On 22-23 October 2025, the UIC Statistics Steering Committee (SSC) met at UIC headquarters in Paris, with members joining both in person and online. The two-day session, chaired by Roman Štěrba, National Railway Infrastructure Manager of the Czech Republic (SŽCZ), brought together statistical experts from member railways to review progress on harmonised data collection, new indicators, and digital tools supporting a consistent and comprehensive view of the railway sector.
Strengthening cooperation and data consistency
Opening the meeting, Philippe Lorand, UIC Director of Institutional Relations, underlined the vital role that statistics play in promoting rail as a sustainable mode of transport. He thanked the members for their participation and announced upcoming initiatives to strengthen communication on UIC’s statistical work, including awareness initiatives highlighting the value of rail data.
Participants discussed ways to broaden participation and ensure full market representativeness, particularly for freight, by improving data sharing and enhancing consistency across all UIC publications.
Progress on harmonising railway statistics
It was reported that substantial progress has been made on the Eurostat/International Transport Forum at the OECD (ITF-OECD)/United Nations Economic Commission for Europe(UNECE) Glossary, which is now in its final phase, with extensive input from UIC on the rail chapter. The updated glossary will be published in English, French, and German at the beginning of 2026.
Clarifications were also made regarding key statistical tables related to energy consumption and rolling stock. For punctuality data, a new survey will be launched early 2026 to compare the methods used by members for calculating train delays and defining cancellations versus removed services. Updates were also made to the station classification methodology, extending coverage beyond Europe and refining service definitions.
Improving data quality and engagement
Participation levels in the current data collection cycles for 2024-2025 were reviewed. To strengthen response rates, UIC will share the results with regional coordinators, seeking their active support.
In terms of data confidentiality, most of the members expressed support for sharing data with academic researchers providing appropriate agreements exist. UIC will explore the introduction of an additional visibility level to facilitate access for research purposes.
Advancing sustainability and analytics
The upcoming Global Railway Statistics 2023 report, consolidating national-level data from UIC, Eurostat, OECD, UNECE and other sources, was reviewed by the committee. The report will highlight key global trends in passenger and freight rail over the past 20 years (2004–2023) and is scheduled for publication in January 2026.
New analysis of traffic intensity across 60 networks was also presented, examining relationships between line characteristics and train traffic density. The study will be further improved with additional visual representations and contextual explanations.
Discussions further focused on sustainability reporting and alignment with the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Lucie Anderton, UIC, informed members that UIC is developing a new International Railway Solution (IRS) on sustainability reporting and will also be organising webinars on carbon accounting and resilience later this year.
Finally, the committee endorsed Mario Tartaglia, Italian State Railways (FS), as the Statistics Platform Chair candidate for the 2026–2027 term, which will submitted for approval at the plenary meeting. The call for participation in Working Groups (WGs) for 2026-2027 is currently open, and representatives from active member companies are warmly invited to apply.
More information on the meeting can be found on the extranet.
UIC members are invited to keep on providing their data using our online tool.
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For any information concerning Statistics at UIC, please send an email to stat at uic.org.
