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.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
E3: Transport
1.3. Contact name
Restricted from publication
1.4. Contact person function
Restricted from publication
1.5. Contact mail address
5 Rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG G-D
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
21 January 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
21 January 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
21 January 2025
3.1. Data description
The rail accident data are provided to Eurostat by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA). The ERA manages and is responsible for the entire data collection. The Eurostat data constitute a part of the data collected by ERA and are part of the so-called Common Safety Indicators (CSIs). In Eurobase, the following data are available:
Number of rail accidents by type of accident
Number of rail accident victims by type of accident and category of persons invlolved
Number of rail accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods
Number of suicides involving railways.
Rail accident data were previously collected through Annex H of the Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on rail transport statistics. This regulation has been recast by Regulation (EU) 2018/643 on rail transport statistics - the data collection through Annex H was phased out and replaced with the data colected by ERA.
Few candidate countries continued to provide data following the previous regulation. Data for Montenegro, North Macedonia and Türkiye comes from Annex H until 2016, 2018 and 2021 reference year respectively.
3.2. Classification system
The data available in Eurobase are part of ERA’s Common Safety Indicators (CSIs). The CSIs are statistics collected at European level with the purpose specified in the Annex I to the Directive (EU) 2016/798 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on railway safety: “In order to facilitate assessment of the achievement of the CSTs [common safety targets] and to provide for the monitoring of the general development of railway safety, Member States shall collect information on CSIs through the annual reports of the national safety authorities referred to in Article 19” (Article 5 of Directive (EU) 2016/798).
CSIs are not expected to provide the same level of detail as the safety databases of National Safety Authorities (NSAs), of railway undertakings and of infrastructure managers, which are tailored to their specific needs. CSIs have to provide for the monitoring of the ‘general’ development of railway safety in the EU Member States and of the Union.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Not applicable
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The Common Safety Indicators (CSIs) is set of indicators allowing to measure railway safety performance of Member States and provides objective evidence of the development over time within Member States. Accidents data are also used for estimating national reference values, setting common safety targets and assessing their achievement.
Data are imported from the ERA database based on a common agreement between ERA and Eurostat. The Eurobase tables available are the result of this agreement.
In 2010, for the first time, the NSAs had to report using the CSI definitions provided. As a consequence, the 2010 CSI data represent the first fully harmonised set of figures, as the use of national definitions was no longer permitted.
3.5. Statistical unit
The data used in the domain are collected by the different data providers at accident level, aggregated and sent to the European Railway Agency.
3.6. Statistical population
All accident occurrences recorded by the responsible national authorities
3.7. Reference area
The ERA covers the EU countries plus Norway and Switzerland. A separate reporting entity is the Channel Tunnel. Please note that Malta and Cyprus are not covered as these countries do not have railways.
3.8. Coverage - Time
2006 is the first reference year for which data are available. Data availability improves with time, both in terms of geographical coverage and the level of detail available.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable
The unit of measure is either the number of accidents, or the number of persons that have been seriously injured or killed in railway accidents. For the table on suicides, the unit is the number of persons.
‘Accident’ in this respect means an unwanted or unintended sudden event or a specific chain of such events which have harmful consequences; accidents are divided into the following categories: collisions, derailments, level crossing accidents, accidents to persons caused by rolling stock in motion, fires and others;
‘Killed person’ means any person killed immediately or dying within 30 days as a result of an accident, excluding any suicide.
‘Seriously injured person’ means any person injured who was hospitalised for more than 24 hours as a result of an accident, excluding any attempted suicides.
A separate table is available with information on the number of suicides involving railways.
Data is initially collected by the Railway Undertakings (RUs) and Infrastructure Managers (IMs), who submit them to their NSA by end June of the year following the reference period. The NSA consolidates and validates the data and forward them to the ERA by end September of the year following the reference period. The ERA checks the data for consistency and quality and validate them in its ERAIL database.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The legal act at the basis of the available statistical data is Directive (EU) 2016/798. More specifically, reporting details are laid down in Annex 1 and Appendix to the mentioned legal act.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable
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 data released by the ERA are not confidential. Hence, this also applies to the data available in the various Eurobase tables which indicate the ERA as data source.
8.1. Release calendar
Data is disseminated on an annual basis.
8.2. Release calendar access
Following ERA's release calendar.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Annual
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
News item is published on Eurostat website on the date of update of the Statistics Explained article.
Please consult free data on-line (Transport/Multimodal data/Transport safety).
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable
10.6. Documentation on methodology
A complete documentation on the CSI variables collected and their definition is available in the document Implementation guidance for CSIs.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
See 11.1
11.1. Quality assurance
CSIs made available by the ERA have been undergoing various vertical and horizontal consistency, plausibility and other quality checks.
As agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding, Eurostat does not alter the ERA data received, not does it apply any additional checks.
