ERA Railway Terminology Collection

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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Latest update: 1 May 2025

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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
SIMAP	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
Simultaneous use of two means of transport (active mode)/ (passive mode)	EU Policy	Glossary	Glossary for transport statistics - 5TH EDITION 2019
Single European Railway Area Committee (SERAC)	Infrastructure	Glossary	European Rail Infrastructure Managers
Single European sky or SES	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
Single on-board location reference	ERTMS	Technical Document	ERTMS/ETCS - Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations - version : 4.0.0 - date 05/07/2023
Single track	RNE Glossary	Glossary	RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2023
Single variation	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.50 Timetable application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
Single wagon train	RNE Glossary	Glossary	RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2023
Single wagon train service	RNE Glossary	Glossary	RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2023
SIRI	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.50 Timetable application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
SIS	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
SITC	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
SITC/Rev.4	EU Policy	Glossary	Glossary for transport statistics - 5TH EDITION 2019
Site	International Standard	ISO	ISO 22163:2023(en) Railway applications — Railway quality management system — ISO 9001:2015 and specific requirements for application in the railway sector
Size of friction element	Vehicles / VA	ERA Technical Document	Specifications to perform the assessment of conformity of friction elements for wheel tread brakes (Version 2) Technical document ERA/TD/2013-02/INT Friction elements for wheel tread brakes for freight wagons. V. 2.0, 2014
Size of friction element	Vehicles / VA	ERA Technical Document	Specifications to perform the assessment of conformity of friction elements for wheel tread brakes (Version 3) Technical document ERA/TD/2013-02/INT Friction elements for wheel tread brakes for freight wagons. V. 3.0, 2015
Sizes of containers	EU Policy	Glossary	Glossary for transport statistics - 5TH EDITION 2019
SJ	International Standard	ISO	ISO 3166 (en) - Online Browsing Platform (OBP) Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 1: Country code
SK	International Standard	ISO	ISO 3166 (en) - Online Browsing Platform (OBP) Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 1: Country code
sk	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

Certification Scheme
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Conformity Assessment
Control-Command and Signalling
Data Protection
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Entity in Charge of Maintenance
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EU Policy
Freight
Human and Organisational Factor
Infrastructure
International Relations
International Standard
Interoperability
Noise
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Persons with Reduced Mobility
Railway Tunnels
Registers
Regulation
RNE Glossary
Safety / SSC-SA
Sectorial Scheme
Security
SERA_EU Transport
Telematics Applications for Freight
Telematics Applications for Passenger
Vehicles / VA
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