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ÖBB’s CTO: DAC is the key project for Europe's rail freight future

ÖBB’s CTO: DAC is the key project for Europe's rail freight future
photo: Archive/Archive/ÖBB’s CTO: DAC is the key project for Europe's rail freight future
08 / 07 / 2022

RAILTARGET presents you with an exclusive interview with ÖBB’s Chief Technical Officer, Mark Topal-Gökceli. What is the company’s stance on DAC and its role in the rail freight future, and how do they assess the current state of rail transport safety?

  • Can you briefly introduce the main benefits of DAC?

Mark Topal-Gökceli: Well, the Digital Automatic Coupling, which is the key project for Europe's rail freight future, there is the main benefit [it] brings us. First of all, it is productivity gains due to reduced time needed for all the processes. The second one is, that we will have to increase - and we can increase - the capacity with the DAC, the Digital Automatic Coupler. And finally, we will have - and we can improve - the quality, so we have quality, we have the capacity, and we have productivity gains, all of them are keys for Europe's rail's future, that's the main benefit.

  • How do you assess the current state of rail transport safety, and what steps could still be taken in this respect?

Mark Topal-Gökceli: Well, I mean we have to be frank here. The rail system is one of the safest transport modes, so safety has always been the key for the rail system and compared to the other transport modes, the performance of safety is very high. Can we do better? Yes, sure, we can do better. Once again, we will use new technology, we will use innovation to even increase this already high level of safety of the rail system in Europe.

  • And what do you think about today's conference and the main topic of this conference?

Mark Topal-Gökceli: It was a very interesting conference and the exchange of views is always important to learn from the others, from all of us. We need to understand what are the different opinions regarding especially our future. So it's absolutely valuable to discuss with our colleagues the future of the European rail system, the future of rail freight, how we can finally overcome the challenges and how we can be successful together. It was a good conference, and I can really recommend such kind of conference to all the community.

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