European DAC Delivery Programme (EDDP) — Digital Automatic Coupling migration

Scope

The sector-wide programme coordinating Europe's migration from the screw coupler to the Digital Automatic Coupler (DAC) for rail freight: technology selection, demonstrators, migration planning and the standardisation and funding groundwork for fleet-wide deployment.

The DAC is rail freight's biggest hardware transition in a century: replacing the manual screw coupler with an automatic coupler that also carries power and data through the train unlocks automated brake tests, train integrity monitoring, longer and heavier trains and digital freight operations — and requires migrating several hundred thousand wagons in a coordinated wave. The EDDP, hosted under Europe's Rail, is where that coordination happens: it selected the Scharfenberg-type latch design as the European standard head, runs demonstrator fleets, develops the migration scenarios and funding models, and feeds the resulting specifications into standardisation (EN/UIC work) and future TSI revisions. This entry is the tracking point for the programme; the binding requirements will land in TSI WAG revisions and the associated EN standards as the migration decision matures.