The SCI GLOBAL RAIL INDEX is based on approximately 100 reports from representative companies in the global rail industry. The companies are regularly asked to assess their current business situation and their expectations for the coming three months. They can indicate their situation as "good", "satisfactory" or "poor" and their business expectations for the coming six months as "more favourable", "stable" or "less favourable". The balance value of the current business situation is the difference between the percentages of the answers "good" and "bad", the balance value of the expectations is the difference between the percentages of the answers "more favourable" and "less favourable". The business climate is a transformed mean value from the balances of the business situation and the expectations.