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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 "R" (637)

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

Rail Freight Corridor (RFC)

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Rail freight governance

Infrastructure

Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2024/1679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network, amending Regulations (EU) 2021/1153 and (EU) No 913/2010 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013

Rail Freight Governance

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Rail freight terminal

EU Policy

Glossary

Glossary for transport statistics - 6TH EDITION 2026

Latest release

Rail freight transport

EU Policy

Glossary

Eurostat Transport Glossary on web release November 2024

Rail freight transport revenue

EU Policy

Glossary

Glossary for transport statistics - 6TH EDITION 2026

Latest release

Rail incident

EU Policy

Glossary

Glossary for transport statistics - 6TH EDITION 2026

Latest release

Rail inclination

Infrastructure

Regulation

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/777 of 16 May 2019 on the common specifications for the register of railway infrastructure and repealing Implementing Decision 2014/880/EU

Rail inclination

Infrastructure

TSI

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1299/2014 of 18 November 2014 on the technical specifications for interoperability relating to the ‘infrastructure’ subsystem of the rail system in the European Union

Rail infrastructure

Common Safety Method

Application Guide

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

Rail infrastructure manager (IM)

EU Policy

Glossary

Glossary for transport statistics - 6TH EDITION 2026

Latest release

Rail loading gauge

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

Rail loading gauge

EU Policy

Glossary

Glossary for transport statistics - 6TH EDITION 2026

Latest release

Rail Market Monitoring Scheme (RMMS)

Infrastructure

Glossary

European Rail Infrastructure Managers

Rail mounted machine

International Standard

ISO

ISO/DIS 22575(en) Railway applications — General terms and definitions

Rail Net Europe (RNE)

Infrastructure

Glossary

European Rail Infrastructure Managers

Rail pad

Infrastructure

TSI

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1299/2014 of 18 November 2014 on the technical specifications for interoperability relating to the ‘infrastructure’ subsystem of the rail system in the European Union

Rail passenger

EU Policy

Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2018/643 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on rail transport statistics

Rail passenger disembarked

EU Policy

Glossary

Glossary for transport statistics - 6TH EDITION 2026

Rail passenger embarked

EU Policy

Glossary

Glossary for transport statistics - 6TH EDITION 2026