ERA Railway Terminology visual v0 featured

ERA Railway Terminology Collection

Last updated: 5 December 2025.

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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Starting with "C" (692)

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
Contracting Parties	International Relations	Agreement	Agreement on the European Economic Area
Contracting State	International Relations	COTIF Document	Uniform Rules concerning the Technical Admission of Railway Material used in International Traffic (ATMF - Appendix G to the Convention) version of 01.11.2023
Contractor	EU Policy	Regulation	Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast)
Contractual agreement	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)
Contractual agreement	Infrastructure	Glossary	European Rail Infrastructure Managers
Contractual carrier	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.53 Direct Fulfilment application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
Contractual carrier	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.54 Indirect Fulfilment application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
Contrast C	International Standard	ISO	ISO 3864-4:2011(en) Graphical symbols — Safety colours and safety signs — Part 4: Colorimetric and photometric properties of safety sign materials
Contrast colour	International Standard	ISO	ISO 3864-4:2011(en) Graphical symbols — Safety colours and safety signs — Part 4: Colorimetric and photometric properties of safety sign materials
Contributing Factor	Safety / SSC-SA	Regulation	Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/572 of 24 April 2020 on the reporting structure to be followed for railway accident and incident investigation reports
Contribution agreement	EU Policy	Regulation	Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast)
Control	EU Policy	Regulation	Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast)
Control	International Standard	ISO	ISO/IEC 10026-1:1998(en) Information technology — Open Systems Interconnection — Distributed Transaction Processing — Part 1: OSI TP Model	Latest release
Control (Control measure)	Freight	Glossary	Transport of dangerous goods. Risks Management Framework. Framework glossary v. 1.0/2018
Control activities	Safety / SSC-SA	Directive	Directive (EU) 2016/798 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on railway safety (recast)
Control centre	ERTMS	Technical Document	ERTMS/ETCS - Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations - version : 4.0.0 - date 05/07/2023
Control period	Infrastructure	Regulation	Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/545 of 7 April 2016 on procedures and criteria concerning framework Agreements for the allocation of rail infrastructure capacity
Control period	RNE Glossary	Glossary	RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025	Latest release
Control temperature	International Relations	Convention	Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID)
Control-command and signalling (CCS) TSI	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	Latest release

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
Security
SERA_EU Transport
Single Market Mutual Recognition Conformity Assessment
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 Technical Document
EU Technical Document
Glossary
Guide
International Agreement
ISO
Manual
Recommendation
Regulation
Sectorial Scheme
Technical Document
TSI
Website