12th VPI Symposium

“Digital Automatic Coupling”:

The gamechanger for railway traffic has left the station!

1,250 participants in today’s digital event had the opportunity to learn about the status of the DAC rollout
 
“Rolling out DAC all across Europe is a thick board to drill. We have managed the first few centimetres.” With these words, chairperson Malte Lawrenz greeted the participants of the 12th VPI Symposium “Digital Automatic Coupling” (DAC) in Hamburg on 11 January. He referred to the agreement achieved last year on a uniform European coupling standard, the anchoring of DAC in the coalition agreement of the federal government and the work of the European DAC Delivery Programme (EDDP) in Brussels. Over 1,250 participants connected to the livestream of the symposium – a record number. Interest in the event was also high even outside of the German-speaking region: More than half the viewers listened to the simultaneous English interpretation of the symposium.

A dozen experts, all members of the EDDP, reported at the digital event on the status of the European DAC discussion in the fields of “Engineering”, “Migration”, “Costs/Benefits” and “Financing” and presented the current results of initiatives such as the demonstrator train DAC4EU.

With this event, VPI offered the sector an opportunity to pose questions to the representatives of the EDDP. Keepers, shippers and railway undertakings were particularly eager to engage with the aspects of migration and financing but also safety issues relating to hazardous goods transports.

“The symposium was definitely worthwhile for all participants,” summed up Jens Engelmann, EDDP programme manager, after the event. Not only was it a good opportunity to answer the questions of stakeholders, important issues in need of clarification were also identified, which will be taken to Brussels for consideration in the planning of the complex implementation process.

The 12th VPI Symposium took place this year in cooperation with VPI Austria as well as important DAC institutions at the European level: European DAC Delivery Programme, DACcelerate and Shift2Rail.