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The Rail Transport Statistics aim to provide quarterly and annual information on the number of goods and passengers transported, as well as accidents that have occurred.
In order to obtain the information, the INE sends a questionnaire to all railway companies engaged in the transport of goods or passengers operating in the national territory.
The population scope is composed of all railway companies that provide rail transport services of goods or passengers.
The statistical unit is the railway undertakings.
The population under study is formed by all the railway companies, both public and private, which provide services for the transport of goods and/or passengers by rail within the national territory. Undertakings whose only business is to provide services for the transport of passengers by metro, tram and/or light rail are excluded.
All railways in the Community. Each Member State shall report statistics which relate to rail transport on its national territory. Where a railway undertaking operates in more than one Member State, the national authorities concerned shall require the undertaking to provide data separately for each country in which it operates so as to enable national statistics to be compiled..
The data disseminated are published for the national total.
The historical series begins in 2004.
Results for this statistic are available from year 2004.
Passengers, tonnes, train-km, passenger-km, tonne-km, TEU, accidents.
The reference period is the quarter and the calendar year.
Data referred to the period: Trimestral A: 2023 TRI: IV
The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).
These statistics are subject to the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2018/643 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on rail transport statistics. The Spanish version of the European Union rules affecting this operation is available at: https://www.ine.es/normativa/leyes/UE/minine.htm#30221
The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics 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
The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.
The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)
The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice
The frequency of data dissemination is quarterly and annual.
The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web
The quarterly and annual results of this operation since 2010 are available on the INE website. It can be accessed through INEbase/Services/Transport. It can also be accessed directly through the following link:
http://ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736177040&menu=ultiDatos&idp=1254735576820
INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.
All tables and historical series are available at https://www.ine.es, section INEbase/Services/Transport. It can be accessed through the following link:
http://ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736177040&menu=ultiDatos&idp=1254735576820
In 2023, a total of AC1=32,925 accesses to the ETF website were registered.
In this statistic, no microdata are disseminated.
Users can make customised requests. The policy of attention to customised requests is to analyse whether the conditions of statistical secrecy and significance are met. After this analysis, a feasibility report is prepared and sent to the petitioner.
The requests will be made through the User Service Area: https://www.ine.es/prodyser/informacion
The methodological documentation can be consulted at:
http://ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736177040&menu=metodologia&idp=1254735576820
In 2023 the number of accesses to the methodological documentation was AC2=578.
Fields 10.6 to 17 of this document are the user-oriented quality report for this operation.
Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.
The production process of the Railway Transport Statistics is designed to guarantee the quality of the information used, as well as of the results obtained from it. For this, in all the phases of the process different quality controls have been designed, such as the detection of invalid values and other permanent controls on the flow of information. The Railway Transport Statistics are carried out in accordance with community guidelines, complying with the Code of Practice implemented by Eurostat and taking into account the necessary measures to ensure that the published data meet the required quality standards.
The Rail Transport Statistics is a census whose source is all the rail transport companies operating in the national territory, which guarantees reliable information and high quality statistics. This allows us to provide information that no other statistical source provides with the same level of detail. It also has the following quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, topicality, timeliness, accessibility, clarity, comparability and consistency.
The Rail Transport Statistics covers the information needs of different groups of users:
Each of these users has different needs according to the destination and usefulness of the information they need.
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click next link)
The survey meets the information requirements according to Regulation (EU) 2018/643 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on rail transport statistics (recast).
It is included in the National Statistical Plan 2021-2024 in the section on Information on Companies and in the European Statistical Programme 2018-2022: Transport statistics.
R1 (Rate of available mandatory statistical results) = 100%.
As far as possible, unmet needs are incorporated into the survey when methodological updates are made.
The different processes of the statistics are aimed at eliminating or reducing as much as possible the errors, both in the collection phase (follow-up of the response rate and cleaning control) and in subsequent phases of editing. As it is a census, this statistic does not present sampling errors.
As it is a census, there are no sampling errors.
Special attention is paid to recording, editing and non-response errors, achieving a 100% response rate in 2023. Thus the response rate, both per unit and per item is A4=0% and A5=0%.
Approximately 7 months elapse between the reference date of the information and the date of publication of the annual results and 2 months for the quarterly results. Therefore TP2=7months for annual data and TP2=2 months for quarterly data.
The data are delivered punctually on the date announced in the structural publications calendar. Therefore TP3=0.
The availability of a methodology, a design and a common process of collection, edition, estimation in all its geographical scope, guarantees the comparability of the results both nationally and internationally.
As there have been no methodological changes, all the indicators of the statistics are comparable over time since 2004, being in January 2024 the number of comparable elements CC2 = 20 for the annual series and 80 for the quarterly series.
There is currently no crossing between sectors.
The consistency between variables is contrasted in all phases of the statistical process.
The estimated budget appropriation necessary to carry out this statistic in 2024 is 24.33 euros. The burden on respondents, according to the information received from them, is one person working week per year.
The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).
This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow: routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.
Only final data are published.
Only final data are published. If an error is detected, it is corrected and users are warned about it.
The information is obtained from a survey of companies involved in the transport of goods and passengers. The information is comprehensive and is provided quarterly or annually.
Data collection is done quarterly and annually.
The INE sends questionnaires to the corresponding units, with a response rate of 100% in 2023.
Validation rules are established between related variables and in a single variable by comparison over time, given that the published historical series are homogeneous, and therefore comparable both temporally and geographically.
Once the questionnaires have been collected from the corresponding sample units and after the cleaning and validation phases, the INE processes the information, aggregating it on a national level for dissemination.
No data adjustment is carried out.