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.
DIPS/DCAT/ATB - Division for environmental and territorial networks
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Istat - Italian National Statistical Institute
1.3. Contact name
Restricted from publication
1.4. Contact person function
Restricted from publication
1.5. Contact mail address
Viale Liegi, 13 00198 Rome Italy
1.6. Contact email address
Restricted from publication
1.7. Contact phone number
Restricted from publication
1.8. Contact fax number
Restricted from publication
2.1. Metadata last certified
5 October 2023
2.2. Metadata last posted
5 October 2023
2.3. Metadata last update
5 October 2023
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
Statistics on carriage of goods by train apply the following statistical classifications:
- Dangerous goods are classified according to 9 categories of Dangerous Goods as defined in the regulations concerning the international carriage of dangerous goods by rail, known as the RID; it was adopted under Council Directive 96/49/EC and subsequent amendaments.
- The codes of regions used in the region-to-region statistics are envisaged in Regulation (EC) 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Railway undertakings (public or private undertakings) which provide services for the transport of goods and/or passengers by rail.
Railway undertakings which operate entirely or mainly within industrial areas and similar installations, (including harbours) and railway undertakings which mainly provide local tourist services (such as preserved historical steam railways) are excluded.
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
The reporting unit for rail transport statistic is the railway undertaking who carried out the transport of goods or passengers on the national territory.
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.
Data on accidents are covered from 2004 to 2015 (included).
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
National level:The Rail Transport survey is included in National Statistical Programme, yearly approved by a Republic Presidential decree. Code: IST-01646.
European level: Since 2004, the data provision to Eurostat were based on an EP and Council framework legal act (Reg. EU n. 91/2003) and other several implementing Commission Regulations. Since 2018 there was a new legal act (Reg. EU n. 2018/643) after the codification of all previous legal acts.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Several national legal acts guarantee the confidentiality of data requested for statistical purposes. According to art. 9, paragraph 1 of the Italian legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, personal data can be disseminated but in aggregated form, in order to make it impossible to identify individuals. They can only be used for statistical purposes.
Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, art. 6 bis and Legislative Decree n. 196 of 2003 Annex A3 (Code of conduct and professional practice applying to the processing of personal data for statistical and scientific research purposes within the framework of the national statistical system), art. 8, provide that the exchange of personal data within the National Statistical System (Sistan) is possible if it is necessary to fulfil requirements provided by the National Statistical Programme or to allow the pursuit of institutional purposes.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The definition of confidentiality violation adopted by the Italian National Statistical Institute is based on the concept of identification of a unit of the observed statistical population.
Aggregated data are considered the combination of modalities in which a frequency is not lower than a predetermined threshold to which it is associated. It is the “threshold rule” for which the minimum value attributable to the threshold is equal to three. Therefore figures related to less than three undertakings are considered confidential and are not disseminated.
8.1. Release calendar
Each year ISTAT publishes a release calendar access providing the exact dates of press releases for the coming year but Rail transport survey is not included in this calendar and the dissemination of rail data (referred to the previous year) is scheduled on December of the next year and it is announced by Istat weekly agenda of broadcasts and events.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Time series data related to Rail Transport survey and its updating are disseminated on the ISTAT institutional website (excel table form). Starting from 2019, data are disseminated on I.Stat, the institutional datawarehouse; users can select information according to their needs, building customised tables or downloading prepackaged datasets. Data are always accompanied by meta-information methodologies, classifications, definitions.
Dissemination at national level is scheduled on an annual basis (data referred to one survey year are released on december of the consequent year).
Aggregated datasets are provided to Eurostat according to the deadlines of Reg. EU 2018/643.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Currently there are no news releases at national level.
Starting from data referred to 2018, a pre-defined set of public tables is uploaded annually on I.$tat database. In the Navigation tree users can select the theme “Services” and then the subject-->Rail Transport.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
The Istat documentation Information system of statistical metadata and quality indicators - SIDI (https://intranet.istat.it/MetadatiEQualita/Pagine/MetadatiQualita.aspx) allows the ISTAT researchers, to provide, for each survey, informations about the statistical documentation process and the product quality documentation (which includes the minimum set of quality indicators to be disclosed to external users).
