The freight train, which was sent on a cross-border journey in Europe and equipped with a digitally configured automatic coupler for testing purposes, has been given the green light for series production, announced Deutsche Bahn board member Sigrid Nikutta. Currently, half a million freight wagons are still coupled manually across the EU.
“The digital freight train has successfully completed its two-year field tests,” said Sigrid Nikutta at the train’s presentation to the EU Commission in Brussels. Now, the first customers in rail freight transport are set to benefit from the new technology. The shared experiences will then be incorporated into series production. Only through the digitalization and automation of rail freight transport will it be possible to shift more goods from road to rail. “This is the crucial lever. Only with green supply chains will Europe be able to achieve its climate goals.”
For example, half of all steel industry transport is carried out by rail. Member companies rely on efficient logistics for both the supply of raw materials and the shipment of finished steel products. "The Digital Automatic Coupling can become a real turbocharger for rail freight transport – and thus an important building block for efficient, climate-friendly supply chains," explains Kerstin Maria Rippel, CEO of the German Steel Federation.
DB, together with other European freight railways, including SBB Cargo, and numerous other stakeholders from the railway industry, is committed to the development and Europe-wide implementation of the Digital Coupler. The presentation of the functioning freight train is a key event at the European Commission's "Connecting Europe Days" in Brussels. This week, policymakers, railway representatives, and industry leaders are discussing the further development of European transport systems. A key focus will be the expansion of the ten trans-European transport corridors and the strengthening of climate-neutral supply chains for the continent.
DB Cargo alone operates around 20,000 freight trains per week through 17 EU countries, with 60 percent of all journeys crossing at least one border. Freight wagons are coupled from Spain to Scandinavia using the nearly 200-year-old principle of a mechanical screw coupling. At DB Cargo alone, employees have to manually attach the 30 kg couplings to the iron brackets of the wagons up to 50,000 times a day. In return, one freight train can replace up to 52 trucks and saves 80 to 100 percent of their CO2 emissions.
Freight trains, whose speed is currently limited to 120 km/h, will be able to adapt much better to the overall rail traffic schedule and speed with the introduction of the digital coupler.
