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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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
ANC	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
Ancillary service	RNE Glossary	Glossary	RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025	Latest release
Ancillary service	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)
AND	Freight	Directive	Directive 2008/68/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 September 2008 on the inland transport of dangerous goods
AND	International Relations	Convention	Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID)
ANEC	International Standard	EU Technical Document	CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025	Latest release
Animal material	International Relations	Convention	Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID)
Annoyance	Noise	Directive	Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise
Annual Activity Report (AAR) (See also: AMPR)	EU Policy	Glossary	EU budget glossary - A list of the most common words and useful terms concerning the EU budget
Annual Management and Performance Report (AMPR)	EU Policy	Glossary	EU budget glossary - A list of the most common words and useful terms concerning the EU budget
Annual timetable change (X)	RNE Glossary	Glossary	RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025	Latest release
Annuality	EU Policy	Glossary	EU budget glossary - A list of the most common words and useful terms concerning the EU budget
ANSI	International Standard	EU Technical Document	CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025	Latest release
Antiques	Single Market Mutual Recognition Conformity Assessment	Regulation	Regulation (EU) 2023/988 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 on general product safety, amending Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and the Council, and repealing Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 87/357/EEC	Latest release
AO	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
AOW	International Standard	EU Technical Document	CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025	Latest release
APEC	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
Apex	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.51 Tariff application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
API	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.52 Reservation application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
API	International Standard	EU Technical Document	CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025	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

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