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
Audit programme	International Standard	ISO	ISO 19011:2018(en) Guidelines for auditing management systems	Latest release
Audit scope	International Standard	ISO	ISO 19011:2018(en) Guidelines for auditing management systems	Latest release
Audit team	International Standard	ISO	ISO 19011:2018(en) Guidelines for auditing management systems	Latest release
Audit time	International Standard	ISO	ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015(en) Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems — Part 1: Requirements	Latest release
Auditee	International Standard	ISO	ISO 19011:2018(en) Guidelines for auditing management systems	Latest release
Auditor	International Standard	ISO	ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015(en) Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems — Part 1: Requirements	Latest release
Auditor	International Standard	ISO	ISO 19011:2018(en) Guidelines for auditing management systems	Latest release
AUT	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.52 Reservation application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013
Authentication	EU Policy	Regulation	Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC
Authentication	ERTMS	Technical Document	ERTMS/ETCS - Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations - version : 4.0.0 - date 05/07/2023
Authentication key	ERTMS	Technical Document	ERTMS/ETCS - Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations - version : 4.0.0 - date 05/07/2023
Authenticity	EU Policy	Decision	Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121 of 6 July 2020 on records management and archives
Authorisation	International Relations	Agreement	Agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on the Carriage of Goods and Passengers by Rail and Road
Authorisation	Registers	Decision	Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1614 of 25 October 2018 laying down specifications for the vehicle registers referred to in Article 47 of Directive (EU) 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council and amending and repealing Commission Decision 2007/756/EC
Authorisation	Vehicles / VA	Application Guide	EVR Guidelines – application guide 013PPS1131-01 - V 8.0 on 11.12.2020	Latest release
Authorisation for ERTMS train movement	ERTMS	ERA Technical Document	Technical Document ERTMS Operational Principles and Rules ERA_ERTMS_OPE_AppA_5 / V 5.0 on 09.04.2019
Authorisation for ERTMS train movement	Operation	TSI	Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/773 of 16 May 2019 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the operation and traffic management subsystem of the rail system within the European Union and repealing Decision 2012/757/EU
Authorisation to be renewed	Vehicles / VA	Decision	Commission Implementing Decision 2011/665/EU of 4 October 2011 on the European register of authorised types of railway vehicles
Authorised Public Body	Telematics Applications for Passenger	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
Authorised Public body	Telematics Applications for Passenger	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.51 Tariff application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013

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

Agreement
Application Guide
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CIT Document
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COTIF Document
Council Recommendation
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ERA Technical Document
EU Technical Document
Glossary
Guide
International Agreement
ISO
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TSI
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