Steffen Jass from Knorr-Bremse gave a presentation on the challenges of interoperable automation in Freight Rail Sector at the 48th Conference Modern Rolling Stock ("Schienenfahrzeugtagung") at TU Graz. His findings were published in the proceedings of the meeting as well in the ZEVrail Special Issue.

Abstract:
To meet the goal set by the European Union (EU) – to increase the proportion of freight transported by rail to at least 30% by 2030 (2019: approx. 18%) [1] – the digitization and automation of the freight train (Digital Freight Train, DFT) is generally regarded as essential. The EU-sponsored Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) [2] technology support program has given a correspondingly high priority to developing technologies for enabling the “shift” from road to rail, and to defining interoperability standards for rail freight vehicles. As the cornerstone of the DFT, the Digital Automatic Coupler (DAC) is especially important. In the near future, the DAC will automatically perform key processes that currently rely on time-consuming manual labor. It will also connect together power supplies and data communications along the entire length of the train. Several EU-Rail [3] work programs are now working hard to develop various demonstrators, including a reference test system.

See the whole article on Knorr-Bremse's website (english and german).

Copyright image: Knorr-Bremse