EUROPE: Rail Cargo Group has awarded Knorr-Bremse what the supplier says is ‘Europe’s first commercial equipment contract for Digital Automatic Couplers’. The equipment is expected to enter commercial use from 2028.
Knorr-Bremse announced the contract on September 17, saying it would equip a train of RCG wagons with DAC, electronic control units and sensors to digitally monitor vehicle functions and condition. The resulting formation will consist of 23 wagons and a locomotive. The value of the contract has not been disclosed.
While relatively small in fleet terms, the order is, according to Knorr-Bremse, the first commercial equipment contract for the technology in Europe, with the train due to enter regular freight operations from 2028 under the EU-backed PioDAC programme.
Commercial trials from 2028
Launched in November 2025, PioDAC is the bloc’s 36-month programme intended to test DAC under commercial operating conditions before any wider European deployment. The RCG train is one of seven pioneer trains that will be used to assess the technology’s reliability, operational performance and economic case across different types of freight traffic and operating environments.
The contract follows several years of DAC testing involving Knorr-Bremse and RCG, including work under Europe’s Rail’s FP5 TRANS4M-R project, and will now take the supplier’s equipment into the PioDAC commercial trials from 2028.
‘With the first use of the Digital Automatic Coupler in live operation, Knorr-Bremse and ÖBB Rail Cargo Group are taking a major step toward the digital freight train’, said Dr Nicolas Lange, Executive Board Member responsible for Rail at Knorr-Bremse. He added that the two companies are ‘among the pioneers in testing this key innovation. In doing so, we are strengthening the competitiveness of rail freight and laying the groundwork for shifting more traffic to the rails.’
Beyond the coupling itself
The RCG order will form one part of the wider PioDAC deployment. Across the programme, around 250 freight wagons and 15 locomotives are due to be equipped across seven pioneer trains, with roughly 500 DAC units entering trials under different operating conditions. The programme foresees around 9 million route-km of operation and some 17 000 coupling and shunting operations.
For Knorr-Bremse, the contract also opens the door to a potentially much larger market if DAC moves beyond the pioneer phase. The supplier has identified automation and digitalisation of freight trains as a key growth area and estimates annual European original-equipment revenue potential in the triple-digit millions of euros.
Any broader deployment, however, will depend on the results of the pioneer programme as well as common technical standards, suitable authorisation procedures and, crucially, a workable financing and migration model for converting Europe’s large and fragmented freight wagon fleet.