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.
INE (Instituto Nacional de Estatística) - Statistics Portugal
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Economics Statistics Department - Sectorial Business Statistics Service
1.3. Contact name
Restricted from publication
1.4. Contact person function
Restricted from publication
1.5. Contact mail address
ana.grade@ine.pt
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
15 November 2023
2.2. Metadata last posted
15 November 2023
2.3. Metadata last update
15 November 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
Data on the transport of passengers and goods include national and international transport performed by Portuguese undertakings.
National rail transport of passengers / goods is understood as transport in which both the commencement of the journey / loading and the end of the journey / unloading took place on the territory of Portugal.
International freight transport by rail includes the carriage of:
loads posted for international transport by land or sea ports,
loads travel from abroad or sea ports,
loads in transit through the territory of the country.
International passenger rail transport is understood as transport which the beginning take place in Portugal and the end of the journey take place outside Portugal.
Transport survey in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/643 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on rail transport statistics (Journal of Laws UE L 112 of 02 May 2018, p. 1);
The collection data of railway transport consists of:
Annual goods transport statistics;
Annual passenger transport statistics;
Monthly statistics on freight and passenger transport;
Statistics of the railway network.
3.2. Classification system
Statistics on carriage of goods by railway apply the following statistical classifications:
Railway undertakings providing transport of passengers or goods, i.e., entities of the national economy with a license to rail transport services.
Railway infrastructure manager.
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.
Intermodal transport it’s transport of loads in loading units that use two or more modes of transport without reloading loads when changing branches of transport.
Traction rolling stock, passenger and freight carriages are vehicles in operation of the rapporteur entered in the register of rail vehicles; including those handed over for repair and under repair as well as vehicles temporarily staying abroad and vehicles operated under contracts, e.g. leasing, credit, etc .; excluding vehicles transferred to other entities.
Private wagons are wagons that are not vehicles of railway carrier.
Transit means railway transport through the territory of the rapporteur country between two places (place of loading / departure and place of unloading / departure) outside the territory of the reporting country. It is not considered a transittransport including loading/beginning of the journey goods/passengers at the border of the rapporteur's country from / to another means of transport.
The main concepts used in railway transport statistics are the following, more details can be found in the railway transport methodology manual.
3.5. Statistical unit
Statistical units for rail transport statistics are all railway stations. The reporting units for railway transport statistics are:
Entities with licenses to provide railway transport and share traction vehicles,
Entities managing: railway infrastructure and 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.
Data includes reporting units with licenses.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data on passengers are available from 1977 onwards.
Data on goods are available since 1986.
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)
Data are collected in tonnes, tonne-kilometres, vehicle-kilometres and in number of journeys (journey data) or in number of basic transport operations (BTO (goods related data)).
Period of observation are cover passengers and goods transport during the month / year reporting.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Eurostat submits annually semi-aggregated data (data exchange tables, see Commission Regulation (EU) No 202/2010 amending the Commission Regulation (EC) 6/2003) back to the reporting countries so that they can compile the total railway transport on their national territories, including the operations by national hauliers and also those of all other reporting countries.
These data exchange tables include more detailed breakdowns than the publicly available tables. They also include, for each value, the information on the number of observations that the estimates are based on. In this way, the reporting countries can estimate the reliability of results that they aggregate from the data exchange tables.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
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
All railway transport microdata are treated as if they were confidential. This means the following:
data transmission to Eurostat takes place in encrypted format using the eDAMIS data transmission tool,
data are treated on a secured server, to which access is restricted and strictly controlled,
all people working with the railway transport microdata must sign an agreement stipulating that they respect the rules of the treatment of confidential data,
Railway transport statistics are available free of charge to all users. More detailed information or other layouts can be obtained for a fee. All the release data in railway transport is available to all users in the same time. Before the data will be available on the site, the publication about Transport Activity results will be published.
