)  2018/643  is  sufficient  to  accommodate 
user needs without putting an excessive burden on respondents. Countries consider that the 
data is of significant value and that the related burden and cost for respondents and statistical 
offices in collecting this data are justified in relation to its benefits. Member States recognise 
that environmentally friendly logistics are inconceivable without rail transport, a sector that 
needs to be modernised and strengthened. To support this process, relevant and reliable data 
is necessary to define and evaluate various measures.  

2.4  

DATA VALIDATION AND QUALITY OF THE STATISTICAL DATA RECEIVED  

While  Member  States  are  responsible  for  the  quality  of  rail  transport  statistics,  the 
Commission  takes  all  necessary  measures  to  detect  errors  in  the  data  it  receives.  Eurostat 
maintains  a  reliable  IT  system  for  data  reception,  validation  and  processing  and  performs 
several  types  of  data  checks.  When  errors  are  detected,  countries  are  requested  to  send 
revised data.  

Regarding the technical  arrangements for data transmission, a high level  of standardisation 
has been achieved. Countries send data to Eurostat via the EDAMIS portal, complying with 
the  requested  file  structure  and  record  format.  A  validation  process,  implemented  by  the 
main IT system, performs an early detection of basic errors and erroneous codes, allowing 
for quick integration of the information in the Eurostat production database.   

Once data has been loaded into the Eurostat production database, detailed checks are applied 
to  ensure  the  quality  of  the  data  that  has  been  sent.  These  quality  checks  look  at  the 
consistency of each country’s reporting tables, the consistency of these tables over time and 
the  coherence  between  different  types  of  tables,  and  compare  results  between  partner 
reporting countries (mirror checks).  

Overall,  the  quality  of  the  data  is  considered  to  be  good.  Nevertheless,  efforts  are  still 
required  to  reduce  the  asymmetries  highlighted  by  mirror  checks,  although  some  of  these 
asymmetries are due to differences in national methodologies and cannot be easily removed. 
The  reporting  of  transit  data  also  needs  to  be  improved  by  harmonising  data  collection 
methods in reporting countries. 

2.5   METHODOLOGICAL SUPPORT TO MEMBER STATES  

Eurostat  provides  constant  methodological  and  technical  support  to  the  reporting  countries 
for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2018/643.  

As  part  of  this  support,  Eurostat  organises  country  visits  to  discuss  unclear  issues. 
Furthermore,  every  2  years  Eurostat  organises  a  meeting  of  national  experts  (the  Expert 
Group  on  Rail  Transport  Statistics)  from  all  Member  States,  EFTA  countries,  candidate 
countries  and  potential  candidates  to  exchange  good  practices  and  discuss  data  quality, 
methodological  issues  and  new  projects.  The  implementation  of  the  Regulation  is  also  a 
regular agenda item at meetings of the Coordinating Group for Statistics on Transport.  

The Reference Manual  on Rail  transport statistics  provides guidance to  Member States on 
implementing  the  Regulation.  The  Reference  Manual  is  updated  regularly  (mostly  on  an 
annual basis) to include the most recent information, documentation and guidelines relevant 
to the collection of rail transport statistics.   

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In 2019, Eurostat, in close cooperation with the  United Nations Economic Commission for 
Europe and the International Transport Forum, co-published the fifth edition of the Glossary 
for  transport  statistics,  which  includes  an  updated  and  improved  section  on  rail  transport. 
The  Glossary  aims  to  standardise  definitions  of  transport  statistics  at  European  and 
international level.   

2.6  

DATA DISSEMINATION  

Eurostat  releases  the  data  collected  under  Regulation  (EU)  2018/643  through  its 
dissemination  database  that  is  freely  accessible  from  the  Eurostat  website.  There  are  26 
tables on rail transport, which are updated regularly and complemented by detailed metadata 
files.  

