Common Modern Railway Abbreviations

[backontrack]

You will be aware that the UK rail universe has a lot of different terms associated with it, from industry lingo to trainspotters' terms and different unit classes. However, the most common thing you will see in this type of way are abbreviations.

Abbreviations are used because it is easier to utilise them than to write something out in full. It would be far too time-consuming to make an exhaustive list of railway abbrevs. (), so I have decided to only use the forefront terms you see today, and only modern ones currently in use (so you won't see the SER, the LNWR or the NBR here, sorry). I'm only using the ones you'll see a lot on the forum (so no obscure signalling terms please!).

So, here are the abbreviations.

Basics
BR - British Rail
TOC(s) - Train Operating Company(/ies) (e.g Northern Rail, Hull Trains)


TOCs (see above)
AGA - Abellio Greater Anglia
ATW - Arriva Trains Wales
EMT - East Midland Trains
GA - (Abellio) Greater Anglia
GC - Grand Central
GN - (Govia) Great Northern
GTR - Govia Thameslink Railway
gWr/GWR - Great Western Railway
HT - Hull Trains
LM - London Midland
NR - Northern Rail
SE - Southeastern
SR - ScotRail
SN - Southern
SWT - South West Trains
TPE/TPExpress - First TransPennine Express
VT - Usually refers to Virgin Trains (West Coast)
VTEC - Virgin Trains (East Coast)
VTWC - Virgin Trains (West Coast)

Railway Lines
ECML - East Coast Main Line (London-York-Newcastle-Edinburgh)
WCML - West Coast Main Line (London-Crewe-Carlisle-Glasgow)
MML - Midland Main Line (London-Leicester-Derby-Sheffield)
HML - Highland Main Line (Perth-Pitlochry-Aviemore-Inverness)
FNL - Far North Line (Inverness-Dingwall-Thurso-Wick)
GWML - Great Western Main Line (London-Swindon-Bath-Bristol)
SWML - South Wales Main Line (Swindon-Severn Tunnel-Cardiff-Swansea)
SWML - Also the South Western Main Line (London-Basingstoke-Southampton-Weymouth)
GEML - Great Eastern Main Line (London-Colchester-Ipswich-Norwich)

Notable Defunct TOCs
EC - East Coast
FCC - First Capital Connect
FGW - First Great Western
FNW - First North Western
FSR - First ScotRail
GNER - Great North Eastern Railway
NXEA - National Express East Anglia
NXEC - National Express East Coast
WAGN - West Anglia Great Northern

Ticketing/forms
ALR - All Line Rover
DR - Delay Repay

Bonus internet terms
TBH - To be honest
AKAIK - As far as I know
IIRC - If I remember correctly
IMO - In my opinion
IMHO In my humble/honest opinion

Are there any more?

 

[iphone76]

Travelling with AGA (Abellio Greater Anglia) one must always be sure to have a supply of DR (Delay Repay) forms with them.

 

[Railsigns]

ScotRail should always be written with a capital 'R'.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

ScotRail should always be written with a capital 'R'.

Well said, that man.

Incidentally, is it now Abellio ScotRail ?

 

[Railsigns]

Incidentally, is it now Abellio ScotRail ?

All the branding just says "ScotRail".

Add FSR (First ScotRail) to the list of defunct TOCs.

 

[FQ]

What about Chiltern Railways (CR)?

 

[backontrack]

What about Chiltern Railways (CR)?

I was trying to stick to common abbreviations, and CR is usually referred to on here as 'Chiltern'. But, fair point, I'll remove this and Southern and ScotRail.

 

[Railsigns]

Where does one stop? This thread has the potential to become huge. What about signalling terms? For example:

Signalling and Telecommunications
ATP - Automatic Train Protection
AWS - Automatic Warning System
CSR - Cab Secure Radio
ERTMS - European Rail Traffic Management System
ETCS - European Train Control System
GSM-R - Global System for Mobile communications-Railway
IECC - Integrated Electronic Control Centre
IVRS - Interim Voice Radio System
NRN - National Radio Network
OSS - Overspeed System
PLS - Position Light Signal
PoSA - Proceed on Sight Authority
PRI - Preliminary Route Indicator
RETB - Radio Electronic Token Block
ROC - Rail Operating Centre
SB - Signal Box
SC - Signalling Centre
SCC - Signalling Control Centre
SPAD - Signal Passed at Danger
SPT - Signal Post Telephone
TCB - Track Circuit Block
TPWS - Train Protection and Warning System
TSS - Train Stop System

And there are loads more.

 

[ooo]

Perhaps it should be done in the style of the RailUK ticketing guide

 

[backontrack]

Where does one stop? This thread has the potential to become huge. What about signalling terms? For example:

Signalling and Telecommunications
ATP - Automatic Train Protection
AWS - Automatic Warning System
CSR - Cab Secure Radio
ERTMS - European Rail Traffic Management System
ETCS - European Train Control System
GSM-R - Global System for Mobile communications-Railway
IECC - Integrated Electronic Control Centre
IVRS - Interim Voice Radio System
NRN - National Radio Network
OSS - Overspeed System
PLS - Position Light Signal
PoSA - Proceed on Sight Authority
PRI - Preliminary Route Indicator
RETB - Radio Electronic Token Block
ROC - Rail Operating Centre
SB - Signal Box
SC - Signalling Centre
SCC - Signalling Control Centre
SPAD - Signal Passed at Danger
SPT - Signal Post Telephone
TCB - Track Circuit Block
TPWS - Train Protection and Warning System
TSS - Train Stop System

And there are loads more.

