Harmonisation is the basis for a seamless international and border crossing freight traffic. UIC facilitates best practice sharing to ensure interoperability as well as increase the commercial speed of train traffic. A…
Harmonisation is the basis for a seamless international and border crossing freight traffic. UIC facilitates best practice sharing to ensure interoperability as well as increase commercial speed of train traffic. Key part of this competence centre is corridor development, ensuring that significant traffic flows are being prioritised and investments being put in place.
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Rail Event - Fit for Freight Train Operation 10/2022, Paris
PioDAC – Pioneer DAC Train
The Pioneer DAC Train (PioDAC) project is a major step towards the deployment of Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC) in European rail freight. The project brings together railway undertakings, wagon keepers, maintenance organisations, infrastructure and industry stakeholders from across Europe to demonstrate the operation of DAC-equipped freight trains under real operating conditions.
The project aims to validate the technical, operational and economic performance of DAC through cross-border operations on European freight corridors. Pioneer DAC Trains will operate from 2027 across different railway environments, including marshalling yards, mainline corridors and customer sidings, covering a wide range of train configurations, traffic conditions and operating scenarios. The experience and operational data gathered during these activities will contribute to assessing the robustness, safety and efficiency of DAC and to supporting its future large-scale deployment.
A key element of PioDAC is the development and validation of harmonised operational processes and rules for DAC-equipped trains. This is essential to ensure that DAC operations can be performed consistently across organisations and national borders, while taking into account the specificities of individual railway undertakings and their safety management systems.
Within PioDAC, UIC contributes its expertise in railway operations and safety, with a particular focus on the harmonisation and implementation of operational rules and training. UIC supports the development of the DAC Rulebook and related training concepts and modules, as well as the assessment and management of training-related risks. This work builds on UIC's broader role in developing harmonised operational rules for DAC and supports the objective of enabling safe, interoperable and efficient DAC operations across Europe.
PioDAC is co-financed by the European Union's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)
