Seven rail freight associations* from Germany, Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia signed new Memorandum on DAC (Digital Automated Couplers) in areas of competitiveness of railways, internal competition and operations, as well as doubts on business case at both macro- and micro-scale.
The representatives of the initiative from Die Guerbahn, ZESNAD and ZNPK handed over the paper to DG MOVE director general Magda Kopczynska.
The document aims at highlighting specific areas of concern and at identifying remaining preconditions for successful DAC deployment where more work needs to be done before any binding decisions are made.
The initiative DAC Voice of Reason gathered in Brussels to discuss with the European Commission concerns on DAC deployment.
Implementing DAC requires a significant upfront investment in infrastructure, equipment, and technology. As railway companies face decreasing market share and profitability, the initial cost poses a barrier to adoption and will only be accepted if fairly distributed and clear economic benefits are demonstrated. DAC will undoubtedly increase the rolling stock cost and without significant funding from EU and in particular Member State level, EU wide DAC uptake remains highly questionable. Lessons learnt from other projects such as ERTMS must be reflected in DAC, the document says.
Competitiveness of railways is top priority. From the perspective of private operators, DAC is not much likely to become a gamechanger even in single wagon, not to mention block trains which goes back and force for months without coupling operations.
“We are confident about high costs, and this is not only CAPEX, which DAC supporters would like to have borne by tax payers money, but also future OPEX, which will by nature will be substantially higher for complex DAC devices that in case of screw couplers,” says Michal Litwin, director general of Federation of Independent Rail Operators (ZNPK).
At the same time the industry is already falling under different types of requirements which increases rolling stock costs in exchange of promises long-term possible benefits.
The associations are happy with upcoming piloting phase of DAC in different technical and operational conditions which is critical to identify particular segments, where the technology can bring benefits, before any decisions are being taken.
“Although we support further development, testing and piloting that will help to identify segments where DAC may be of help, we are quite confident that for typical market segments it much more about increasing costs and complexity instead of competitiveness,” Michal Litwin added.
We remind that on April 30, 2024, Austria, Germany and Switzerland signed a position paper calling EU to provide more funding for digital automatic coupling projects.
*The Memorandum on DAC was signed by:
- Die Gűterbahnen (German Rail Freight Association)
- ZNPK (Polish Federation of Independent Rail Operators)
- ŽESNAD.CZ (Czech Association of Rail Freight Operators)
- AROS (Slovak Association of Rail Freight Operators)
- Hungrail (Hungarian Railway Association)
- SPV (Czech Association of Owners and Operators of Railway Vehicles)
- ZVKV (Slovak Association of Owners and Operators of Railway Vehicles)
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