As of: January 31, 2024, 6:44 a.m
By: Johannes Welte
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The block clearance at the border near Kufstein repeatedly causes traffic jams on the A93 and A8 that are dozens of kilometers long.
© Angelika Warmuth/dpa
Tyrol breathes a sigh of relief: block handling for trucks in Kufstein ensured better air in 2023.
Bavaria's plan to abolish border congestion using a slot system is met with resistance there.
Innsbruck – Transit traffic through Tyrol on the Scandinavia-Palermo axis has been a bone of contention between Austria and its neighbors Germany and Italy for decades.
In the narrow valleys of Tyrol, residents complain about the noise and exhaust gases caused by transit traffic to the Brenner Pass and vice versa.
On Mondays there is often a truck traffic jam from Kufstein to Holzkirchen
Since 2017, Tyrol has been slowing down the truck convoys, especially on Mondays with block handling in Kufstein and at the Brenner border.
Only a small number of trucks are allowed through so that the traffic volume in Tyrol does not become too high.
But that means long traffic jams before the border, sometimes the queue of trucks stretches back to Holzkirchen.
In Italy there were already 100 kilometers of traffic jams.
From a Tyrolean perspective, this measure is a great success: 78,500 fewer trucks were counted on the Tyrolean Brenner Motorway last year than in 2022, and there were 2.4 million trucks at the Schönberg toll station. That's a decrease of 3.2 percent, reports Austria's motorway company Asfinag.
Truck traffic grew steadily for years until the Corona crisis - and then again afterwards.
Now there was a minus without Corona.
The Brenner Motorway (here the Europa Bridge south of Innsbruck) is one of the most important transit routes in Europe.
© Michael Kristen/imago
Tyrol's governor Anton Mattle from the conservative ÖVP sees this as a great success: “The stubborn Tyrolean way is working.
The anti-transit measures have slowed down the increase in truck traffic in recent years.” .
The Transit Forum Austria-Tirol, which enforced the truck bans, also summed up: “As far as high exhaust and noise pollution is concerned, we are very successful,” said chairman Fritz Gurgiser.
The Tyrolean state government followed the demands of the Transit Forum with block processing.
Tyrolean air is getting better - activists fear setback with Bavaria's slot system
Bavaria's Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU), in turn, wants to introduce a slot system for truck traffic across the Brenner.
Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) presented the idea in April 2023 at a meeting in Kufstein with his counterparts Arno Kompatscher (South Tyrol) and Anton Mattle (Tyrol).
Truck drivers should book a time slot digitally in order to have free travel to the Brenner Pass.
The idea also appears in the new freight transport concept for Bavaria.
A detailed concept is to be presented next spring, and it will “eventually” be implemented from 2025.
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One problem, however, is that Bavaria, Tyrol and South Tyrol cannot introduce the slot system on their own - it is a national question.
Italy's Transport Minister Matteo Salvini from the right-wing Lega party had already announced that the prerequisite for further negotiations was the discontinuation of block clearance.
The government in Rome had already decided to take legal action against the block clearance before the European Court of Justice.
The Lega also governs the involved province of Trentino.
The Transit Forum, whose word carries great weight in Tyrol, also rejects the slot system as an “incendiary attack”.
It would mean an “additional deterioration in air quality and higher noise pollution due to equalized additional traffic,” said Chairman Gurgiser to
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
Citizens' initiative also celebrates departure bans for holidaymakers as a success for Tyrolean air
However, Gurgiser considers the increase in car traffic on the Brenner Pass last year to be a success.
This increased by almost half a million vehicles compared to 2022.
11.68 million cars were counted at the Schönberg toll plaza - that's an increase of 4.4 percent.
This graphic shows how nitrogen pollution has fallen in Tyrol.
© Transitforum Austria-Tirol
According to Gurgiser, the increase in car traffic on the Brenner motorway is due to the exit closures, which prohibit non-residents - especially holidaymakers - from using secret routes to avoid traffic jams on the motorways and avoid the motorway toll in the summer months.
Gurgiser: “We are very successful when it comes to high exhaust and noise pollution as well as alternative traffic from the motorway to the lower-level network.” The nitrogen pollution at the Vomp measuring point near Innsbruck was halved from 2006 to 2021.
Due to the structural condition of the Lueg Bridge on the Brenner Motorway, disruptions and even more block handling are to be expected from next year.
In addition, Tyrol wants to make a secret route unattractive for holidaymakers from the start of the carnival holidays on Lake Achensee.
And a toll regulation is to be introduced at the Fernpass.