Söder plans route closures for trucks
More and more often, there are endless queues of trucks and evasive traffic on the Bavarian side due to the blocking of the Tyrol. Now, Minister President Söder wants to take the transit dispute with Austria into his own hands and partially relieve the Bavarian road network of HGV traffic.
On 38 days this year, he said, the entry of HGVs into the Austrian province of Tyrol had been blocked. However, what provided for a partially calmer traffic situation in Austria shifted the lorry traffic and the associated problems to the southern German regions. In neighbouring Bavaria, in particular, there are often traffic jams and congestion on the transport network. Now Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants to find a solution to the dispute with Austria over traffic management, which has been smouldering for years, and is himself planning to close roads to lorries for days at a time.
"Bavarian patience is running out. We need short-term measures to relieve the burden on our citizens in the border region," said Söder. The Bavarian authorities fear that otherwise there could be a "traffic gridlock on the secondary routes to Salzburg and through the Inn valley". The traffic situation on the Bavarian side is already critical. Especially at the Kufstein/Kiefersfelden border crossing, where a maximum of about 300 trucks per hour coming from Germany are allowed to enter on the A12. Further traffic disruptions are also to be expected in the coming summer months, as the seasonal influx of tourists often further slows down the flow of traffic on the roads.
In this context, Bavaria is ready to take action and end the transit dispute with Austria. In concrete terms, it is now planned to stop the evasive traffic through the towns in the Inn valley and towards Salzburg. To this end, Minister-President Söder has instructed the interior and transport ministers to draw up a concept. According to Söder, the federal government should also play its role and issue exit bans for interregional traffic on the A8 and A93. The responsible district authorities are also responsible for the road closures and can also close local thoroughfares to lorry traffic during the road closures. Instead, controls will be carried out by the Bavarian police. However, these will only affect trucks; cars and other smaller vehicles are to remain excluded from the ban.
If Söder's plan succeeds, truck drivers will no longer have to deal with driving bans only in the Tyrol. In Bavaria, too, they will have to deal with route closures and diversions. Nor should we forget all the environmental zones that regulate the traffic of polluting vehicles on both sides in Germany and Austria.