Germany Opens €36 Million Fund to Test Digital Automatic Couplers on Pioneer Freight Trains

Germany's Federal Ministry for Transport (BMV) has opened a €36.117 million funding programme to test Digital Automatic Couplers (DAK) on freight trains under real operating conditions, running from 2026 to 2029. The programme, known as PioDAK, is administered by the Federal Office for Logistics and Mobility (BALM), which took on the role in February 2026.

DAK is a coupling system that lets freight wagons connect automatically instead of by hand with a traditional screw coupling — a change the rail freight sector has pursued for years to cut shunting time and labour. BMV describes PioDAK's purpose as "an additional evaluation of DAK in rail freight transport with a view to the planned EU-wide DAK migration."

The programme funds three lines of work: retrofitting and equipping "pioneer trains" with DAK through to commercial deployment, research and development projects tied to the coupler, and accompanying studies. Project sketches can be submitted to BALM between September 14 and 25 via a dedicated email address.

PioDAK follows the DAK-Demonstrator project, a roughly €30 million research effort led by a DB Cargo-headed consortium that ran from 2020 and concluded in June 2026 with an event in Lippstadt. Where that project focused on prototype testing, PioDAK moves DAK into operational trial trains ahead of a future Europe-wide rollout.