Microdata in not available to users due to statistical confidentiality.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
National level:
Statistics Portugal add methodological notes to each publication with basic informations. Also on the website of the Statistics Portugal there is a description about survey for railway transport of goods and passengers. More detailed informations are available only for employees on internal network.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
For each project, there is a Metodological Document available in the National Metadata System (Statistics Portugal site).
11.1. Quality assurance
Quality policy is defined and made available to the public. An organisational structure and tools are in place to deal with quality management. There are procedures in place to plan, monitor and improve the quality of the statistical processes.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Data quality can be assessed as high. There is a set of validation rules and quality checks put in place, which detect various types of issues. In case of any issues detected, the data providers are contacted to provide explanations or/and revise the data accordingly.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The purpose of collecting railway transport data is to provide information on the level and structure of transport services and on the transport potential for the purposes of shaping economic policy as well as transport market analysis and research.
At an Internal level:
Statistics Portugal - Department of National Accounts (sector specific information).
At a National level:
Public Administration / Central Administration: Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications;
Non-Financial Corporations Companies (Services and Transport);
Singular People In the area of education / research (Students, Researchers, Teachers and Universities).
At the level of individuals:
Lawyers, Economists, Engineers, General Public.
At a Interational level:
European Union - Eurostat.
International organizations: (sector specific information) OCDE ONU CEMT.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
There was no user survey on railway transport statistics data carried out so far.
12.3. Completeness
The data collection on rail transport statistics follows the provisions of the Regulation 2018/643.All variables in all data sets are provided.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy of the railway transport of passengers and goods statistics is good. The processing with several plausibility checks as well as checks done before transmitting data to Eurostat give a high accuracy of the data.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Errors:
Under coverage – not applicable,
Over coverage – not applicable,
Survey instrument – not applicable,
Respondent – 5%,
Unit (non)response – under 5%,
Processing errors – not relevant,
Model assumptions errors – not applicable.
In order to eliminate the above errors, the following tasks are carried out:
providing respondents with tips and explanations,
detailed logical and accounting control,
analysis of assumptions to be checked before each subsequent edition of the study.
14.1. Timeliness
Data are normally updated once per quarter, annualy or quinquenally.
If new annual data (all four quarters of a calendar year) have become available, the annual datasets are also updated together with the quarterly datasets.
14.2. Punctuality
Railway transport data are transmitted to Eurostat during 3 months of reporting quarter, 5 months (transport of goods) or 8 months (transport of passengers) after the end of the reference period, as specified in the Regulation (EU) 2018/643 Most data is transmitted on time.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
There are no problems of comparability for railway transport data collection with a very high data comparability across countries due to the common legal basis. Comparisons of the data regarding railway transport with Eurostat (so-called mirror checks) allow further the detection of possible inconsistencies which can be corrected if possible.
15.2. Comparability - over time
As from 2004 the statistics on railway transport are comparable over time, as they are collected following fully the provisions of the legal act – Regulation 91/2003 as amended. Time series checks are regularly made to detect inconsistencies in the data. There were no time series breaks.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
There are no other data sources with which to compare statistics on railway transport.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Stable methodology, statistical results consistent at national level, within a given data set and in a time series. Statistics Portugal does not conduct any other research regarding railway transport of passengers and goods which could be inconsistent with regulation 2018/643.
Cost and Burden of production of a railway transport statistics is difficult to estimate.
17.1. Data revision - policy
No preliminary adjustments are applied because the preliminary and final data are taken as annual data. There are no rules by which we verify data for dissemination purposes.
17.2. Data revision - practice
There were made corrections in data if undertakers review data.
18.1. Source data
The main data source are:
CP;
Fertagus;
Takargo;
Medway.
and IMT (National transport and Mobility Institute).
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Reports are collected monthly and annually.
18.3. Data collection
The forms are sent and received by e-mail.
18.4. Data validation
National level :
completeness control;
time series validation.
