ERTMS Glossary

This glossary was initiated by the International Union of Railways (UIC) in order to meet a recurrent need faced by UIC members and by others working in the railway signalling sector. There is no escaping the fact that ERTMS as a system was designed and conceived in the English language. Many terms are thus unfamiliar and their meaning ill-understood in other languages. The UIC Control-Command, Signalling and Operations Sector therefore decided to compile a selection of the approximately 600 core English ERTMS terms which are used in the various formal or informal lexicons, and to define them with support from international experts specialising in ERTMS. This “dictionary” was then translated into French and German in order to meet a need for the precision and rigour which are vital in all matters pertaining to railway safety.