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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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
Capacity-enhancement plan	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)
CAPIEL	International Standard	EU Technical Document	CEN CENELEC ABBRAVIATION ACRONYM 2025
Capture	EU Policy	Decision	Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121 of 6 July 2020 on records management and archives
Car	International Standard	ISO	ISO 3095:2013(en) Acoustics — Railway applications — Measurement of noise emitted by railbound vehicles
Car carrier	Vehicles / VA	TSI	Commission Regulation (EU) No 1302/2014 of 18 November 2014 concerning a technical specification for interoperability relating to the rolling stock — locomotives and passenger rolling stock subsystem of the rail system in the European Union
CARE	Freight	Glossary	Transport of dangerous goods. Risks Management Framework. Framework glossary v. 1.0/2018
CARE	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
Cargo transport unit	International Relations	Convention	Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID)
Carriage	International Relations	Convention	Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID)
Carriage in bulk	International Relations	Convention	Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID)
Carriage or coach	International Relations	COTIF Document	Uniform Rules concerning the Validation of Technical Standards and the Adoption of Uniform Technical Prescriptions applicable to Railway Material intended to be used in International Traffic (APTU - Appendix F to the Convention) applicable from 01.03.2019 (corrected 31.07.2019)
Carrier	SERA_EU Transport	Regulation	Regulation (EU) 2021/782 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2021 on rail passengers’ rights and obligations (recast)
Carrier	International Relations	COTIF Document	Uniform Rules concerning the Contract of Use of Infrastructure in International Rail Traffic (CUI - Appendix E to the Convention) applicable from 01.07.2015
Carrier	International Relations	CIT Document	General Terms and Conditions of Carriage for International Freight Traffic by Rail (GTC-CIM) (version 01 January 2019)
Carrier	RNE Glossary	Glossary	RNE Glossary - NS_CID_Glossary_2025
Carrier	Withdrawn	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.50 Timetable application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013	Latest release
Carrier	Withdrawn	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.51 Tariff application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013	Latest release
Carrier	Withdrawn	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.52 Reservation application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013	Latest release
Carrier	Withdrawn	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.53 Direct Fulfilment application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013	Latest release
Carrier	Withdrawn	Application Guide	TAP TSI Annex B.54 Indirect Fulfilment application_guide - version 1.0 of 06/12/2013	Latest release

Common Safety Method
Conformity Assessment
Control-Command and Signalling
Data Protection
Energy
Entity in Charge of Maintenance
ERTMS
EU Policy
Freight
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
SMS Safety Culture Human and Organisational Factor
Telematics Applications for Passenger and Freight Services
Vehicles / VA
Withdrawn

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