Item 1 Opening Address and Adoption of the Agenda

Item 1 – Opening address and adoption of the agenda

Ms. Stefania Panaitescu, the new project manager on rail transport statistics, has been introduced to the Working Group. M. Paolo Borsi, from DG MOVE, has also been introduced to the participants.

The main developments since the last Working Group meeting have been summarized:

-The work on the amending Regulation has been on-going

-In September 2012, the role of Eurostat in the production of statistics at European level has been strengthened by a Commission Decision

-In the frame of the Annual Working Program, hearings have taken place with DG MOVE in September 2013 to discuss data needs for the future

-The priorities for 2014 have been highlighted:

• Eurostat should become the leading data providers of statistics in Europe, and will work on new methods for efficiency gains and quality improvement
• As concerns more particularly transport statistics, the aim is to reach the targets set in the White Paper while not increasing the burden on the Member States
• Streamlining and harmonization exercises will be conducted in transport statistics in the frame of the negative priorities

A modification was made in the agenda, switching item 8.2 and item 5.

Item 2 - Recent developments in the EU's Rail Transport Policies

DG MOVE informed the Working Group on the Fourth Railway Package (vision for rail, current situation and developments foreseen) and on the aim and indicators of the Rail Market Monitoring System. A selection of White Paper goals related to the rail sector were highlighted, and DG MOVE especially stressed the current and future statistical needs for policy making (modal split indicators, GHG emissions, High Speed infrastructure, rail transit passengers).

DG MOVE replied to a country, asking if the data mentioned during the presentation were intended to be collected by the NSIs, that the subsidiary principle should apply: questionnaires will be submitted by DG MOVE to the reporting countries, which should decide which entity(ies) should be involved in its filling.

Conclusion

DG MOVE informed the participants on the most relevant developments (related to Rail) in the Transport policy, with accent on the data requirements needed for the monitoring of the White Paper targets.

Item 3 - Data collection according to Regulation 91/2003

Item 3.1 - Availability and dissemination

After a short reminder on the deadline for data transmission of the different annexes, Eurostat presented the rail data availability as regards goods, passengers, accidents and undertakings for the reference years 2012 (annual datasets) and 2013 (quarterly datasets). Eurostat also informed the participants on the regular update of the Eurobase section related to rail transport statistics, as well as on the publications currently under preparation (Statistics Explained articles on rail passenger transport and accidents, and SiF on rail freight transport).

Issueswere mentioned by two reporting countriesfor delivering data:

-infrastructure companies are disagreeing on the entity that should provide the data. There is an on-going work for the implementation of a legal basis in order to obtain the data needed.

-no data were currently available for Annex G, as more time is necessary to compile data from all regions, but this country stated that data should soon be available

Aparticipant indicated that some datasets were not applicable for this country (F2 as there is no international transport and G3, as no inland waterways transport occurs in this country).

A Member State asked the reason why two segment codes were necessary for each segment, and wondered why flags TEN/NOT TEN were not stored directly in the segments dictionary. It has also been remarked that the figures for the position of the stations should be provided with decimals.

Eurostat especially thanked the reporting countries for the good compliance with the Regulation. Eurostat also replied that TEN/NOT TEN issues will be dealt with in the frame of another item of the agenda and that a Task Force might be needed in the future as concerns modifications to be implemented in Annex G.

A country stated that a new national legal act on confidentiality came into force, and as only two companies are covered for goods transport and three companies for passenger transport, the data would become confidential.

Eurostat replied that the treatment of confidential data was not an issue for Eurostat (treatment performed in secured rooms), and that dissemination aspects should be further discussed bilaterally once the national legal act on data confidentiality comes into force.

Item 3.2 - Quality of data received

Eurostat presented the mirror statistics analysis, highlighting that according to the Regulation 91/2003, Member States have to provide statistics on goods transport by country of loading and unloading (Table A3) and on passenger transport by country of embarkation and disembarkation (Table C4 for final consolidated data). Eurostat showed an overview of the absolute differences observed at country routes level for goods and passenger transport (2011 and 2012 data). At a global level, mirror checks have shown that between 2011 and 2012, quality was stable for freight transport and enhancing for passenger transport. Eurostat stated that countries are always welcome for explanations of the possible sources of the discrepancies observed, and noticed that differences in undertakings coverage could partly explain some of the deviations detected.Moreover, countries were encouraged to discuss bilaterally to solve issues pointed out in the mirror checks analysis.

