Digital automatic coupling (DAC) has been described by DB Cargo as a “game changer” for the future of freight transport. The technology allows coupling processes to be automated, thus removing arduous manual processes.
DAC also enables the continuous connection of power, data and compressed air lines along the entire length of freight trains. This, in the words of DB Cargo, makes the innovation “an important building block in the automation and digitalisation of rail freight transport”.
Why is DAC a big deal?
For those unfamiliar with DAC and why it has been developed, it is worth considering the uniqueness of European railways.
As French rail company SNCF points out, the USA, Russia, China and others have automated mechanical coupling systems to connect wagons, however those have no digital components.
Here in Europe, however, the traditional universal screw system is still in use. This entails a lot of walking, while operators must test brakes by releasing air from the brake pipe and tapping each brake block with their feet. DAC nonetheless allows staff to monitor these manoeuvres from the drivers’ cab, resulting in significant efficiency gains.
How close are we to seeing the potential of DAC making a noticeable impact on European rail freight services? What is the roadmap for the implementation of DAC, and what are the key advantages of using the technology?
To get insights on all things DAC, we took the opportunity to quiz DB Cargo’s Andreas Lipka, who is responsible for the migration planning for the Digital Automatic Coupling.
The DAC implementation road map
As DB Cargo recently announced, the test phase for developing a digital freight train with DAC has been ongoing since 2020. During this test period, the train has travelled over 15,000 kilometres through ten European countries and stopped at 33 locations.
Following the completion of the test phase, Dr Sigrid Nikutta, CEO of DB Cargo, declared that the technology is ready. This naturally prompts the question as to when we will actually see DAC become a fixture on European rail freight services.
Lipka told trans.iNFO that he estimates that the DAC migration process will be complete in the early 2030s, possibly in 2032.
The process of implementing DAC, according to Lipka, will involve a few stages. The first of those will see 100 or so pre-deployment trains rolled out all over Europe.
“We are doing this as we want to receive mature, ready-to-market products from the manufacturers. After we’ve rolled it out everywhere across Europe and retrofitted 500,000 vehicles with DAC – we can’t find that something is wrong,” said Lipka.
For this phase, Lipka told trans.iNFO:
“In this phase, lasting around 2 years, we will run freight trains with real customers’ cargo between real sites, and maybe a port at the intermodal terminal and back and so on. This is effectively a real life test; if something goes wrong, we’ll see it as early as possible. The idea is to equip many existing trains with the DAC and the additional components to see how everything works in real life. We’ll go from north Europe to south, testing in hot and cold temperatures as well as the dusty environments seen at some chemical sites for instance.”
Finally, the last part of what Lipka refers to as the “real migration phase”, is expected to take about 6 years.
“This period is stretched out due to the limitations with workshop capacities as well as the time it will take to retrofit each single vehicle. Of course, we want to maintain rail freight traffic during the migration period. We can’t take everything away from customers. If you ask when it will end, I would say early 2030s, say 2032.”
Public funding
The process that Lipka outlined will, of course, require significant resources and investment. According to current estimates by the European DAC Delivery Program (EDDP), the investment costs for the introduction and migration of the DAC amount to around EUR 13 billion. These costs far exceed the financial capacity of the entire sector.
Fortunately, the European Union is signaled its support in financing the DAC, and as Lipka told trans.iNFO, such public funding is of great importance. Lipka added that the first step of support shall help the aforementioned pre-deployment trains, and the so-called ‘DAC deployment manager’.
“There are also discussions about setting up an early version of what we call the DAC deployment manager, which is an entity to support the whole rollout over the whole migration period,” said Lipka.
When it comes to the latter stages of the migration period, Lipka stresses that the support is there, but no concrete figures are available because it isn’t yet known how much the entire process will cost.
“One part of a more precise picture will be delivered by the DACFIT consortium, which has been set up to investigate the vehicle fleet, check how big a share certain vehicles have, and identify where the installation of DAC will be more complex, more time consuming and more costly than with a regular freight wagon,” Lipka told trans.iNFO.
Lipka continued:
“Nobody knows exactly about the complete structure of the European rail fleet and how easily retrofitting wagons with DAC will be. There are factors in play like frame stability, the construction of the underframe of the vehicle, and many other technical matters. This is what we are investigating now, and then we can say we have a share of x% of vehicles where it’s more complex and more time consuming.”
What benefits will DAC bring?
Lipka strongly believes that DAC will benefit the whole railway sector.
He stresses that there will be some real infrastructure capacity gains thanks to time savings at rail freight terminals among other things.
Another benefit we referred to earlier in this very text was automatic brake testing. Lipka also touched on the advantages this will offer:
“When the train starts, you always have to do a brake test, which can be much faster than in future thanks to automation. This also means trains can start earlier and create more capacity in the stations. Over the course of a day this would lead to many additional hours of terminal time. So you could, for example, in a container terminal, bring the next container train to unload it, reload it again far earlier and faster. So train preparation times will decrease,” Lipka told trans.iNFO.
In addition to this, Lipka notes the importance of European infrastructure managers rolling out higher levels of ETCS [the European Train Control System, a train protection system designed to replace the many incompatible systems used by European railways, and railways outside of Europe].
According to Lipka, the ETCS will help to further boost capacity:
“Once you’ve rolled out the electronic train control system of the highest level, with its moving block logic, where you have the biggest gain of capacity on track, you need freight trains that have a digital tail plate. For example, when everything has been rolled out, a terminal capacity boost is expected of up to 40%. And on the track, you could get up to 15% increase in train capacity. It all just comes from cutting the time trains are idle.”
Collaboration and data sharing key to the process
Finally, besides funding, Lipka is adamant that collaboration and data sharing will prove crucial on the path to DAC migration.
He notes that previous projects that aimed to roll a European wide automatic coupling system, attempted in the late 60s – early 70s and late 90s, failed first due to a lack of state funds and a good migration plan. He thus stresses that a proper migration plan is vital, and that data sharing will help greatly with the preparation of the plan itself.
“There’s a strong international character to rail freight. Import, export, and transit, for example, in Germany, is more than 50%. In other countries, for example, Slovakia, it’s up to 80% international traffic. We have to plan this migration to the new world well ahead, and we have to do it very properly and precisely. Therefore, we need as much data as possible about fleets, traffic patterns, what travels from where and how often, which locomotives are used, what the locomotives are doing in the afternoon after they’ve pulled the first train in the morning, and so on,” Lipka told trans.iNFO.
The aforementioned DACFIT Consortium, which includes 7 European partners, is focused on facilitating the smooth transition to DAC, and shall help to gather the data needed for the migration to DAC.
Through the consortium, DB Cargo, in cooperation with k + v (Germany), Instytut Kolejnictwa (Poland), VUKV (Czech Republic), and BME ITS (Hungary), will focus primarily on the inventory of freight railway locomotives and wagons. Meanwhile, VPI VERS (Germany) will focus on European railway workshops, both workshops and mobile workshops. Fraunhofer IML (Germany) will support on the analysis and IT side.
“The DACFIT Consortium will give us far more knowledge about the legacy fleet and the workshop landscape. The migration strategies we’ve developed over the last year is how to treat the single wagon system with thousands of wagons cooperating with others over the many years,” said Lipka.
The consortium was formed as recently as this month, and Lipka sees it as an important step that will facilitate a successful migration to DAC.
“I’m very happy about it,” Lipka told trans.iNFO. “For the DAC project, it’s a real boost to have the right group of people onboard to support the project.”