18.5. Data compilation
Simultaneously with the collection of the questionnaires, the verification / criticism process is carried out of them, where the compatibility of the information is verified, for a first analysis of the quality of filling. Subsequently, the questionnaires are coded. Once encoded, data is recorded using the respective program, which includes validation rules (on line or batch) or limits for the data and rules of proportion between them. Finally, in the results calculation phase, an analysis is made of the variations counterparts.
18.6. Adjustment
Rail transport data are corrected once a year.
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
Data on the transport of passengers and goods include national and international transport performed by Portuguese undertakings.
National rail transport of passengers / goods is understood as transport in which both the commencement of the journey / loading and the end of the journey / unloading took place on the territory of Portugal.
International freight transport by rail includes the carriage of:
loads posted for international transport by land or sea ports,
loads travel from abroad or sea ports,
loads in transit through the territory of the country.
International passenger rail transport is understood as transport which the beginning take place in Portugal and the end of the journey take place outside Portugal.
Transport survey in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/643 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on rail transport statistics (Journal of Laws UE L 112 of 02 May 2018, p. 1);
The collection data of railway transport consists of:
Annual goods transport statistics;
Annual passenger transport statistics;
Monthly statistics on freight and passenger transport;
Statistics of the railway network.
15 November 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.
Intermodal transport it’s transport of loads in loading units that use two or more modes of transport without reloading loads when changing branches of transport.
Traction rolling stock, passenger and freight carriages are vehicles in operation of the rapporteur entered in the register of rail vehicles; including those handed over for repair and under repair as well as vehicles temporarily staying abroad and vehicles operated under contracts, e.g. leasing, credit, etc .; excluding vehicles transferred to other entities.
Private wagons are wagons that are not vehicles of railway carrier.
Transit means railway transport through the territory of the rapporteur country between two places (place of loading / departure and place of unloading / departure) outside the territory of the reporting country. It is not considered a transittransport including loading/beginning of the journey goods/passengers at the border of the rapporteur's country from / to another means of transport.
The main concepts used in railway transport statistics are the following, more details can be found in the railway transport methodology manual.
Statistical units for rail transport statistics are all railway stations. The reporting units for railway transport statistics are:
Entities with licenses to provide railway transport and share traction vehicles,
Entities managing: railway infrastructure and 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.
Data includes reporting units with licenses.
Period of observation are cover passengers and goods transport during the month / year reporting.
Overall accuracy of the railway transport of passengers and goods statistics is good. The processing with several plausibility checks as well as checks done before transmitting data to Eurostat give a high 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)
Data are collected in tonnes, tonne-kilometres, vehicle-kilometres and in number of journeys (journey data) or in number of basic transport operations (BTO (goods related data)).
Simultaneously with the collection of the questionnaires, the verification / criticism process is carried out of them, where the compatibility of the information is verified, for a first analysis of the quality of filling. Subsequently, the questionnaires are coded. Once encoded, data is recorded using the respective program, which includes validation rules (on line or batch) or limits for the data and rules of proportion between them. Finally, in the results calculation phase, an analysis is made of the variations counterparts.
The main data source are:
CP;
Fertagus;
Takargo;
Medway.
and IMT (National transport and Mobility Institute).
Annually – Transport and Communications Statistics (annual Publication) (Statistics Portugal site).
Data are normally updated once per quarter, annualy or quinquenally.
If new annual data (all four quarters of a calendar year) have become available, the annual datasets are also updated together with the quarterly datasets.
There are no problems of comparability for railway transport data collection with a very high data comparability across countries due to the common legal basis. Comparisons of the data regarding railway transport with Eurostat (so-called mirror checks) allow further the detection of possible inconsistencies which can be corrected if possible.
As from 2004 the statistics on railway transport are comparable over time, as they are collected following fully the provisions of the legal act – Regulation 91/2003 as amended. Time series checks are regularly made to detect inconsistencies in the data. There were no time series breaks.
