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ERA Railway Terminology visual v0 featured

ERA Railway Terminology Collection

Last updated: 12 March 2026

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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The file you will get by clicking the "Download the full Terminology" button below is in CSV format. To convert it to a readable Excel file:

1. Download the CSV file
2. Open a blank Excel sheet
3. Go to Data → Get Data from CSV → select the CSV file you just downloaded
4. The Excel file will be generated (without any encoding issues)

Starting with "C" (756)

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

Conformity assessment body

Single Market Mutual Recognition Conformity Assessment

Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2019/515 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 on the mutual recognition of goods lawfully marketed in another Member State and repealing Regulation (EC) No 764/2008

Conformity assessment body

Vehicles / VA

Application Guide

Application Guide for the European register of authorised types of railway vehicles (ERATV) - v.5.7 on09.04.2025

Conformity assessment body (ERA Ontology ref.)

Infrastructure

Application Guide

Guide on the application of the common specifications of the register of Infrastructure - v. 3.1.0 on 31.03.2025

Conformity assessment scheme - Conformity assessment programme

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

Conformity assessment system

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

Congested infrastructure

SERA_EU Transport

Directive

Directive 2012/34/EU of the Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 establishing a single European railway area (recast)

Congested lines / congested infrastructure

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Connected product

Telematics Applications for Passenger and Freight Services

Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2023 on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive (EU) 2020/1828

Latest release

Connected rail / railway networks

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)

Infrastructure

Glossary

European Rail Infrastructure Managers

Connections used between different parts of the vehicle

Interoperability

Decision

Commission Decision of 30 November 2009 on the reference document referred to in Article 27(4) of Directive 2008/57/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the interoperability of the rail system within the Community. (2009/965/EC)

Connector

Energy

Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure, and repealing Directive 2014/94/EU

Consent of the data subject

Data Protection

Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC

Consent of the data subject

Data Protection

Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC

Consequence

Freight

Glossary

Transport of dangerous goods. Risks Management Framework. Framework glossary v. 1.0/2018

Consequence

SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor

ISO

ISO 31000:2018(en) Risk management — Guidelines

Latest release

Consignee

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Consignee

Freight

Glossary

Terminology on Combined Transport from Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE). Prepared by the UN/ECE, the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) and the European Commission (EC). UNITED NATIONS - New York and Geneva, 2001

Consignee

Withdrawn

TSI

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1305/2014 of 11 December 2014 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the telematics applications for freight subsystem of the rail system in the European Union and repealing the Regulation (EC) No 62/2006

Latest release

Consignee

International Relations

Convention

Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID)