Rail Cargo Hungaria Presents New Digital Train Technology

A train equipped with a digital automatic central buffer (DAC) has arrived in Hungary as part of a test tour of six European countries, Rail Cargo Hungaria Plc. told MTI on Thursday.

According to the company's statement, the new technology was presented to representatives of the authorities and Hungarian railway companies at a professional event. They added that the Hungarian test results will be taken into account when finalizing the technical solution.

Rail Cargo Hungaria stressed that the introduction of DAC will strengthen the competitiveness of European rail freight by enabling automation, reducing processing and dwell times, increasing the speed of consignments, freeing up capacity and reducing the risk of accidents.

ÖBB Rail Cargo Group (RCG) is a member of the consortium (DAC4EU) set up by six European railway companies to test the DAC.

The communication points out that currently rail freight wagons are manually coupled, a time-consuming, costly, physically demanding and extremely dangerous process for workers. According to the European Union's DAC migration program, from 2028, wagons equipped with the new technology will be coupled with digital automatic central buffers, which will provide air, power and data connections. This could affect up to 450,000 trucks and 17,000 locomotives in the European Union. Imre Kovács, a member of the Rail Cargo Group board and chairman of the Rail Cargo Hungaria board, said the introduction of the technology could alleviate the shortage of staff in the wagon dispatching and shunting areas.