Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Short-term Business Statistics and Transport Statistics Department
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
National Statistical Institute 2, P. Volov Str., 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
17 June 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
20 February 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
20 February 2024
3.1. Data description
Mandatory data collection at EU level is based on legal act, the Regulation EU 2018/643 and covers goods and passengers. Data is collected as following:
Annex I (annual data) –goods transport ,
Annex II (annual data)–passenger transport,
Annex III – (quarterly data) goods and passengers,
Annex IV and V( data every five years) regional statistics on goods and passengers and rail network and
Annex VIII (annual data) goods and passengers transport for small undertakings.
3.2. Classification system
Goods transported by rail are classified according to the 20 divisions of goods following the 'Standard Goods Classification for Transport Statistics_2007 with effect from reference year 2008. Before 2008, Standard Goods Classification for Transport statistics/Revised (NST/R) was used.
The codes of regions used in the region-to-region statistics are indicated in Regulation (EC) 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
Classification of dangerous goods according Annex I of Council Directive 96/49/EC and the regulation concerning the international carriage of dangerous goods by rail.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Railway undertakings licensed for performing freight or passenger transport at Bulgarian territory.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The main concepts used in rail domain are:
Rail passenger means any person, excluding members of the train crew, who makes a trip by rail. For accident statistics, passengers trying to embark/disembark onto/from a moving train are included.
Passenger-km means the unit of measure representing the transport of one passenger by rail over a distance of one kilometer. Only the distance on the national territory of the reporting country shall be taken into account.
Weight means the quantity of goods in tonnestones (1 000 kilograms). The weight to be taken into consideration includes, in addition to the weight of the goods transported, the weight of packaging and the tare weight of containers, swap bodies, pallets as well as road vehicles transported by rail in the course of combined transport operations. If the goods are transported using the services of more than one railway undertaking, when possible the weight of goods shall not be counted more than once.
Tonne-km means the unit of measure of goods transport which represents the transport of one tonne (1 000 kilograms) of goods by rail over a distance of one kilometer. Only the distance on the national territory of the reporting country shall be taken into account.
Train means one or more railway vehicles hauled by one or more locomotives or railcars, or one railcar travelling alone, running under a given number or specific designation from an initial fixed point to a terminal fixed point. A light engine, that is to say, a locomotive travelling on its own, is not considered to be a train.
Train-km means the unit of measure representing the movement of a train over one kilometre. The distance used is the distance actually run, if available, otherwise the standard network distance between the origin and destination shall be used. Only the distance on the national territory of the reporting country shall be taken into account.
3.5. Statistical unit
Railway undertakings licensed for performing freight or passeneger carriages on Bulgarian territory.
3.6. Statistical population
Data on freight andpassenger transport are provided from the railway undertakings operating on national territory.
Data on railway traffic are provided from infrastructure managers and railway undertakings.
3.7. Reference area
Operational railway network on national territory.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data on passengers and goods are covered from 2000 onwards.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The volume and performance of rail freight traffic are measured in tonnes (mass) and tonne-kilometres. Passenger transport by rail is measured in the number of passengers and in passenger-kilometres. Information on the number of train kilometres is also available.
Data are provided on quarterly and annual basis.
According to the Rail regulation (EU) 2018/643 data is collected as following: Annual data.
Annex I –goods transport collected for a reference period of one year with a deadline for data transmission as 5 months after the reference periodreference period,
Annex II –passenger transport, yearly data with eight months deadline after the end of reference period,
Annex III – quarterly data for goods and passengers with a deadline of three months after the end of the reference period,
Annex IV and V data every five years on regional statistics on goods and passengers and rail network with deadline of 12 respectively 18 months after the end of reference period, and
Annex VIII goods and passengers transport for small undertakings with 5 respectively 8 months deadline after the end of reference period.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
European level: Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Data are published aggregated only at national level.
8.1. Release calendar
Data are published according to the deadlines set in the National statistical program and the Release calendar of the National statistical institute.
Main results of rail transport statistics are available free of charge to all users. More detailed data can be obtained at users' request.
Goods and passenger transport are compiled quarterly. Other parts of the statistics are compiled annually.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Press release on transport every quarter according to deadlines set in release calender.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Data on goods and passenegr railway trasnport are included in - Statistical Yearbook; Statistical Reference Book; „Bulgaria“ (brochure).
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Quarterly data on railway transport are available to all users of the NSI website.
Annual data on railway transport are available to all users of the NSI website.
All published annual and quertely data are available in the database system Infostad at the following website.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Metadata information (definitions, methods, quality, comments) referring to rail transport statistics is available at national level in Bulgarian and English.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Data quality can be assessed as high. There is a set of validation rules put in place. In case of any issues detected, the data providers are contacted to provide explanations or/and revise the data accordingly.
