Skip to main content
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.

Click here for more information

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)

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

Scope of certification

International Standard

ISO

ISO/IEC 17065:2012(en) Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services

Scope of ECM certification

Entity in Charge of Maintenance

Certification Scheme

Certification scheme for ECM and outsourced maintenance functions under Regulation (EU) 2019/779

Scrap

SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor

ISO

ISO 9000:2015(en) Quality management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary

Latest release

SCTR

International Standard

EU Technical Document

CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025

SD

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

SD

Infrastructure

Application Guide

Guide on the application of the common specifications of the register of Infrastructure - v. 3.1.0 on 31.03.2025

SDI

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

SDL

International Standard

EU Technical Document

CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025

SDR

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

SDR

International Relations

Convention

Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID)

SdT

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

SE

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

SE UkrNDNC

International Standard

EU Technical Document

CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025

SEAFO

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

Seat-kilometre offered by a passenger rail vehicle

EU Policy

Glossary

Glossary for transport statistics - 6TH EDITION 2026

Latest release

Second alternative offer

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Second-best (option, policy)

EU Policy

Glossary

The Social Costs of Transport - February 1997

Secondary critical event (SCE) - right-side

Freight

Glossary

Handbook of scenarios for assessing major chemical accident risks JRC106029 - Ed. 2017

Secondary line

RNE Glossary

Glossary

RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025

Secondary track

EU Policy

Glossary

Glossary for transport statistics - 6TH EDITION 2026

Latest release