Eurostat also produces ‘Statistics Explained’ articles that provide an analysis of the data for 
the media and the general public7. Data is also disseminated via tailor-made data extractions 
for  users  and  policymakers,  Eurostat  news  items  and  Eurostat  publications  (e.g.  the 
statistical book Energy, transport and environment statistics8).  

3.  

  FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF RAIL TRANSPORT STATISTICS  

The European  Green Deal  has  announced a set  of transformative policies across economic 
sectors,  including  transport.  Rail  freight  and  passenger  transport  statistics  can  help  with 
setting  and  monitoring  policy  targets  by  providing  data  on  volumes  of  goods  transported, 
numbers  of  passengers,  kilometres  travelled,  and  equipment  and  infrastructure.  Such 
information is collected under Regulation (EU) 2018/643 and from voluntary questionnaires. 

Data  confidentiality  in  some  countries  limits  the  potential  for  collecting  this  information 
under Regulation (EU) 2018/643. Eurostat, together with the Member States, will investigate 
if and how the constraints imposed by data confidentiality can be alleviated. 

To  have  a  wider  coverage  of  rail  transport  statistics,  Eurostat  has  signed  an  administrative 
agreement with the European Union Agency for Railways to receive and publish data on:  

(i)  the length of lines and tracks equipped with the European Railway Traffic Management 

System (ERTMS);  

(ii) the number of rail stations equipped with facilities for persons with reduced mobility.  

The first data, published in the third quarter of 2020, is related to the length of lines equipped 
with the ERTMS.  

Moreover, Eurostat is working on the development of a rail distance matrix to help calculate 
the  modal  split  indicators  by  distance  class  without  placing  additional  burdens  on  the 
reporting  countries.  The  distance  matrix  for  rail  is  based  on  the  NUTS  2  level  of  the 
classification on regions, so that it matches the collection of regional data for rail transport 
within  Annex  IV  of  Regulation  (EU)  2018/643.  How  the  distance  matrix  develops  will 
depend on the improvement of the geographical networks. Its application will mainly depend 
on the availability and quality of rail data at regional level.  

The geographical coverage of rail transport statistics could be extended as a result of future 
EU enlargements and the voluntary involvement of additional countries and/or international 
organisations through cooperation agreements.  

7 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Category:Rail (Available only in English).  
8 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-statistical-books/-/KS-DK-19-001 (Available only in English).  

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According  to  the  questionnaire  sent  in  April  2020,  Member  States  do  not  currently  see  a 
need  for  changes  or  improvements  to  Regulation  (EU)  2018/643.  There  are  no  new  user 
needs to be addressed. However, new national, European and international policy initiatives 
on  sustainability  and  on  transformation  of  transport  systems  may  create  new  data  needs. 
Once  such  needs  are  identified,  they  will  have  to  be  evaluated  and  discussed  in  a  timely 
manner within the Expert Group on Rail Transport Statistics.  

4.  

CONCLUSIONS  

Regulation (EU) 2018/643 has been implemented successfully, and the results are considered 
to  be  positive.  A  well-established  mechanism  in  Eurostat  and  at  national  level  makes  it 
possible to produce statistics that are comparable and of high quality.  

Eurostat is doing its utmost to help Member States to implement the Regulation and produce 
high-quality  statistics.  It  has  developed  an  IT  system  and  has  introduced  communication 
methods  that  aim  to  minimise  the  burden  of  managing  data  for  the  reporting  countries. 
Eurostat has also been providing guidance on how to improve the quality of data and reduce 
the burden of collecting and reporting data.  

Rail transport statistics  have an immediate application in  the development,  implementation 
and  monitoring  of  policies  at  national  and  European  level.  Apart  from  policymakers,  a 
number  of  organisations  and  other  users,  such  as  researchers  and  analysts,  have  shown  an 
interest  in  the  data,  and  Eurostat  ensures  that  these  rail  statistics  remain  highly  visible  by 
disseminating them through a variety of means. 

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