ÖBB is already two years ahead of the field in the Digital Automatic Coupler programme: the Austrian operator has placed Europe's first series contract for DAC equipment, ordering couplers from Knorr-Bremse for Pioneer Trains that will run in commercial service for two years from 2028. That order framed a demonstration of the technology staged by EU-Rail at Havelländische Eisenbahn's yard on the outskirts of Spandau, held on the sidelines of InnoTrans and presented as another step towards commercial deployment of DAC across European rail freight.

EU-Rail Executive Director Giorgio Travaini opened the event by positioning the coupler as one component of a much wider programme. DAC was "not just about coupling" but about digitalisation of the entire rail freight transport sector, he said. "We want to move rail forward, and make rail freight more competitive", he explained. "DAC is an enabler; it is not the end goal, but a platform for the future."

Eric von Breska, Director for Investment, Innovative & Sustainable Transport at the European Commission's DG Move, pledged that "we will do whatever we can to help". He pointed to substantial EU investment already committed across corridor improvements, cross-border issues and capacity management. For von Breska, the demonstration mattered as evidence for other parts of the Commission and the EU Member States "that we can deploy quickly". He promised the Commission would "work with the EU Agency for Railways to make this happen", and stressed EU-Rail's role in maintaining a form of public-private partnership to co-ordinate pan-European railway research.

What the demonstration showed

The demonstration programme was moderated by Molley Williams of Deutsche Bahn and Hans Christian Hilse of Knorr-Bremse. It opened with a direct comparison between traditional screw coupling and DAC.

A second presentation covered the Train Composition Detection functions, using one of HVLE's DAC-equipped EuroDual locomotives and a mixed rake of six wagons. The locomotive's onboard unit contacted each vehicle in turn, collecting identities, establishing the train formation and recording the status of every vehicle. The system paid particular attention to identifying the final wagon, ensuring the consist was complete.

The TCD process also checked the running condition of each vehicle, and in doing so spotted that one wagon's Passenger/Goods brake changeover valve had been left in the 'P' position. Only after this was rectified manually could the train assembly process continue. Once the train was fully assembled and checked, the system ran an Automated Brake Test, applying and releasing the brakes and checking air pressure throughout the train before the consist moved off down the yard.

The final session demonstrated remote uncoupling. The driver selected the individual coupling on the cab display and pressed the touch-screen button to split the train at the desired point. The system automatically reconfigured the composition of the wagons still attached to the locomotive, assigning the appropriate 'last vehicle' so that the remaining portion could keep moving.

Operator and owner reactions

"What we have just watched is a great step forward", said Maria Antonietta Zocco, Technical Director of Mercitalia Intermodal. "Today we are suffering from a big technology deficit compared with other modes. Freight transport is in a very difficult moment, we need to bring digitalisation. (...) I cannot imagine a future without technology."

Mark Topal Gökceli, CTO of Austria's ÖBB-Holding, called the occasion "a great day" and said there had been "a lot of progress" — it was "time to switch". He acknowledged, however, that "we still need to solve a lot of open points", including regulatory and funding issues.

He argued that implementing DAC would shift rail freight economics "from an opex model to a capex model", with upfront investment in advanced technology reducing ongoing operating costs. Once feedback from the Pioneer Trains operations from 2028 has been absorbed, he hopes to see full migration "as soon as possible". Zocco added that migration would be essential for "financial equilibrium", emphasising that continued mixed operation of old and new technologies "would not deliver the benefits".

Gilles Peterhans, Secretary General of UIP, the body representing private wagon keepers, said DAC was "one of two strategic priorities" for his members in the coming years. "We have lived for six years in a world of specifications and paperwork", he noted, but the successful demonstration of the technology was "a bridge between innovation and reality".

Peterhans accepted there was still much to do, not least in developing suitable financial instruments. He expects both operators and vehicle owners will need support until conversion reaches a critical mass. The fleet is being analysed to identify which vehicles are suitable for retrofitting and which should be converted first. He also pointed out that DAC could form the foundation for a much wider digitalisation of operations, including Automated Shunting Operations.

The road from demonstration to migration

The measured results so far are demonstration-scale: one locomotive, six wagons and a sequence of automated checks performed in a yard near Berlin. The projections — cost savings, competitiveness gains, full fleet migration — depend on the Pioneer Trains running in commercial service from 2028 and on financial instruments that do not yet exist in final form.

Over the next couple of years, while the Pioneer Trains run, operators plan to quantify the benefits and build the business case for the investment, alongside lobbying for the financial support both operators and wagon keepers say will be essential to carry the transition through.