Under the provisions of the Memorandum of understanding between the ERA and EUROSTAT, the two Agencies cooperate in assuring the data compatibility with other modes of transport and assuring the reliability of data disseminated
11.2. Quality management - assessment
No information available.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Statistics on rail accident fatalities in individual countries are often available at aggregated level only. If more detailed data are made available, they often cannot be compared with those of other countries due to methodological differences.
The tables available in Eurobase containing a selection of ERA data are harmonised and comparable. This especially applies from the reference year 2010 onwards, when data had to be reported according to common definitions and national ‘particularities’ were no longer allowed.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
ERA regularly reviews the user satisfaction through surveys organized mainly within its working parties.
12.3. Completeness
Completeness of data is assured from 2010 onwards; prior to that year, the data are not always available for all countries.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy of data is good as the ERA data collection is “mature”. Strictly the same concepts and definitions are applied by countries from reference year 2010 onwards.
All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data. Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated and transmitted by ERA. Data may be published even if they are flagged as provisional for certain countries. They are replaced with final data once they are validated and transmitted by ERA. Whenever new data are provided and validated, the already disseminated data are updated.
18.1. Source data
Data are collected and/or compiled by the National Safety Authorities at single accident level. Compiled annual datasets are then transmitted to the ERA
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual
18.3. Data collection
For the ERA data available in Eurobase, data are retrieved from the ERA database and are transmitted to Eurostat. Eurostat calculates EU aggregates and prepares the datafiles for uploading in Eurobase.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation procedures are applied by the ERA. Eurostat takes over the data as such and does not apply any supplementary validation procedures.
18.5. Data compilation
Data compilations are performed by the ERA, with the exception of some EU aggregates that are calculated by Eurostat.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable
Not applicable
The rail accident data are provided to Eurostat by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA). The ERA manages and is responsible for the entire data collection. The Eurostat data constitute a part of the data collected by ERA and are part of the so-called Common Safety Indicators (CSIs). In Eurobase, the following data are available:
Number of rail accidents by type of accident
Number of rail accident victims by type of accident and category of persons invlolved
Number of rail accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods
Number of suicides involving railways.
Rail accident data were previously collected through Annex H of the Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on rail transport statistics. This regulation has been recast by Regulation (EU) 2018/643 on rail transport statistics - the data collection through Annex H was phased out and replaced with the data colected by ERA.
Few candidate countries continued to provide data following the previous regulation. Data for Montenegro, North Macedonia and Türkiye comes from Annex H until 2016, 2018 and 2021 reference year respectively.
21 January 2025
The Common Safety Indicators (CSIs) is set of indicators allowing to measure railway safety performance of Member States and provides objective evidence of the development over time within Member States. Accidents data are also used for estimating national reference values, setting common safety targets and assessing their achievement.
Data are imported from the ERA database based on a common agreement between ERA and Eurostat. The Eurobase tables available are the result of this agreement.
In 2010, for the first time, the NSAs had to report using the CSI definitions provided. As a consequence, the 2010 CSI data represent the first fully harmonised set of figures, as the use of national definitions was no longer permitted.
The data used in the domain are collected by the different data providers at accident level, aggregated and sent to the European Railway Agency.
All accident occurrences recorded by the responsible national authorities
The ERA covers the EU countries plus Norway and Switzerland. A separate reporting entity is the Channel Tunnel. Please note that Malta and Cyprus are not covered as these countries do not have railways.
Data is initially collected by the Railway Undertakings (RUs) and Infrastructure Managers (IMs), who submit them to their NSA by end June of the year following the reference period. The NSA consolidates and validates the data and forward them to the ERA by end September of the year following the reference period. The ERA checks the data for consistency and quality and validate them in its ERAIL database.
Overall accuracy of data is good as the ERA data collection is “mature”. Strictly the same concepts and definitions are applied by countries from reference year 2010 onwards.
The unit of measure is either the number of accidents, or the number of persons that have been seriously injured or killed in railway accidents. For the table on suicides, the unit is the number of persons.
‘Accident’ in this respect means an unwanted or unintended sudden event or a specific chain of such events which have harmful consequences; accidents are divided into the following categories: collisions, derailments, level crossing accidents, accidents to persons caused by rolling stock in motion, fires and others;
‘Killed person’ means any person killed immediately or dying within 30 days as a result of an accident, excluding any suicide.
‘Seriously injured person’ means any person injured who was hospitalised for more than 24 hours as a result of an accident, excluding any attempted suicides.
A separate table is available with information on the number of suicides involving railways.
Data compilations are performed by the ERA, with the exception of some EU aggregates that are calculated by Eurostat.
Data are collected and/or compiled by the National Safety Authorities at single accident level. Compiled annual datasets are then transmitted to the ERA