10.7. Quality management - documentation
The Istat Information system on quality of statistical production processes - SIQual (http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/welcome.do) enables to display all the information related to Istat statistical production processes and the activities developed to guarantee standard quality of statistics.
1) a profile guided compilation of the web-questionnaires;
2) detailed instructions for each section of the web-questionnaires;
3) check procedure at every stage of the production process on specific dominions;
4) assessment of Eurostat check reports.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Actions and tools for quality assurance are:
1) calculation of load and distance indexes for each undertaking;
2) evaluation of the variations and overall trend over time;
3) call-back to respondents;
4) specific reminder program for latecomers respondents.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The rail data users are:
- the research offices of Rail transport companies;
- the National Transport Department of the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport;
- Foreign Universities;
- Trade associations.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Users satisfaction is currently monitored through a permanent working group (Circolo di qualità “Trasporti e Mobilità”) that engages producers and users of official statistics concerning all transport modes and the environment. Railway Transport survey data are appreciated as the main official source of information about road freight transport.
12.3. Completeness
The completeness is guarantees by the census survey on rail transport. However the lack of data on a territorial basis in order to identify the origin and destination of transport operations (both for goods and passengers) on annual basis, is persistently stated by public bodies and private users.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
In order to detect important/extraordinary positive or negative absolute deviations between two
consecutive periods of time (years, quarters), The Rail Manual Reference defines specific error margins for each Annexes (except for Annex G).
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable for rail transport data collection.
13.3. Non-sampling error
The quality actions to control unit nonresponse are:
- Reminder program;
- Telephone call-back.
The quality actions to control the sources of processing error are:
- Adoption of a profile guided compilation of the web-questionnaires: at this level the algorythms is specifically designed to detect different kind of errors. Error messages are displayed (blocking errors) during the guided compiling.
- Evaluation of types of errors (blocking errors, systematic errors, random errors, outliers).
- Outliers-specific actions: short analysis of the trend in the market segment in which the undertaking operates
- Storage of previous version of web questionnaire (with errors) for data related to each undertakings.
- Debriefing respondents about their errors, by e-mail or telephone contact.
Data are validated to the following sources:
- Coherence control with previous data of the same survey Annex;
- Calculation of load and distance indexes.
14.1. Timeliness
Annual data (goods) are provided to Eurostat five months after the reference period.
Annual data (passengers) are provided to Eurostat eight months after the reference period.
Quarterly data are provided to Eurostat three months after the reference period.
Quinquennial data (regional data) are provided to Eurostat twelve months after the reference period.
Quinquennial data (infrastructure data) are provided to Eurostat eighteen months after the reference period.
Annual data at national level are disseminated yearly, within the end of the subsequent year.
No provisional data are supplied.
14.2. Punctuality
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 643/2018 are transmitted to Eurostat within the deadline set up for each annex and without delays.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparability over time is respected and generally breaks in series may happen only due to the overcoming of threshold (stated by Reg. UE 2018/643) for the traffic flows of one or more undertakings.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Cross domain data comparison (for different modes of transport) is not always possible, it is therefore important to refer to the Glossary of transports and to surveys methodology to be sure that coherence crossing domains is granted when comparing or juxtaposing figures.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Internal coherence of data is pursued.
For this survey no outsourced activity is planned. So only internal costs shall be assessed. The survey has 1,5 human resources per year The burden has been the same since 2013.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Eurostat datasets are revised on the basis of detected errors or may be occasionally revised if unexpected troubles happen during treatment (e.g. IT recovery, damages etc).
17.2. Data revision - practice
Data revised until Eurostat check program reports 100% positive assessment.
