The Rail Statistics survey is conducted in accordance with the following EU Legislation;
Regulation (EC) No. 91/2003 the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on rail transport statistics and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1192/2003 of 3 July 2003 amending Regulation (EC) No. 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on rail transport statistics.
The survey covers Irish Rail, the only railway undertaking operating within the Republic of Ireland.
There are nine annexes to Regulation (EC) No. 91/2003 and each annex describes one or more datasets to be provided to Eurostat. Five annexes apply to Irish Rail. There are different reference periods for each dataset but most are either quarterly or annual.
Railway undertaking: Any public or private undertaking which provides services for the transport of goods and/or passengers by rail. Undertakings whose only business is to provide services for the transport of passengers by metro, tram and/or light rail are excluded.
Railway: Line of communication made up by rail exclusively for the use of railway vehicles.
Railway vehicle: mobile equipment running exclusively on rails, moving either under its own power (tractive vehicles) or hauled by another vehicle (coaches, railcar trailers, vans and wagons)
Transport of goods by rail: the movement of goods using railway vehicles between the place of loading and the place of unloading.<
Transport of passengers by rail: the movement of passengers using railway vehicles between the place of embarkation and the place of disembarkation. The transport of passengers by metro, tram and/or light rail is excluded.
National transport: rail transport between two places (a place of loading/embarkation and a place of unloading /disembarkation) located in the reporting country. It may involve transit through a second country.
International transport: rail transport between a place of (loading/embarkation or unloading /disembarkation) in the reporting country and a place of (loading/embarkation or unloading /disembarkation) in another country
Rail passenger: any person, excluding members of the train crew, who makes a trip by rail.
Number of passengers: number of trips by rail passengers, where each trip is defined as the movement from the place of embarkation to the place of disembarkation, with or without transfers from one vehicle to another. If passengers use the services of more than one railway undertaking, when possible they should not be counted more than once.
Passenger-km: the unit of measure representing the transport of one passenger by rail over a distance of one kilometre. Only the distance on the national territory of the reporting country shall be taken into account.
Weight: the quantity of goods in tonnes. The weight to be taken into consideration includes, in addition to the weight of goods transported, the weight of packaging and the tare weight of containers, swap bodies, pallets as well as road vehicles transported by rail in the course of combined transport operations. If the goods are transported using the services of more than one railway undertaking, when possible the weight of goods should not be counted more than once. Tonne-km means the unit of measure of goods transport which represents the transport of one tonne of goods by rail over a distance of one kilometre. Only the distance on the national territory of the reporting country shall be taken into account.