Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) awarded a contract for locomotive fleet retrofit and engineering solutions for Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC). Three companies were selected in cascade: DB Systemtechnik, Voith and Wyss&Lila Italia.
The initiative “should deliver sufficient and complete information for installing full Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC) equipment on a locomotive type”, the tender specified. This would include couplers, e-couplers, data and communication systems and the power unit to supply energy to the whole DAC train.
Specifics of the tender
“The action to be procured will involve the research, analysis, development of engineering solutions, and possibly testing for a limited number of locomotive types” for both DAC and ERTMS, the document added. The estimated value of the contract is three million euros, with a duration of 48 months – 12 set initially with the possibility of renewing three times.
The contract also comes with an interesting section, which claims that the companies selected for this tender will be allowed to provide similar services without “prior publication of a contract notice”. In other words, DB Systemtechnik will sort of have priority when it comes to other similar projects, as they can be assigned 50% of the new contract without a new tender or notice.