The wagons interchanges in the marshalling yards needs presently a high manual effort in absence of automatic coupling systems. Automatic couplers are the most critical components, not only to make shunting and marshalling safer and cheaper, but also because this will make it easier to operate longer trains.The work in Task 4.1 will start from the results of these studies, corroborated by the careful analysis of the state-of-the-art depicted below. The specific objectives will be the identification and the quantification of operational and economic impacts at local level (marshalling yards and other stations where the composition of trains will change) and network level (lines and corridors) taking into account constraints imposed by slot assignments processes. The obtainable modal split changes and the corresponding energetic and environmental achievable benefits in the various migration scenarios will be estimated.
The research will pave the way for future demonstration activities and will help in aligning the rail community to achieve an interoperable and modular European DAC. It is also expected that the deployment of the future DAC will facilitate the development and implementation of other key innovations for the rail system such as the moving block, ECTS Level 3 and Internet of Things application to the rail freight wagon.
Moreover, the project will explore possible energy management solutions leading to optimizations and energy savings: data transmission and analysis from wagon systems would allow to implement smart maintenance solutions and help in a better management of the rolling stock, allow additional savings in
energy/material consumption for component change (like bearings, brake materials, etc.). In addition, it can contribute to the Green Deal by promoting the modal shift from the road to the rail, which will contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions caused by the transport sector.
Finally, a high-complex operation, such as retrofitting and equipping the whole wagon fleet in a coordinated manner will contribute to increasing the cohesion among countries and creating high-quality, stable and skilled jobs: retrofitting the European wagon fleet as well as producing new suitable wagons will require to employ a large number of highly skilled engineers and workers.