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
Audit	Entity in Charge of Maintenance	Certification Scheme	Certification scheme for ECM and outsourced maintenance functions under Regulation (EU) 2019/779
Audit	Common Safety Method	Application Guide	Safety management system requirements for safety certification or safety authorisation. Version 1.3 Manuscript completed in April 2021
Audit	EU Policy	Glossary	EU budget glossary - A list of the most common words and useful terms concerning the EU budget
AUT	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.52 Reservation application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
Authentication	ERTMS	Technical Document	ERTMS/ETCS - Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations - version : 4.0.0 - date 05/07/2023
Authentication	EU Policy	Regulation	Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC
Authentication key	ERTMS	Technical Document	ERTMS/ETCS - Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations - version : 4.0.0 - date 05/07/2023
Authenticity	EU Policy	Decision	Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121 of 6 July 2020 on records management and archives
Authorisation	International Relations	Agreement	Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on the Carriage of Goods and Passengers by Rail and Road
Authorisation	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
Authorisation for ERTMS train movement	Operation	TSI	Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/773 of 16 May 2019 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the operation and traffic management subsystem of the rail system within the European Union and repealing Decision 2012/757/EU
Authorisation for ERTMS train movement	ERTMS	ERA Technical Document	Technical Document ERTMS Operational Principles and Rules ERA_ERTMS_OPE_AppA_5 / V 5.0 on 09.04.2019
Authorisation to be renewed	Vehicles / VA	Decision	Commission Implementing Decision 2011/665/EU of 4 October 2011 on the European register of authorised types of railway vehicles
Authorised Public Body	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
Authorised Public body	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.51 Tariff application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
Authorised representative	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
Authorised representative	Conformity Assessment	Decision	Decision No 768/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on a common framework for the marketing of products, and repealing Council Decision 93/465/EEC
Authorised representative	Interoperability	Directive	Directive (EU) 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on the interoperability of the rail system within the European Union (recast)
Authorised representative	ERTMS	Directive	Directive 2014/53/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of radio equipment and repealing Directive 1999/5/EC
Authorised representative	Conformity Assessment	Regulation	Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 339/93

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