Rail transport statistics. Recast

2017/0146(COD)

PURPOSE: to establish common rules for the production of rail transport statistics at Union level.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2018/643 of the European Parliament and of the Council on rail transport statistics.

CONTENT: this Regulation recasts Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on rail transport statistics. Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 has been recast for reasons of legal clarity, as it has been substantially amended several times.

Statistics on rail transport are needed to contribute to the monitoring and development of the common transport policy. The objective of the Regulation is to create common statistical standards for the production of harmonised data to be implemented in each Member State under the authority of the bodies and institutions in charge of producing official statistics.

The Regulation covers all railways in the Union. It provides that each Member State shall provide statistics relating to transport by rail on its national territory.

If a railway undertaking operates in more than one Member State, the national authorities concerned shall require that undertaking to provide separate data for each country in which it operates, in order to allow the compilation of national statistics.

Member States may exclude from the scope of this Regulation:

  • railway undertakings which operate entirely or mainly within industrial and similar installations, including harbours;
  • railway undertakings which mainly provide local tourist services, such as preserved historical steam railways.

In order to assist Member States in maintaining the quality of statistics in the domain of rail transport, Eurostat shall develop and publish methodological recommendations. These recommendations shall take account of the best practices of national authorities, of railway undertakings and of professional organisations for the railway industry.

The Commission may adopt delegated acts to amend the Regulation in order to take account of new developments in the Member States, while maintaining harmonised data collection on rail transport throughout the Union, and in order to preserve the high quality of data transmitted by the Member States.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 22.5.2018.