It is conducted by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and is the organisational umbrella for the separately managed parts of The main target of ERTMS is to promote the interoperability of trains in the EU.

This is done by replacing former national signalling equipment and operational procedures with a single new Europe-wide standard for train control and command systems.

Until this effort began, there were (for historical reasons in each national railway system) in Europe: all influencing train communication in parts.

[2] Technical targets of ERTMS are:[2] In 1995 a development plan first mentioned the creation of the European Rail Traffic Management System.

[3] In 1996 the first specification for ETCS followed in response to EU Council Directive 96/48/EC99[4] on interoperability of the trans-European high-speed rail system.

[5] In autumn 2000 the member states of EU voted for publication of this specifications as decision of the European Commission to get a preliminary security in law and planning.

[6] In 2002 the Union of Signalling Industry (UNISIG) published the SUBSET-026 defining the current implementation of ETCS signalling equipment together with GSM–R – this Class 1 SRS 2.2.2 (now called ETCS Baseline 2) was accepted by the European Commission in decision 2002/731/EEC as mandatory for high-speed rail and in decision 2004/50/EEC as mandatory for conventional rail.

In 2005 a Memorandum of Understanding on ERTMS was published by members of the European Commission, national railways and supplying industries in Brussels.

Logistics companies like DB Cargo have the need to develop functional capabilities in the target scope of ETML,[11] which should be welcome for standardisation.

The deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System means the installation of ETCS components on the lineside of the railways and the train borne equipment.

Examples of 'clean' ETCS operation include HSL-Zuid in the Netherlands, TP Ferro international stretch (Sección Internacional / Section Internationale) Figueres [ES] – Perpignan [FR], Erfurt–Halle/Leipzig in Germany, among others.

Depending on the implementation, NTC systems along the route may or may not be active.Movement Authority (MA) is the permission for a train to move to a specific location within the constraints of the infrastructure and with supervision of speed.