These aren't regularly referred to on the forum, though. I'm looking for the more regular ones.

 

[Starmill]

GGN? Isn't it just Great Northern (GN), a brand used by GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway).

 

[gazthomas]

Caledonian Sleeper - CS

Then again, National Rail is maintaining that Gatwick Express and Island Line are operators! And Stansted Express, Heathrow Connect: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tocs_maps/tocs/TrainOperators.aspx

 

[backontrack]

GGN? Isn't it just Great Northern (GN), a brand used by GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway).

You're right in this respect, however GGN is used in Southeastern timetables. But I'll just stick with GN.

 

[cf111]

Network Rail have a very good jargon buster which I have used when someone posts a term I haven't heard of before so as to hide my ignorance (I don't think it works ): https://www.safety.networkrail.co.uk/services/jargon-buster

 

[LAX54]

These aren't regularly referred to on the forum, though. I'm looking for the more regular ones.

But, they are used, and many do ask, what the initials stand for.

 

[Frontera2]

Caledonian Sleeper - CS

Then again, National Rail is maintaining that Gatwick Express and Island Line are operators! And Stansted Express, Heathrow Connect: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tocs_maps/tocs/TrainOperators.aspx

From a planning perspective they are seperate operators and are identified as such. That's why booking engines, NRE etc show them as they do.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Personally I think something like this thread is a good idea, but it needs to be planned out by a moderator, with the first three or four posts in the thread reserved for adding new definitions, so that as people point out other abbreviations they want to know the meaning of, someone (unfortunately, it'd probably need to be a mod) can add the answer at the start of the thread, where people can easily find it.

Unfortunately, to do this properly is clearly going to add to the workload of the mods - and for that reason I'm not sure whether it would be workable or not.

Personally I'd like to see definitions of terms like (for example) 'engineering allowance' and 'pathing allowance' and 'nalco' - the kind of stuff that you find if you start reading more technical documents - added.

 

[Greenback]

I don't think this is something that will be taken forward at this time, for several reasons.

Firstly, there are so many abbreviations that can and are used in the railway industry that not only would any list become unwieldy, it's difficult to know what would warrant inclusion. By this I mean that some are so common that one might expect the average railway enthusiast to know what the letters stand for before coming to the forum. I'm thinking of LMS, GWR, BR etc. I would not want any new member to feel patronised that the forum would have to tell them such things, and go elsewhere as a result.

Secondly, if someone doesn't understand any abbreviation, they can always ask, or use a search engine to try and find out. I'm accustomed to doing this on other sites when I come across an obscure acronym or abbreviation, and I don't personally find it a problem. I feel that it's better to allow individuals the freedom to try and learn for themselves rather than be spoon fed, but that's a personal view.

Thirdly, despite what has been said in this thread, some of the signalling abbreviations are used regularly on the forum, I see abbreviations such as ATP, AWS, SPAD and others all the time here, so I have concerns about where the line of what should be included and what should not could be very blurred and may even depend in the individuals interest in a particular subject area.

I don't think there's anything much wrong with what we do now in regard to expecting anyone using an uncommon or unusual abbreviation to define it when it is first used in a thread.

I'm sure that this will be kept under review, and I wouldn't rule out taking the idea forward at some point in the future.

 

[Haydn1971]

As a previously very active member of a roads forum called Sabre, we started a wiki about 7 years ago, could be more. Started off well, we had lots of heated debate, but has gone fairly quiet these days - whilst it was a great solution for our needs on the roads forum, it does come with some administrative overhead.

Sabre Roads Wiki

Perhaps a starting solution could just be a searchable series of pages looked after by some volunteers, who have the technical knowledge to create the code for searches and have a reasonable sense of content placement skill to ensure the pages don't just become a forum thread type mess.

 

[Crossover]

I guess the other problem is some acronyms have different meanings in different contexts

 

[pdeaves]

I guess the other problem is some acronyms have different meanings in different contexts

Much fun can be had when using an MCB (miniature circuit breaker) in a design for an MCB (manually controlled barrier) level crossing!

 

[fairysdad]

Surely XC should be on there for CrossCountry?

 

[SamYeager]

I don't think this is something that will be taken forward at this time, for several reasons.

Perhaps a combination of links such as https://www.safety.networkrail.co.uk/services/jargon-buster and http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tocs_maps/tocs/TrainOperators.aspx as mentioned by cf111 & Frontera2 together with a short list such as that mentioned by the OP might be worth considering?

Personally I've found that I do tend to pick up the meaning of the more common abbreviations after a while but a stickied post with links to where the less common ones can be researched wouldn't hurt.

 

[Ambient Sheep]

WAML - West Anglia Main Line seems a notable omission to me, if the list is still being updated in the light of recent comments.

Personally I'd agree that the signalling terms were required.