ERA Railway Terminology Collection

The ERA Railway Terminology Collection gathers terms and abbreviations that are contained in the EU legal framework for railway, technical documents produced by bodies which are engaged in the development of important evolution in the railway system and other relevant glossaries.

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Latest release: 1 April 2025

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Disclaimer
ERA Railway Terminology Collection is a consultation tool, developed to support the sharing of information through the actors involved in running the Single European Railway Area (SERA). The responsibility for the correctness, completeness, accuracy, or reliability of the information in ERA RTC lays upon the authors of the definitions, as they derive from reference documents having their own preparation and approval flow. Users cannot call ERA liable for the use they make of the content. Please consider that when the collection is exported (.csv) and then printed or converted, it becomes uncontrolled.
Term	Context	Document Type	Origin document
Assembly	International Standard	ISO	ISO 5658-2:2006(en) Reaction to fire tests — Spread of flame — Part 2: Lateral spread on building and transport products in vertical configuration
Assembly before putting into service	Infrastructure	Regulation	Commission Regulation (EU) No 1299/2014 of 18 November 2014 on the technical specifications for interoperability relating to the ‘infrastructure’ subsystem of the rail system in the European Union
Assessment	Entity in Charge of Maintenance	Certification Scheme	Certification scheme for ECM and outsourced maintenance functions under Regulation (EU) 2019/779
Assessment	Noise	Directive	Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise
Assessment body	Interoperability	Recommendation	2014/897/EU: Commission Recommendation of 5 December 2014 on matters related to the placing in service and use of structural subsystems and vehicles under Directives 2008/57/EC and 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
Assessment body	Common Safety Method	Regulation	Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 402/2013 of 30 April 2013 on the common safety method for risk evaluation and assessment and repealing Regulation (EC) No 352/2009
Assessment of suitability for use	Conformity Assessment	Decision	2010/713/EU: Commission Decision of 9 November 2010 on modules for the procedures for assessment of conformity, suitability for use and EC verification to be used in the technical specifications for interoperability adopted under Directive 2008/57/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
Assessment team	Entity in Charge of Maintenance	Sectorial Scheme	Sectorial Scheme for accreditation and recognition of ECM certification bodies under Regulation (EU) 2019/779. ERA 1172/002 V3.1 on 15/06/2020
Asset Management	Infrastructure	Glossary	European Rail Infrastructure Managers
Asset management	Common Safety Method	Application Guide	Safety management system requirements for safety certification or safety authorisation. Version 1.3 Manuscript completed in April 2021
Assigned revenue External/InternaL	EU Policy	Glossary	EU budget glossary - A list of the most common words and useful terms concerning the EU budget
ASTM	International Relations	Convention	Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID)
Asymmetric keys	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.54 Indirect Fulfilment application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
AT	International Standard	ISO	ISO 3166 (en) - Online Browsing Platform (OBP) Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 1: Country code
At the discretion of	Telematics Applications for Passenger	TSI	Commission Regulation (EU) No 454/2011 of 5 May 2011 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the subsystem ‘telematics applications for passenger services’ of the trans-European rail system
ATB	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.53 Direct Fulfilment application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
ATB printing process	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.53 Direct Fulfilment application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
ATC	ERTMS	Technical Document	ERTMS/ETCS - Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations - version : 4.0.0 - date 05/07/2023
ATE	International Standard	ISO	ISO 22163:2023(en) Railway applications — Railway quality management system — ISO 9001:2015 and specific requirements for application in the railway sector
ATMF	Registers	Decision	Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1614 of 25 October 2018 laying down specifications for the vehicle registers referred to in Article 47 of Directive (EU) 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council and amending and repealing Commission Decision 2007/756/EC

Certification Scheme
Common Safety Method
Conformity Assessment
Control-Command and Signalling
Data Protection
Energy
Entity in Charge of Maintenance
ERTMS
EU Policy
Freight
Human and Organisational Factor
Infrastructure
International Relations
International Standard
Interoperability
Noise
Operation
Persons with Reduced Mobility
Railway Tunnels
Registers
Regulation
RNE Glossary
Safety / SSC-SA
Sectorial Scheme
Security
SERA_EU Transport
Telematics Applications for Freight
Telematics Applications for Passenger
Vehicles / VA
Withdrawn

Agreement
Application Guide
Certification Scheme
CIT Document
Convention
COTIF Document
Council Recommendation
Decision
Directive
ERA Ontology
ERA Technical Document
EU Technical Document
Glossary
Guide
International Agreement
ISO
Manual
Recommendation
Regulation
Sectorial Scheme
Technical Document
TSI
Website