11.1. Quality assurance
Rail transport data are validated before being entered into the database and disseminated to the public. The validation rules are intended to assure:
consistency between the tables and datasets,
common structure of nomenclatures (classifications),
year to year comparability of the same indicators.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
There are no serious issues with data quality.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Main users are state institutions as Ministry of transport, different organizations and specialized in the sector enterprises.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable.
12.3. Completeness
Railway data are collected within the scope of the legal acts in force.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy of the rail transport statistics data is good.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
All necessary data are collected and transmitted to Eurostat in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 2018/643 within the specified transmission deadlines.
14.2. Punctuality
All necessary data are collected and transmitted to Eurostat in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 2018/643 within the specified transmission deadlines.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
No geographical comparability problems. The data covers the whole country.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparable time series are available from 2000.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Not applicable.
Cost and Burden for the survey are defined according the National Statistical Program for each reference year.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Data are revised on quartely or annual bases if any errors are detected or if there is revision of data sent by the railway operators during the year.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Data are revised on quartely or annual bases if any errors are detected or if there is revision of data send by the railway operators during the year.
18.1. Source data
All railway undertakings licensed for performing freight and passeneger transport on Bulgarian territory.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Data are collected on monhtly, qurterly and annual basis.
18.3. Data collection
Data are collected via Excel forms or individually designed datasets containing all necessary information to comply with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2018/643.
18.4. Data validation
The purpose of data validation is to ensure accurate statistics.
In each report, validation consists of Internal consistency check. - data are checked for internal consistency, i.e. coherence between different related pieces of information within the questionnaire, e.g. with reported number of passengers, passenger-km should also be filled.
18.5. Data compilation
Data are aggregated before publishing and dissemination.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
No comments.
Mandatory data collection at EU level is based on legal act, the Regulation EU 2018/643 and covers goods and passengers. Data is collected as following:
Annex I (annual data) –goods transport ,
Annex II (annual data)–passenger transport,
Annex III – (quarterly data) goods and passengers,
Annex IV and V( data every five years) regional statistics on goods and passengers and rail network and
Annex VIII (annual data) goods and passengers transport for small undertakings.
20 February 2024
The main concepts used in rail domain are:
Rail passenger means any person, excluding members of the train crew, who makes a trip by rail. For accident statistics, passengers trying to embark/disembark onto/from a moving train are included.
Passenger-km means the unit of measure representing the transport of one passenger by rail over a distance of one kilometer. Only the distance on the national territory of the reporting country shall be taken into account.
Weight means the quantity of goods in tonnestones (1 000 kilograms). The weight to be taken into consideration includes, in addition to the weight of the goods transported, the weight of packaging and the tare weight of containers, swap bodies, pallets as well as road vehicles transported by rail in the course of combined transport operations. If the goods are transported using the services of more than one railway undertaking, when possible the weight of goods shall not be counted more than once.
Tonne-km means the unit of measure of goods transport which represents the transport of one tonne (1 000 kilograms) of goods by rail over a distance of one kilometer. Only the distance on the national territory of the reporting country shall be taken into account.
Train means one or more railway vehicles hauled by one or more locomotives or railcars, or one railcar travelling alone, running under a given number or specific designation from an initial fixed point to a terminal fixed point. A light engine, that is to say, a locomotive travelling on its own, is not considered to be a train.
Train-km means the unit of measure representing the movement of a train over one kilometre. The distance used is the distance actually run, if available, otherwise the standard network distance between the origin and destination shall be used. Only the distance on the national territory of the reporting country shall be taken into account.
Railway undertakings licensed for performing freight or passeneger carriages on Bulgarian territory.
Data on freight andpassenger transport are provided from the railway undertakings operating on national territory.
Data on railway traffic are provided from infrastructure managers and railway undertakings.
Operational railway network on national territory.
Data are provided on quarterly and annual basis.
According to the Rail regulation (EU) 2018/643 data is collected as following: Annual data.
Annex I –goods transport collected for a reference period of one year with a deadline for data transmission as 5 months after the reference periodreference period,
Annex II –passenger transport, yearly data with eight months deadline after the end of reference period,
Annex III – quarterly data for goods and passengers with a deadline of three months after the end of the reference period,
Annex IV and V data every five years on regional statistics on goods and passengers and rail network with deadline of 12 respectively 18 months after the end of reference period, and
Annex VIII goods and passengers transport for small undertakings with 5 respectively 8 months deadline after the end of reference period.
Overall accuracy of the rail transport statistics data is good.
The volume and performance of rail freight traffic are measured in tonnes (mass) and tonne-kilometres. Passenger transport by rail is measured in the number of passengers and in passenger-kilometres. Information on the number of train kilometres is also available.
Data are aggregated before publishing and dissemination.
All railway undertakings licensed for performing freight and passeneger transport on Bulgarian territory.
Goods and passenger transport are compiled quarterly. Other parts of the statistics are compiled annually.
All necessary data are collected and transmitted to Eurostat in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 2018/643 within the specified transmission deadlines.
No geographical comparability problems. The data covers the whole country.
