ERA Railway Terminology Collection
The Agency is proud to present the ERA Railway Terminology Collection, intended to become a terminology single-entry point for the railway sector actors running the Single European Railway Area (SERA).
We are currently experiencing a technical issue that prevents the display of information for each term in the terminology. We are actively working to resolve the issue and apologise for the inconvenience caused.
ERA Team, 5 December 2024
The ERA Railway Terminology Collection (ERA RTC) 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.
ERA RTC is intended to become a terminology single-entry point for the railway sector actors running the Single European Railway Area (SERA). Its main aim is to sustain the development of a common understanding in the rail sector, essential to achieve the level of harmonisation required by the EU legal framework.
ERA RTC includes duplication of terms, reflecting for single term the use of different definitions in different railway contexts. It is also possible that terms appear duplicated in the same context, due to the purpose of the document they are contained in. There is also a further reason to show duplicated definitions due to their sources, that is to standardise and rationalise the terminology, wherever possible, in new or revised documents, both for activities carried out internally and externally to the Agency.
ERA RTC is a dynamic set. The aim is to improve and collect as many relevant terms as possible. ERA is committed to reviewing the collection periodically or in the event of significant changes in the EU legal framework and in the reference guides.
If you wish to address request for improvement or addition or correction to one or more terms /abbreviations of the collection, you could write to:
READ ME - ERA Railway Terminology Collection
English (267.24 KB - PDF)The European Union Agency for Railways’ Railway Terminology Collection is a collection of existing terms aiming at supporting the sharing of information and harmonisation of terms in t he Single European Railway Area (SERA). It was created to facilitate the work of the Union institutions, representative bodies and national authorities. The terms and definitions contained within is meant purely as a documentation tool and have no legal effect. Where available, the Agency strives to provide a link to official texts with legal effect.
The European Union Agency for Railways does not assume any liability for RTC’s contents. Only documents published in official sources (such as in the EU Official Journal or in sources of standardisation bodies) must be referenced to ensure conformity to the rules therein. The European Union Agency for Railways is not obliged to keep the RTC updated and cannot guarantee that the terms in the RTC are up to date.
The terms and definitions in the RTC are drawn from different sources and may be subject to copyright and intellectual property rights of their respective authors and other third parties. Most documents owned by the European Union are freely available, many of them under Creative Commons licenses, and can be downloaded and reproduced provided the source is acknowledged, however, please check their respective copyright notices. Please, also see Commission Decision of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents. EUR-Lex metadata is dedicated to the public domain in accordance with the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication deed.