Image caption:

The popular Brenner Pass: for many lorries a detour is financially worthwhile. (c) Martin Putz

Every year, more than 880,000 lorries take a diversion to cross the Alps via the Brenner Pass. This accounts for about one third of the lorry journeys on the Brenner motorway. This is the result of a traffic study by Tirol/A. For many freight companies, the diversions of 60 or more kilometres is worthwhile - for every fifth trip it is even more than 120 kilometres. The reason is the comparatively cheap toll and the lower fuel costs due to the Austrian tax advantage on diesel. According to the study, the picture is better for the other Alpine passes. Over the more expensive Gotthard Pass in Switzerland, for example, about 97 percent of the lorries drive on the best possible route for them.

With the draft of the new toll regulation (Road Charging Directive, Eurovignette Directive), the EU wants to introduce a kilometre-based charge, but at the same time it has significantly limited the possibilities for toll increases. Tyrol, for example, would need the consent of neighbouring Germany and Italy, which, however, are less or not at all affected by the impact of heavy goods transport. Toll increases would thus become virtually impossible, as CIPRA has already criticised. Tyrol had objected to this regulation but received a rebuff from the European Transport Committee in mid-January 2021, as did CIPRA.

In addition, all lorries that drive with hydrogen or electric propulsion in future are to receive massive toll reductions. Kaspar Schuler, Managing Director of CIPRA International, criticises: "The new regulation takes neither particulate pollution nor noise in the Alpine valleys into account and will not get HGVs onto the railways in future either. Thus, the Brenner Base Tunnel threatens to become a bad investment." In February the EU Parliament will finally vote on the new toll regulation (Eurovignette Directive). CIPRA will ask all parliamentarians in advance to make the urgently needed corrections.

Sources and further information:

www.tirol.gv.at/presse/meldungen/meldung/lh-platter-und-lhstvin-felipe-ein-drittel-der-brenner-lkw-haette-kuerzere-routenalternative-1/ (de), www.sn.at/wirtschaft/oesterreich/ein-drittel-der-brenner-lkw-nehmen-weite-umwege-in-kauf-115558120 (de), tirol.orf.at/stories/3138658/ (de)