A Member Stateinformed that contacts with a partner country have been organized for solving mirror issues bilaterally: the mirror numbers should now be equal as they are coming from the same data source. As concerns transport with another reporting country, only total passenger transport is made available by the rail company concerned, and the split is made using estimation techniques.

It has also been reminded that deviations could be observed due to the fact that all undertakings are covered in detailed reporting for a given country: it would be helpful to know which countries are concerned by such methodological issue to include this information in the Country Specific Notes. Moreover, the liberalization of the market implies that new undertakings are arriving on the market, and these undertakings need extended time to provide data.

There wasa strong interest in mirror statistics, being recognized as a good way to improve data quality. Eurostat has been asked on the possibility to get an updated version of the mirror tables once the 2012 data collection will be finalized.

The large number of operators involved in rail transport has been underlined, and it has been pointed out that some operators, exporting goods, are not necessarily aware of the final destination of the goods transported.

Differences observed with neighbouring countriesmay be due to a different treatment of goods loaded/unloaded at the border. This explanation was valid for previous reference yearsfor a specific country pairand it will be checked if this still applies to the latest figures available. This methodological issue has been considered as hard to bypass.

It was also remarked that the differences observed might be due to methodological differences, and do not necessarily imply that data are not correct. As an example, transhipment at borders in case of different gauge between countries may be treated differently by the various reporting countries.

A member of the Working Groupstated that it may be difficult, especially for small operators, to distinguish between national and international transport. This country will investigate the reason for the deviations observed in the mirror statistics.

A Member State stated that data were not available in the mirror tables as most data are confidential: this country is currently working with the companies on the necessity to publish such data in the future. It has also been remarked that some differences may not be very representative in terms of percentage of total transport, especially for countries registering important volumes of rail transport.

Item 3.3 - Information of the on-going revision of the validation rules

Eurostat presented the latest developments of the validation rules related to rail transport data. It has been reminded that the current set of validation rules is available in the Guidelines document, which is issued every year. Eurostat informed the participants on the recent modifications of the validation rules, their future simplification and the impact of the amending Regulation on the current set of rules.

Eurostat especially reminded that the aim of the revision of the validation rules was to decrease the burden on the reporting countries.

Eurostat presented the goal and approach of the First Phase of the ESS VIP-Validation project, as well as the scope objectives and outputs. A detailed overview of the deliverables of the project has been provided, as well as information on the proposed approach for the Phase II of the project. Finally, Eurostat presented a set of good practices in validation, and concluded on the current actions and next steps of the project.

Eurostat underlined that this project is fully in line with the Eurostat vision, and is approved by the ESS committee. Once implemented, new validation rules might be requested on the countries’ side before data transmission.

Item 3.4 - Revision of error margins

Eurostat proposed a revision of the current set of error margins applied in the frame of the quality checks. Eurostat reminded that the general aim of the error margins was to detect extraordinary growth rates between two consecutive years in order to ensure the credibility of the records with the countriesconcerned. Eurostat informed the participants on the revised set of error margins proposed taking into account the latest developments in the field of rail transport and aiming at reducing the burden for the reporting countries. The new settings result from an analysis of the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 evolutions within each dataset, aiming at being more tolerant for small absolute values while focusing more on important figures. Eurostat gave different examples of application of the new margins and asked the countries to express their position on the replacement of the current set of error (and alert) margins by a new set of error (and alert) margins.

The participants welcomed the changes proposed, pointing out that:

-the evolutions can most of the time be explained (for instance, many new undertakings arriving on the rail market do not register regular transport volumes across time).

-it is relevant to use “alerts” for rail accidents

-changes can sometimes be explained by a different enterprise coverage over time, due to undertakings alternating between simplified and detailed reporting regimes over the years.

Conclusion

The Working Group took note of the updated compliance situation, as well as of the issues related to data quality: mirror checks, on-going revision of the validation rules and the proposal of a revised set of error margins (aiming at reduced burden for the countries); the process to update the validation rules for the amending Regulation has started.

Eurostat thanked countries for improved quality and for their efforts to comply with the requirements of the Regulation and encouraged them to collaborate for solving the issues brought up by the mirror checks.

Once all data for 2012 will be available, Eurostat will update the mirror checks and then the new report will be transmitted to the countries.

