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.
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 on traffic flows on the rail network,
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 tonnes (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 railway stations.
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.
Annex I – data on goods transport collected for a reference period of one year with a deadline for data transmission as 5 months after the reference period,
Annex II – data on passenger transport collected for a reference period of one year with a deadline for data transmission as 8 months after the reference period,
Annex VIII - concerns goods and passengers transport for small undertakings with 5 respectively 8 months deadline after the end of reference period.
Quarterly data:
Annex III – concerns goods and passengers data with a deadline of 3 months after the end of the reference period,
Quinquennial data:
Annex IV and V - data collected every 5 years concerning regional statistics on goods and passengers and on traffic flows on the rail network with deadline of 12 respectively 18 months after the end of reference period
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
European level:
Regulation (EU) 2018/643 of the European Parliament and of the Council
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
National level:
Results are only published as aggregated data. Micro data are not identifiable, observations are not published.
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
There is no special treatment. Microdata are already anonymized.
8.1. Release calendar
According to he Directive 2009/42/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 6 May 2009, the transmission of the results shall take place within three months of the end of the period of observation for data of quarterly periodicity, within five months for data of annual goods periodicity, within eight months for data of annual passengers periodicity, and within 18 months/two years for the quinquennial periodicity.
Eurostat shall disseminate appropriate statistical data with a periodicity comparable to that of the results transmitted.
8.2. Release calendar access
There is no official national release calendar.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Not applicable.
Dissemination to EUROSTAT: 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:
1. goods transport collected for a reference period of one year with a deadline for data transmission as 5 months after the reference periodreference period, 2. passenger transport, yearly data with eight months deadline after the end of reference period 3. quarterly data for goods and passengers with a deadline of three months after the end of the reference period, 4. 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 5. goods and passengers transport for small undertakings with 5 respectively 8 months deadline after the end of reference period.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
There is no news release.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
There is no publication other than the Eurostat tables.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
There is no internal documentation. The reported tables follow the rules from the Reference manual for rail transport statistics.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
There is no document on quality management available.
11.1. Quality assurance
STATEC follows the European code of good practice. There is no specific other quality management concerning this indicator.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The overall quality of this indicator is good since it comes directly from the operational railway network on national territory.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Results are needed by Eurostat according to the European Regulation. There is no further information available of the relevance of this indicator for users, nevertheless, the results are regularly published and commented by media and professional stakeholders.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available for this specific indicator, but the user satisfaction for Statec's products is very high according to a user's survey.
12.3. Completeness
Eurostat's requirements in terms of time series are fulfilled.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy of the rail transport statistics data is good. The processing with several plausibilty checks as well as checks done before transmitting data to Eurostat provides a satisfactory accuracy of the data.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable for Rail transport collection.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not available.
14.1. Timeliness
All the quarterly statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 2018/643 are transmitted to Eurostat 3 months after the reference quarter. The annual data is transmitted to Eurostat 8 months afther the reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 2018/643 are transmitted to Eurostat before the deadline.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
As from 2003 the statistics on rail transport are comparable over time. Time series checks are regularly made to detect inconsistencies in the data.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
No comparions are performed.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
17.1. Data revision - policy
There is no official national revision policy. But Statec takes into account late data arrivals and data corrections.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
The data is collected by the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL) and then transmitted to STATEC following the EU Regulation 2018/643 and the Reference manual for rail transport statistics.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Quarterly, annual and quinquennial.
18.3. Data collection
The data is collected by the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL) and then transmitted to STATEC following the EU Regulation 2018/643 and the Reference manual for rail transport statistics.
The data collected covers only the transports made by CFL itself.
18.4. Data validation
STATEC checks the data for coherency.
18.5. Data compilation
After various plausibility checks, the data received from the national railway network are compiled into quarterly, annual respectively quinquennal data following the structure of the data sets which are preset by regulation (EU) 2018/643.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable for rail transport data collection.
Not applicable
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 on traffic flows on the rail network,
Annex VIII (annual data) - goods and passengers transport for small undertakings.
4 August 2025
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 tonnes (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 railway stations.
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.
Annex I – data on goods transport collected for a reference period of one year with a deadline for data transmission as 5 months after the reference period,
Annex II – data on passenger transport collected for a reference period of one year with a deadline for data transmission as 8 months after the reference period,
Annex VIII - concerns goods and passengers transport for small undertakings with 5 respectively 8 months deadline after the end of reference period.
Quarterly data:
Annex III – concerns goods and passengers data with a deadline of 3 months after the end of the reference period,
Quinquennial data:
Annex IV and V - data collected every 5 years concerning regional statistics on goods and passengers and on traffic flows on the rail network with deadline of 12 respectively 18 months after the end of reference period
Overall accuracy of the rail transport statistics data is good. The processing with several plausibilty checks as well as checks done before transmitting data to Eurostat provides a satisfactory accuracy of the data.
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).
After various plausibility checks, the data received from the national railway network are compiled into quarterly, annual respectively quinquennal data following the structure of the data sets which are preset by regulation (EU) 2018/643.
The data is collected by the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL) and then transmitted to STATEC following the EU Regulation 2018/643 and the Reference manual for rail transport statistics.
Dissemination to EUROSTAT: 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:
1. goods transport collected for a reference period of one year with a deadline for data transmission as 5 months after the reference periodreference period, 2. passenger transport, yearly data with eight months deadline after the end of reference period 3. quarterly data for goods and passengers with a deadline of three months after the end of the reference period, 4. 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 5. goods and passengers transport for small undertakings with 5 respectively 8 months deadline after the end of reference period.
All the quarterly statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 2018/643 are transmitted to Eurostat 3 months after the reference quarter. The annual data is transmitted to Eurostat 8 months afther the reference year.
Not applicable.
As from 2003 the statistics on rail transport are comparable over time. Time series checks are regularly made to detect inconsistencies in the data.
