There was a time when our updates on the Digital Automatic Coupling were more frequent, so what happened? DAC is a key technology for European rail freight, enabling the automatic coupling of railcars replacing today’s manual processes . It’s an essential step toward greater efficiency, safety, and digitalization in railcar logistics. Following our earlier reports on testing and operational trials, the project has now entered a phase of intensive preparation, coordination, and validation, laying the foundation for the next stage of DAC development across Europe.

Current situation: Testing and Standardization
Significant preparatory work is ongoing for the second phase of the DAC technology development project, scheduled for 2027 and 2028. A key focus is identifying topics that are particularly relevant for wagon keepers and, based on this, defining the level and form of active involvement.

At the same time, the Pioneer Trains initiative (PioDAC) continues to progress. Preparatory activities are underway, including contract drafting between consortium partners. On the technical side, testing phases such as derailment tests, climate chamber tests, and crash tests are currently being carried out.

In parallel, work on interoperability, as well as authorization and standardization topics, remains ongoing, ensuring that future DAC solutions can be deployed consistently across borders.

Next steps: DAC-rail Launch & Funding
An important milestone has been reached with the launch of “DAC-rail,” the UIP-developed web portal and database designed to collect and analyze DAC-related data. The platform supports the identification of retrofit efforts in terms of time and cost. Going forward, the focus will be on motivating wagon keepers to actively use the tool and contribute relevant data.

Overarching project coordination is expected to continue. A potential structure was discussed in December and is planned to be further refined in the first quarter of 2026.

In addition, the German funding guidelines for additional pioneer trains were presented at the VPI Symposium in January this year. These guidelines, once officially published by the German Ministry of Transport, will be analyzed by our GATX teams to determine if and to which extent a participation in the next pioneer train project is envisaged.

In Switzerland, the DAC project will continue with a round table at the end of February, organized by the Federal Office of Transport. GATX’s DAC experts are planning to attend the round table.

DAC remains a long-term, collaborative effort. With testing, coordination, and data-driven planning progressing in parallel, the project continues to move step by step toward scalable implementation in European rail freight.

We will continue to share updates as the DAC journey advances, as we believe that DAC will be a very significant step in making railcar leasing easier.