Countries informed the Working Group on their recent activities aiming at improving compliance/quality of the data collection.

Eurostat took note of the proposal to include in the Country Specific Notes all explanations related to differences occurred in the mirror checks.

The Working Group agreed with Eurostat proposal for modifying the error margins.

Eurostat informed countries on the ESS VIP (Vision Infrastructure Project) on Validation; its aim is to develop validation solutions to be used by different production chains, within the ESS.

Item 4 - Accidents

ERA presented the latest developments in the agency concerning rail accidents statistics. A timeline of the EU railway legislation has been reminded to the participants, as well as a Directive and an Agency Regulation on Common Safety Indicators (CSIs) and Common Safety Targets (CSTs). ERA particularly stressed the need for a coordination and close cooperation with Eurostat. ERA also reminded the purposes of the Common Safety Indicators, and provided a list of the different categories of indicators. The on-going revision of the Directive 149/2009/EC has been reviewed, and the memorandum of understanding between Eurostat and ERA for a regular cooperation has been presented. Information has also been provided on the proposal for a new Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 91/2003, aiming especially at an alignment with the new institutional context and a deletion of Annex H data (figures already collected by ERA).

Eurostat presented the impact of this change on data collection and dissemination. First, information has been provided on the current situation: rail safety data are collected in the frame of Annex H of Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 and disseminated in the dedicated tables in Eurobase. The current developments were then detailed: data are made available by ERA and the process allowing the conversion of ERA’s data into a suitable format for dissemination (codification issues, …) is almost finalised. Eurostat and ERA’s data not presenting exactly the same data coverage, there is an on-going assessment exercise based on a couple of reference years with overlapping data from both sources aiming at highlighting and explaining methodological differences. Eurostat also underlined the existing issue for Candidate Countries - not Members of ERA - which needs to be sorted out in the near future.

Eurostat indicated that Annex H data should still be provided by the reporting countries until the amending Regulation is adopted. As concerns data dissemination in Eurobase, the way of presenting the data is currently under discussion.

Remarks were made by the participants indicating that ERA and Eurostat data might not always be comparable:

-for a participant, there is a difference of coverage between the data submitted to ERA (excluding international railways) and to Eurostat (including international railways). It has been proposed to revise accordingly data already submitted to ERA in order to avoid breaks in the time series

-for another country, the data are submitted to Eurostat before the ERA data transmission, the figures being different, as not coming from the same data source

-a candidate country, currently not participating to the ERA data collection, showed ready to submit rail accidents data to ERA

ERA confirmed the difference of coverage that may arise between the data from Eurostat and ERA, but underlined that it represents a difference of less than 1% at EU level, showing the good consistency of both data sources.The issues raised by the reporting countries should be solved bilaterally, and it has been added that metadata will be updated to clearly mention the transition year.

Eurostat replied to UIP, asking the timeframe for the amending Regulation to come into force and the discontinuation of the data collection for Annex H, that the deadline is not defined yet. However, data from ERA should already be available on Eurostat website by the end of November 2013.

Conclusion

ERA and Eurostat informed about latest developments in the area of safety for the Rail sector and the on-going cooperation between the two institutions.

Eurostat has informed that data from ERA are available and as of November 2013, a new domain will be opened in Eurostat dissemination platform; this new domain will deal with accidents data for all transport modes and ERA data will be published.

As the amending Regulation is not yet approved, countries have to send annex H.

As a consequence, there will be a temporary overlapping and both data sets will be published.

Item 5 - Status of the amending regulation

Eurostat presented the whole process and the current advancement for the implementation of the amending Regulation. The DIMESA (Directors’ Meetings on Environmental Statistics and Accounts) and Inter-service consultations (with DGs SG, SJ, MOVE, CLIMA, COMP, ENTR, ENV, REGIO, IAS) have been performed in the course of May 2013. The ESSC (European Statistical System Committee) consultation took place during the summer 2013 and the adoption by College took place on the 30thAugust 2013. Eurostat indicated that a draft report from the MEP rapporteur has been made available in October 2013, with several amendments among which the proposal to maintain Annex H in the amending Regulation.

Eurostat informed the countries that the amendments would be voted one by one by the Parliament, and asked the participants to have a close look at the draft report from the MEP rapporteur and advise their representatives at the Council. Currently, it is not possible to anticipate the final content of the amending Regulation.