On Wednesday, 4 December 2024, the annual plenary meeting of the UIC Statistics Platform took place at UIC HQ, chaired by Roman Štěrba (National Railway Infrastructure Manager of Czech Republic – SŽCZ), bringing together members and partner organisations from the global railway community. This event highlighted the collective commitment to advancing railway statistics and promoting data-driven decision-making.
The platform’s organisation was presented, including its governance structure and working bodies. Members of the platform, representing around 100 railway companies worldwide, collaborate on data collection activities. Four working groups are dedicated to developing questionnaires, focusing on the harmonisation of concepts, the definition of statistical variables and indicators for comparative analyses, and web applications to support all data management activities. The second edition of IRS 30398, which defines the rules for data collection, was unanimously approved by the plenary.
Lucie Anderton (UIC), Director of Sustainable Development, informed platform members of the integration of the Statistics Unit into the Sustainable Development Department. This initiative aims to strengthen the synergy between statistical reporting and sustainability reporting.
Alice Favre (UIC), coordinator of the Statistics Platform, then presented updates on surveys and participation throughout 2024. Monthly data collection was expanded to 16 variables documenting traffic, with significant participation from infrastructure managers, passenger operators and freight operators. Annual data collection of key performance indicators (KPI) remained stable, while data collection for International Railway Statistics showed a slight decline. Efforts to encourage participation and in particular, to enrich datasets with new variables regarding stations, engineering structures and energy consumption, were noted.
Key reports and publications were highlighted. The 2024 edition of the Railway Statistics Synopsis features a new design. Quarterly and monthly reports now include updated trends and visualisations for traffic data, which will be implemented in online tools. The draft version of International Railway Statistics 2023 has already been shared within the platform, with the final version expected in January 2025.
The importance of data accessibility was reiterated, with 83% of 2023 data marked as public, and confidentiality slightly increased compared to previous years. Members are encouraged to contribute to data collection efforts and actively participate in the working groups. Indeed, the crucial role of railway statistics in shaping global transport policies was emphasised. With new tools and indicators, the UIC Statistics Platform is ready to support evidence-based advocacy for increased rail investments and sustainable development.
Then, several points regarding the development of railway transport were addressed by different speakers. Martin Trpišovský, representing České Dráhy (Czech Railways – CD), presented an overview of the Czech national railway company, which is responsible for both passenger and freight transport. In 2023, CD transported over 9 billion tonne-kilometres of goods and 8 billion passenger-kilometres, generating a record profit of nearly CZK 3 billion from passenger transport. CD holds approximately 86.8% of the regional market in the Czech Republic, and competition is growing. A mobile app has been developed to provide easy access to information and ticketing. He also shared development plans aimed at improving long-distance rail connections with neighbouring countries, as well as Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland and Switzerland.
Next, Mario Tartaglia (Italian State Railways – FS), leader of Working Group 4, presented how data from Railisa and UIC statistical reports is used by a Strategic Information Management System (SIMS) developed by FS. Through a REST API, data is automatically transferred and processed within the system, providing in-depth analyses and reports accessible via dashboards.
On the topic of sustainability, Snejana Markovic Chenais (UIC) outlined the progress made with the Rail Sustainability Index (RSi). This system helps railway companies track their sustainability impact, based on seven Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Data is collected annually to assess companies’ environmental, social and economic performance. Philippe Stefanos (UIC) then presented preliminary results on energy consumption and emissions, noting a continuous downward trend since 2005, with positive prospects for achieving UIC-CER goals by 2050. Following this, Lorenzo Franzoni (UIC) presented the 2023 Global Rail Sustainability Report, highlighting the rail sector’s progress in achieving the United Nations Agenda 2030 goals. He emphasised the importance of ongoing innovation and partnerships to accelerate progress.
The meeting also allowed several partner organisations to share important information. Giacomo Potenza from the European Union for Railways (ERA) presented the activities of the analysis team, focusing on evaluating the economic impact of policies and studies on the rail sector’s environmental performance. Alain Gallais from Eurostat discussed efforts to revise and harmonise the Glossary for transport Statistics and the Common Questionnaire (Eurostat, OECD International Transport Forum, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)), while Rachele Poggi from OECD/ITF spoke about ongoing projects related to decarbonisation and the digitalisation of transport. Fadiah Achmadi from UNECE presented trends in rail traffic and data collected for inland transport statistics. Shukhrat Kayumkhodjaev from the Organisation for Co-Operation between Railways (OSJD) discussed the efficiency of international rail transport and the collection of new data to improve performance, particularly at border crossings.
Finally, Štěrba concluded the meeting by thanking all participants and discussing the 2025 work programme. This programme includes important deadlines for data collection and the publication of statistics, with steering committee meetings planned for May and October 2025 in Bratislava and Prague.
All presentations given during the meeting can be found on the Extranet “Statistics Platform”.
Data resources:
https://uic-stats.uic.org/select/
https://www.era.europa.eu/content/era-railway-factsheets
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database
https://stats.oecd.org/
https://unece.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a3b54fd4f3b2454d82240182fbefd090
