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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 "P" (496)

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

Path

Withdrawn

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

Latest release

Path alteration

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Path assembly

Withdrawn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

Path Coordination System (PCS)

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Path feasibility study / path study

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Path modification

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Path number

Withdrawn

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

Latest release

Path optimization

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Path withdrawal

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Payment

EU Policy

Glossary

EU budget glossary - A list of the most common words and useful terms concerning the EU budget

Payment

Withdrawn

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

Latest release

Payment appropriations

EU Policy

Glossary

EU budget glossary - A list of the most common words and useful terms concerning the EU budget

Payment claim

EU Policy

Glossary

EU budget glossary - A list of the most common words and useful terms concerning the EU budget

Payment service

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

PBD SR

ERTMS

Technical Document

ERTMS/ETCS - Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations - version : 4.0.0 - date 05/07/2023

PC

International Standard

EU Technical Document

CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025

PC

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

PCBC

International Standard

EU Technical Document

CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025

PCS

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

PDIU

ERTMS

Glossary

ERTMS/ATO Glossary - version 2 on 05.07.2023