The analysis of basic notions in the sphere of railway automation and remote control (RARC) safety was carried out. The necessity of conceptual framework development in RARC sphere was indicated, according to the requirements of different stages of a life cycle and, first of all, those stages which are connected with the processes of safety development and proving. The latter is determined by the fact that the notion of functional regulation is used in current regulations, which, unfortunately, is interpreted differently in different papers. In addition, the defi nition of this term is connected with the notions of risk and damage, which characterizes the appropriateness of its use for safety parameters of innovative solutions and the assessment of specifi c design solutions. The use of the notion of functional safety for safety development and proving of railway automatics systems is complicated by the lack of its meaningfulness and the absence of adequate techniques. In accordance with the above, a methodological approach was suggested in the given study, as well as the system of notions for stages of safety development and proving. The notion of functioning safety was introduced as the basic term, which includes the following concomitant notions: process safety, technological function, behavior-based safety etc. The terms and defi nitions for basic notions and those related to them were introduced in the study, as well as the methodological approach to their application at the stages of safety development and proving of systems and equipment of railway automatics, together with «Safety of railway automatics» system of regulations.