DB Cargo couples like in the 19th century

In Germany, freight trains account for just 19 percent of goods transport. Freight traffic is to be shifted to the railways – the government is in agreement on this – to relieve the roads of truck traffic. The target is a 30 percent share. However, the rail network in Germany is not designed for such an increase in train traffic in many areas. A hurdle for many companies is the fact that booking individual wagons for transport is difficult and time-consuming. The coupling effort is immense for such trains in so-called single wagon transport. The majority of rail transport is commissioned by private companies. Here, the state cannot simply mandate a switch to rail. Experts want to increase the attractiveness of rail freight transport for companies by drastically reducing the time and effort required for coupling.

Coupling is Still Done by Hand

In European rail freight transport, screw couplings have been used almost exclusively for more than 100 years. They are entirely manually coupled and uncoupled. To connect the cars, a bracket weighing around 20 kg is placed on the hook of the next car. The coupling is then tightened by turning a screw thread behind the bracket. DB Cargo alone couples about 54,000 cars and trains per day in Germany. The entire European rail freight transport even amounts to about 400,000 coupling operations per day.

Switzerland, Austria, and Germany Develop DAK

Under the cryptic term DAC4EU, DB Cargo, Rail Cargo Österreich, and SBB Cargo, together with the private rental fleet operators GATX Rail Europe, VTG, and Ermewa, have formed a consortium. The rail companies aim to introduce the so-called "Digital Automatic Coupling" - DAK for short.

A DAK automatically connects two freight cars. It establishes a mechanical connection between the cars without the need for manual work by the shunting personnel. In the first step, four industrial companies developed corresponding prototypes. After conducting technical tests, a DAK type will be selected by a European committee. A test train with 24 cars featuring the selected DAK type will then travel for several months through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as other EU countries. The start of the test runs of Deutsche Bahn was inaugurated by the new Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, Dr. Volker Wissing, with the presentation of a small, symbolic freight container.

After several attempts, a uniform coupling

There have already been several attempts in Europe to introduce a uniform automatic coupling, most recently in the 1990s. The focus was only on pure mechanical coupling and the connection of the air line. This approach was not economical enough. In contrast, the DAK significantly expands the operational scope through the use of power and data lines. The DAK leads to widespread digitization of freight transport, making the benefits and economic potential much greater. The research project, running until the end of 2022, was commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) and is funded by the BMVI with 13 million euros.

“We are exactly on schedule. We can only test the proper functioning of the couplings with extensive tests under real conditions. However, it has already been shown that the DAK significantly accelerates the assembly of freight trains, thereby creating more capacity on the railways,” explained project manager Ulrich Meuser.