General Contract of Use for Wagons (GCU)

Scope

The General Contract of Use for Wagons (GCU) is the multilateral contract that wagon keepers and railway undertakings across Europe adopt to govern the technical and liability conditions for interchanging and using freight wagons not owned by the user, including maintenance responsibility, wagon damage handling and compensation for loss of use. Administered by the GCU Bureau and amended and republished periodically, its appendices set out the inspection, repair and wagon-data rules referenced throughout European freight operations.