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Increased heavy goods traffic on the Brenner route

Dec 16, 2004 / alpMedia
In 2004 more than fifty percent fewer trucks were carried by the RoLa piggyback services on the Brenner railway than in the previous year. Whereas 140,000 HGVs used the rail link in 2003, the figure for 2004 was a mere 60,000. In contrast, truck traffic on the Brenner motorway increased by a monthly average of twenty percent (in the period January to October).
This situation derives from expiry of the Austrian eco-points system for HGVs in transit over the Brenner, which made the journey expensive for vehicles with high exhaust emission levels and the intermodal rail service correspondingly attractive. 80,000 fewer trucks on the railway means 94,000 more on the motorway (where maximum permissible laden weight is lower), almost thirty times higher CO2 emissions and 160 times higher NOx emissions.
Source and information: www.umweltbundesamt.at/presse/lastnews (de)