acceptable means of compliance — non-binding opinions issued by the Agency to define ways of establishing compliance with the essential requirements (33)

acceptable national means of compliance — non-binding opinions issued by Member States to define ways of establishing compliance with national rules (34)

accreditation — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (39)

applicant — a natural or legal person requesting an authorisation, be it a railway undertaking, an infrastructure manager or any other person or legal entity, such as a manufacturer, an owner or a keeper; for the purpose of Article 15, the (22)

area of use of a vehicle — a network or networks within a Member State or a group of Member States in which a vehicle is intended to be used (32)

authorised representative — any natural or legal person established within the Union who has received a written mandate from a manufacturer or a contracting entity to act on behalf of that manufacturer or contracting entity in relation to specified tasks (37)

basic parameter — any regulatory, technical or operational condition which is critical to interoperability and is specified in the relevant TSIs (12)

conformity assessment — the process demonstrating whether specified requirements relating to a product, process, service, subsystem, person or body have been fulfilled (41)

conformity assessment body — a body that has been notified or designated to be responsible for conformity assessment activities, including calibration, testing, certification and inspection; a conformity assessment body is classified as a ‘notified body’ following notification by a Member State; a conformity assessment body is classified as a ‘designated body’ following designation by a Member State (42)

contracting entity — a public or private entity which orders the design and/or construction or the renewal or upgrading of a subsystem (20)

CSMs — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (c)

design operating state — the normal operating mode and the foreseeable degraded conditions (including wear) within the range and the conditions of use specified in the technical and maintenance files (31)

ECM — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (28)

“EC” verification — a procedure carried out by the applicant within the meaning of Article 15 to demonstrate that the requirements of the relevant Union law and any relevant national rules relating to a subsystem have been fulfilled and the subsystem may be authorised to be placed in service. For the purpose of this Directive, the verification by reference to TSIs is the procedure whereby a notified body checks and certifies that the subsystem complies with the relevant technical specifications for interoperability (TSI). This is without prejudice to the obligations of the applicant to comply with the other applicable legal acts of the Union and any verifications by the assessment bodies required by the other rules. At the request of the applicant the verifications may be done for parts of a subsystem or may be limited to certain stages of the verification procedure. In these cases, the results of verification may be documented in an ‘intermediate statement of verification’ (ISV) issued by the notified body chosen by the applicant. The ISV must provide reference to the TSIs with which the conformity has been assessed. The applicant may apply for an ISV for any part into which he decides to split the… ANNEX IV

entity in charge of maintenance — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (28)

essential requirements — all the conditions set out in Annex III which must be met by the Union rail system, the subsystems, and the interoperability constituents, including interfaces (9)

European specification — a specification which falls into one of the following categories: a common technical specification as defined in Annex VIII of Directive 2014/25/EU, a European technical approval as referred to in Article 60 of Directive 2014/25/EU, or a European standard as defined in point (b) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 (10)

existing rail system — the infrastructure composed of lines and fixed installations of the existing rail network as well as the vehicles of all categories and origins travelling on that infrastructure (16)

harmonised standard — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (24)

infrastructure manager — an infrastructure manager as defined in point (2) of Article 3 of Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 establishing a single European railway area (OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 32). (44)

interoperability — the ability of a rail system to allow the safe and uninterrupted movement of trains which accomplish the required levels of performance (2)

interoperability constituents — any elementary component, group of components, subassembly or complete assembly of equipment incorporated or intended to be incorporated into a subsystem, upon which the interoperability of the rail system depends directly or indirectly, including both tangible objects and intangible objects (7)

keeper — the natural or legal person that, being the owner of a vehicle or having the right to use it, exploits the vehicle as a means of transport and is registered as such in a vehicle register referred to in Article 47 (21)

light rail — an urban and/or suburban rail transport system with a crashworthiness of C-III or C-IV (in accordance with EN 15227:2011) and a maximum strength of vehicle of 800 kN (longitudinal compressive force in coupling area); light rail systems may have their own right of way or share it with road traffic and usually do not exchange vehicles with long-distance passenger or freight traffic (29)

manufacturer — any natural or legal person who manufactures a product in the form of interoperability constituents, subsystems or vehicles, or has it designed or manufactured, and markets it under his name or trademark (36)

mobile subsystem — the rolling stock subsystem and the on-board control-command and signalling subsystem (6)

national accreditation body — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (40)

national rules — all binding rules adopted in a Member State, irrespective of the body issuing them, which contain railway safety or technical requirements, other than those laid down by Union or international rules which are applicable within that Member State to railway undertakings, infrastructure managers or third parties (30)

national safety authority — borrowed from another act; this instrument states no meaning of its own (25)

network — the lines, stations, terminals, and all kinds of fixed equipment needed to ensure safe and continuous operation of the Union rail system (4)

placing in service — all the operations by which a subsystem is put into its operational service (19)

placing on the market — the first making available on the Union's market of an interoperability constituent, subsystem or vehicle ready to function in its design operating state (35)

product — a product obtained through a manufacturing process, including interoperability constituents and subsystems (8)

project at an advanced stage of development — any project the planning or construction stage of which has reached a point where a change in the technical specifications may compromise the viability of the project as planned (23)

railway undertaking — a railway undertaking as defined in point (1) of Article 3 of Directive 2012/34/EU, and any other public or private undertaking, the activity of which is to provide transport of goods and/or passengers by rail on the basis that the undertaking is to ensure traction; this also includes undertakings which provide traction only (45)

renewal — any major substitution work on a subsystem or part of it which does not change the overall performance of the subsystem (15)

series — a number of identical vehicles of a design type (27)

specific case — any part of the rail system which needs special provisions in the TSIs, either temporary or permanent, because of geographical, topographical or urban environment constraints or those affecting compatibility with the existing system, in particular railway lines and networks isolated from the rest of the Union, the loading gauge, the track gauge or space between the tracks and vehicles strictly intended for local, regional or historical use, as well as vehicles originating from or destined for third countries (13)

substitution in the framework of maintenance — any replacement of components by parts of identical function and performance in the framework of preventive or corrective maintenance (17)

subsystems — the structural or functional parts of the Union rail system, as set out in Annex II (5)

technical specification — a document that prescribes technical requirements to be fulfilled by a product, subsystem, process or service (38)

technical specification for interoperability — a specification adopted in accordance with this Directive by which each subsystem or part of a subsystem is covered in order to meet the essential requirements and ensure the interoperability of the Union rail system (11)

tram-train — a vehicle designed for combined use on both a light-rail infrastructure and a heavy-rail infrastructure (18)

type — a vehicle type defining the basic design characteristics of the vehicle as covered by a type or design examination certificate described in the relevant verification module (26)

Union rail system — the elements listed in Annex I (1)

upgrading — any major modification work on a subsystem or part of it which results in a change in the technical file accompanying the ‘EC’ declaration of verification, if that technical file exists, and which improves the overall performance of the subsystem (14)

vehicle — a railway vehicle suitable for circulation on wheels on railway lines, with or without traction; a vehicle is composed of one or more structural and functional subsystems (3)