18.1. Source data
The Infrastructure manager provides the list of the “operating undertakings”, they all have allocate a train path and this is the criteria adopted to consider them as eligible units of the target population.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
The data collection process runs on a different time schedule for each module of the survey: Quarterly for undertakings above the threshold
Once a year for data collection –annual good data
Once a year for data collection – annual passenger data
Once a year (every five year) for regional data
Once a year (every five year) for data collection on rail network segment.
18.3. Data collection
The production process runs on a double cycle of data collection: the quartely cycle and the annual one.
The management system for rail transport survey ensures the timely and accurate dispatch of a letter to respondents and provide login details to access to the web portal (Portale statistico della imprese), The web questionnaire has been specifically designed to make easy the completion; every undertaking has been profiled in order to meet the following criteria:
-type of transport passenger or goods;
-type of undertaking below/above the threshold for goods or passenger;
-mixed profile 1 below the threshold for goods and above the threshold for passenger
-mixed profile 2 below thethreshold for passenger and above the threshold for goods
Every respondent is guided to compile only the formatted data entry screen matching his profile.
18.4. Data validation
Validation and imputation is made for all the mandatory variables (internal coherence and correspondence with official classifications). Data check is pursued through IT procedures, and finally through Eurostat check. Coherence of aggregated figures for the main dominions is verified at quarterly and annual level.
18.5. Data compilation
The survey management system keep track of incoming response; selected undertakings can be timely identified if they have not replied after a given period; it enalbes the survey manager to address a reminder to the contact person.
The web questionnaire includes many datachecks routines, in some cases the computer correct automatically the errors during the data entry. In processing the survey data on goods, the survey manager calculates for each undertaking the load index and the distance index and compare them over time; it is necessary to assess the changes in the transport service performance of each undertaking and register if it may have transported full loaded train and/or implemented long or short distance journeys. If the indexes are within the range, data are submit to other checks for ex the type of goods transported and then it can start the procedure to aggregate data.
18.6. Adjustment
No actions are addressed for adjustment no-response owing to the response ratio is always 100%.
No comment to report.
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.
5 October 2023
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.
The reporting unit for rail transport statistic is the railway undertaking who carried out the transport of goods or passengers on the national territory.
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.
In order to detect important/extraordinary positive or negative absolute deviations between two
consecutive periods of time (years, quarters), The Rail Manual Reference defines specific error margins for each Annexes (except for Annex G).
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 survey management system keep track of incoming response; selected undertakings can be timely identified if they have not replied after a given period; it enalbes the survey manager to address a reminder to the contact person.
The web questionnaire includes many datachecks routines, in some cases the computer correct automatically the errors during the data entry. In processing the survey data on goods, the survey manager calculates for each undertaking the load index and the distance index and compare them over time; it is necessary to assess the changes in the transport service performance of each undertaking and register if it may have transported full loaded train and/or implemented long or short distance journeys. If the indexes are within the range, data are submit to other checks for ex the type of goods transported and then it can start the procedure to aggregate data.
The Infrastructure manager provides the list of the “operating undertakings”, they all have allocate a train path and this is the criteria adopted to consider them as eligible units of the target population.
Dissemination at national level is scheduled on an annual basis (data referred to one survey year are released on december of the consequent year).
Aggregated datasets are provided to Eurostat according to the deadlines of Reg. EU 2018/643.
Annual data (goods) are provided to Eurostat five months after the reference period.
Annual data (passengers) are provided to Eurostat eight months after the reference period.
Quarterly data are provided to Eurostat three months after the reference period.
Quinquennial data (regional data) are provided to Eurostat twelve months after the reference period.
Quinquennial data (infrastructure data) are provided to Eurostat eighteen months after the reference period.
Annual data at national level are disseminated yearly, within the end of the subsequent year.
No provisional data are supplied.
Not applicable.
Comparability over time is respected and generally breaks in series may happen only due to the overcoming of threshold (stated by Reg. UE 2018/643) for the traffic flows of one or more undertakings.
