German tourists and commuters can look forward to a toll waiver on five motorway sections in Austria. The Austrian parliament has decided by a large majority the toll exemption for motorway sections near the border with Germany. The parties want to use the measure to curb the avoidance traffic, especially from German motorists on rural roads.
The exemptions from the toll are to apply inter alia on the West Motorway (A1) between the Walserberg and the junction Salzburg North and the Inntalautobahn (A12) between the border and the junction Kufstein-South. The law still has to be passed by the Federal Council, which will meet next time in early December. If confirmed, the toll exemptions could enter into force on 15 December.
Austria and Germany have been arguing over border traffic for years, and not just because of the toll. Many commuters and tourists use the country roads on their way to or through Austria, because then no toll is due. In many Austrian municipalities in the border area, therefore, there are often long traffic jams and traffic obstructions. For this reason, Tyrol has announced driving bans on several weekends and public holidays for the winter season in order to avoid avoiding traffic jams on the motorway.
A vignette costs in Austria for ten days in the coming year 9.40 euros, for a full year 91.10 euros. The now decided toll relief refers only to a few miles from the border to the interior.
Another point of contention is regular block clearance for trucks, which often lead to long traffic jams on the German side in Bavaria. For the first half of 2020, trucks are only allowed to cross the border in blocks of 20 days.
Every year around 2.4 million lorries drive over the Brenner Pass - more than any other Alpine border crossing in Switzerland and France. Many freight forwarders sometimes take a long detour to drive over the Brenner Pass. The state of Tyrol is therefore also committed to ensuring that the route from Munich to Verona is more expensive and therefore more unattractive by toll.
