On 10-12 June 2026 in Geneva, UIC participated in the 77th session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Working Party on Transport Statistics (WP.6). The meeting addressed several topics of direct and indirect relevance to the railway sector, including monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, infrastructure resilience and sustainability, railway censuses, and the use of new data sources.
Monitoring transport-related SDGs
The World Health Organisation (WHO) presented the main findings of its upcoming Global Status Report on Road Safety. The report will focus on the links between transport and health by analysing road traffic mortality and morbidity, as well as the impact of air pollution. Drawing on extensive quantitative evidence, it will highlight the importance of shifting towards more sustainable mobility, including walking, cycling, and public transport.
WHO also noted that data on the road vehicle kilometres travelled are still not available on a global level.
Next, the UNECE Secretariat presented the launch of the United Nations Decade of Action for Sustainable Transport (2026–2035), with a series of initiatives having been launched to promote sustainable transport and strengthen progress monitoring throughout the decade, while encouraging greater use of existing data.
Trends over the last decade were also presented; transport-related indicators for UNECE countries revealed the following:
- A steady decline in road traffic fatalities
- A reduction in the modal share of non-road transport for both freight and passengers
- Improved accessibility to public transport.
The working party also discussed potential new indicators covering GHG emissions, the share of new electric passenger cars, and walking and cycling.
Trends in greenhouse gas emissions
The working party then reviewed GHG emission data compiled under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), together with the European Commission Joint Research Centre’s Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR).
The results show that between 2005 and 2024, emissions from inland transport increased gradually overall, with two significant declines during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Infrastructure resilience and sustainability
In this context, the International Transport Forum (ITF) defined transport system resilience as the ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from disruptions, while sustainability aims to deliver mobility systems that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts while ensuring safety and affordability.
Next, the Working Party on Intermodal Transport and Logistics (WP.24) Secretariat highlighted the importance of considering the surrounding environment of transport infrastructure, as risk exposure and investment readiness for resilience vary significantly across countries.
The WP.24 Secretariat also stressed that insufficient resilience can undermine the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of transport systems. Several potential monitoring indicators were presented, including additional travel time, travel costs, and the time and cost required to restore infrastructure following disruptions.
Railway statistics: E-Rail, Eurostat and the Register of Infrastructure (RINF)
The Secretariat provided updates on the E-Road, E-Rail, and E-Inland Water censuses and discussed the possibility of collecting verified annual traffic count data in the future, as well as how the three censuses could help assess modal shifts.
Eurostat presented its ongoing work on Annex V of the EU rail statistics regulation, described as equivalent to the UNECE E-Rail census, as well as proposals to improve data collection through the use of network segments from the RINF.
The Russian Federation indicated that railway data is collected by the Organisation for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD) and encouraged closer partnership between the organisation and the Secretariat.
New data sources and statistical innovation
Several innovative data applications in transport statistics were presented, including:
- Anonymised GPS data for congestion analysis
- Mobile application data
- The use of mobile phone data by the Italian State Railways (FSI) to analyse mobility patterns, estimate daily travel volumes, average travel distances, and tourist travel flows
- The use of artificial intelligence to match infrastructure segments, particularly in relation to RINF and Annex V
UIC contribution
UIC presented its ongoing projects on railway resilience to extreme climate events, SDG-related railway indicators, and the harmonisation of railway punctuality and reliability measurement. Particular emphasis was placed on the need to harmonise definitions, especially regarding what constitutes a cancelled train.
Further information, including the meeting documents, is available on the UNECE website and the presentations are available on the UIC Extranet.
