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.
Espace de l'Europe 10, CH-2010Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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
16 July 2020
2.2. Metadata last posted
16 July 2020
2.3. Metadata last update
16 July 2020
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.
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.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Railway undertakings providing transport of passengers or goods.
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
Statistical units for rail transport statistics are all public or private railway undertakings operating on Swiss national territory and having the necessary rights to provide transport of goods, regular professional transport of passengers or construction and maintaining of infrastructure.
3.6. Statistical population
Data on passenger and freight transport are collected from the railway undertakings operating at national territory within thresholds mentioned in the rail regulation. Data on traffic are collected 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 2004 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. Traffic flows on the rail network are measured in number of trains - passenger, freight and others (optional)
The tables consist mostly of annual data. There are some tables providing quarterly and quinquennial (every five years) data.
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
Federal Ordinance on the Realization of Federal Surveys of June 30th, 1993 SR 431.012.1
European level:
Agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the European Community on cooperation in the field of statistics SR 0.431.026.81
Decision No 2/2019 of the European Union/Switzerland Statistical Committee of 2 December 2019 replacing Annex A to the Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on cooperation in the field of statistics
Regulation (EU) 2018/643 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on rail transport statistics
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Federal Statistics Act of 9th October 1992 SR 431.01
Federal Ordinance on the Realization of Federal Surveys of June 30th, 1993 SR 431.012.1
Federal Act on Data Protection of June 19, 1992 SR 235.1
Ordinance to the Federal Act on Data Protection of 14 June 1993 SR 235.11
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Annex IV and V: Data by region of loading/embarkation and region of unloading/disembarkation (NUTS 2) are confidential.
Statistics are available at 8.30 a.m. on the date announced in the Agenda. Access is free of charge for all users. It is possible to subscribe to a newsletter service.
Data on goods and passenger transport is published quarterly and annually according to the release calendar.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Agenda and publications are on the site of the Federal Statistical Office. For annual data, there is a specific newsletter linking to the publication package.
Public transport statistics follow a standardized process including validation rules and quality checks as well as internal peer reviews. Part of it is a continual improvement process based on a quality assurance manual.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Public transport statistics cover the information needs of different groups of users:
Public administration
Political institutions
International organizations
Researchers and universities
Media
Individuals
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
There have not been carried out any user surveys on the railway transport statistics.
12.3. Completeness
Statistics on goods and passenger transport are collected and reported according to Regulation EU 2018/634.
Data on TEU cannot be provided.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Not applicable
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable
14.1. Timeliness
Data are transmitted to Eurostat within the specified transmission deadlines.
14.2. Punctuality
Data are delivered punctually.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Comparability is given by following the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2018/643.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Goods 2010 (Annex I): An additional enterprise has exceeded the threshold of 500 mio. Tonnes-km per year. This enterprise has been included in detailed reporting from 2010. The effect on transport performance in tkm is more significant than on transport in tonnes as this enterprise is performing long-distance transport. However, not the whole increase from 2009 to 2010 can be explained by the inclusion of the new enterprise. A considerable regain after the economic crisis of 2009 contributed to the rising transport performance.
Passengers 2015 (Annex II): International transport by country of loading to country of unloading: adaptation of methodology leads to a break in the statistical series.
Cost and burden for supplying data by data providers is acceptable.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Revisions are published at the same time as the regular quarterly and annual results.
17.2. Data revision - practice
In a regular publication, newly revised data of former periods is marked with “r” and commented with a footnote if necessary.
18.1. Source data
Data are delivered by the railway undertakings filling in a questionnaire.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Switzerland started providing rail transport data from 2008 reference year, collected quarerly and annually.
18.3. Data collection
Data are collected via eSurvey or Excel forms.
Passengers (Annex II): Passengers using the services of more than one railway undertaking during one railway trip are counted only once. Transit passengers are not included.
Goods (Annex I): Annual number of empty and loaded intermodal transport units carried on railways (number, TEU): Data on TEU cannot be provided.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation follows the standardized statistical process.
18.5. Data compilation
Data are compilated in accordance with the standardized statistical process fulfilling the demands of Regulation (EU) 2018/643.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable for rail transport data collection.
DECISION No 2/2019 OF THE EUROPEAN UNION/SWITZERLAND STATISTICAL COMMITTEE of 2 December 2019:
The provisions of the Regulation shall, for the purposes of this Agreement, be read with the following adaptation:
In article 4, paragraph 2, the thresholds referred to in points (a) and (b) shall read:
(a)
a total volume of goods transport of a least 500 000 000 tonne-km;
(b)
a total volume of passenger transport of at least 200 000 000 passenger-km.
Annex VIII is applicable for undertakings falling below the thresholds referred to in points (a) and (b).
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.
16 July 2020
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.
Statistical units for rail transport statistics are all public or private railway undertakings operating on Swiss national territory and having the necessary rights to provide transport of goods, regular professional transport of passengers or construction and maintaining of infrastructure.
Data on passenger and freight transport are collected from the railway undertakings operating at national territory within thresholds mentioned in the rail regulation. Data on traffic are collected from infrastructure managers and railway undertakings.
Operational railway network on national territory.
The tables consist mostly of annual data. There are some tables providing quarterly and quinquennial (every five years) data.
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.
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. Traffic flows on the rail network are measured in number of trains - passenger, freight and others (optional)
Data are compilated in accordance with the standardized statistical process fulfilling the demands of Regulation (EU) 2018/643.
Data are delivered by the railway undertakings filling in a questionnaire.
Data on goods and passenger transport is published quarterly and annually according to the release calendar.
Data are transmitted to Eurostat within the specified transmission deadlines.
Comparability is given by following the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2018/643.
Goods 2010 (Annex I): An additional enterprise has exceeded the threshold of 500 mio. Tonnes-km per year. This enterprise has been included in detailed reporting from 2010. The effect on transport performance in tkm is more significant than on transport in tonnes as this enterprise is performing long-distance transport. However, not the whole increase from 2009 to 2010 can be explained by the inclusion of the new enterprise. A considerable regain after the economic crisis of 2009 contributed to the rising transport performance.
Passengers 2015 (Annex II): International transport by country of loading to country of unloading: adaptation of methodology leads to a break in the statistical series.
