Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC)

It will reduce carbon footprint, while increasing safety and performance

Let’s (re)invent the railway together.

The DAC is key to achieve the ambitious objectives set out in the EU Green Deal and to enable the needed increase in efficiency and transparency of rail freight.

The Digital Automatic Coupling automatically connects freight cars, as well as their lines for power, data and compressed air, without any need for strenuous physical work. It will open the door to a system of rail freight transport that is fully automated and digitalised.



The European DAC Delivery Programme (EDDP), under the leadership of Shift2Rail, offers a unique European platform for a fruitful and efficient cooperation between railway undertakings, infrastructure managers and wagon keepers as well as the rail supply industry, entities in charge of maintenance, concerned sector organisations, rail research centres and national and European political institutions.

European DAC delivered through integrated shared programme building upon R&I results and pilots, ensuring the necessary actions for a fast, technically, and economically feasible European‐wide roll‐out.

The demonstrator is carried out by the consortium DAC4EU (Digital Automatic Coupling for Europe) consisting of seven equal partners: Ermewa, Deutsche Bahn AG and its subsidiary DB Cargo, GATX, Rail Cargo Austria, SBB Cargo and VTG. The consortium is financed by the German Ministry of Transport with around 13 Million Euros.

www.ermewa.com