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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 "O" (248)

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

O&M

Entity in Charge of Maintenance

Application Guide

Guidance on ECM Certification process Guide for the application of Article 14 of Directive (EU) 2016/798 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2019/779 on a system of certification of entities in charge of maintenance for vehicles Version 10.0 on 04/12/2025

Latest release

OAPEC

EU Policy

EU Technical Document

Technical document from the Publications Office of the European Union - ‘Style guide’ Coordination Interinstitutional Style Guide - version on 19.04.2022

OAS

EU Policy

EU Technical Document

Technical document from the Publications Office of the European Union - ‘Style guide’ Coordination Interinstitutional Style Guide - version on 19.04.2022

OAU

EU Policy

EU Technical Document

Technical document from the Publications Office of the European Union - ‘Style guide’ Coordination Interinstitutional Style Guide - version on 19.04.2022

OBB

ERTMS

Glossary

ERTMS Glossary

Object / Entity / Item

SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor

ISO

ISO 9000:2015(en) Quality management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary

Latest release

Object 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

Objective

SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor

ISO

ISO 45001:2018(en) Occupational health and safety management systems — Requirements with guidance for use

Latest release

Objective

SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor

ISO

ISO 55001:2024(en) Asset management — Asset management system — Requirements

Latest release

Objective

SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor

ISO

ISO 22301:2019(en) Security and resilience — Business continuity management systems — Requirements

Latest release

Objective

SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor

ISO

ISO 9000:2015(en) Quality management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary

Latest release

Objective

Common Safety Method

Application Guide

Safety management system requirements for safety certification or safety authorisation. Version 1.3 Manuscript completed in April 2021

Objective evidence

International Standard

ISO

ISO 19011:2018(en) Guidelines for auditing management systems

Objective evidence

SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor

ISO

ISO 9000:2015(en) Quality management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary

Latest release

Objectivity

EU Policy

Regulation

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, and Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities

Observation

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Observed data

Telematics Applications for Passenger and Freight Services

Regulation

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1926 of 31 May 2017 supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the provision of EU-wide multimodal travel information services

Latest release

Observer

SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor

ISO

ISO 9000:2015(en) Quality management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary

Latest release

Observer

International Standard

ISO

ISO 19011:2018(en) Guidelines for auditing management systems

Observer

International Standard

ISO

ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015(en) Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems — Part 1: Requirements