Status: 05/28/2022 11:15 a.m
Vacationers and residents alike know and fear it: the block handling in front of the German-Austrian border. The Inntal Autobahn in Bavaria is particularly affected. What alternatives are there?
It’s another bad week for the people living in the villages alongside the A93 motorway. Block processing at the border from Monday to Friday, only the public holiday in between brings a small break. Otherwise, the same picture every morning: trucks backed up over 30 kilometers through the entire Bavarian Inn Valley, often up to the A8 Munich-Salzburg. Stressed long-distance drivers dodge the country roads and clog the through roads of villages such as Nußdorf, Brannenburg and Oberaudorf with their heavy trucks.
Proceed blocked
That means endless stress for him, says Christian Margreiter, bus operator from Nußdorf. Often his company’s vehicles can’t get through, students and commuters are literally left behind. When filming during a bus ride experienced a BR-Team, as the entrance to the Autobahn is impossible. The driver will not find a gap in the wall of heavy trucks. It takes a long time before he has maneuvered himself into the second lane in dangerous maneuvers. Margreiter says that he has already received a police escort to take the children to their schools.
Even for emergency services with vital transports, the onward journey was sometimes blocked. If you ask the people in the Inn Valley how they see block handling, everyone has a story of how the avalanche of cars slows them down in their everyday activities. And something like desperation is spreading: The residents can no longer and do not want to.
Bavaria is pushing for EU infringement proceedings
“Your nerves are on edge in the Inn Valley,” is how the Bavarian Transport Minister sums up the situation. “People are fed up with block handling in this style.” Christian Bernreiter has only been in office for a few months. He wants to tackle the problem with renewed vigor and has sent a letter to the EU Commission. In it he asks, according to Bernreiter BRCommission President Ursula von der Leyen, “to seriously examine whether she can initiate infringement proceedings against Austria”.
The truck dosage by the Tyroleans is completely disproportionate, such measures are only justified in real emergency situations. Bernreiter wants to go to Brussels as soon as possible and discuss the matter personally with the CDU politician. He also asked the federal government to intervene and put pressure on it, says the Bavarian minister.
Tyrol emphasizes great support for block processing
His Tyrolean colleague, Ingrid Felipe, remains very calm in the face of these threats. The deputy governor, responsible for traffic in the government, says in an interview with the BR, Tyrol had thought through all the measures very carefully. “Our own experts in the state administration, supported by legal experts from the University of Innsbruck, have carefully checked what we can do that is proportionate and complies with European legislation.”
The Greens politician refers to the large consensus on this issue in Tyrol. The entire population and all politicians are behind the self-defense measure of block processing. Felipe reports on a session of the state parliament that she has just left for the interview. “You may be surprised,” she says, “but even stricter measures are being called for.”
How does block processing work?
After the border, just before the Kufstein Nord exit, the trucks are directed into the right lane and brought to a stop by a red traffic light. The traffic light counts down the seconds and then turns green briefly, allowing a van to drive through. The cycle varies: Sometimes it’s just ten seconds, sometimes 15, while the traffic light is red. Depending on the traffic situation, the police officers control this further south in the Inn Valley, especially in the greater Innsbruck area. Sometimes only 200 trucks per hour are allowed through, sometimes 300. That sounds like little, but for the residents it means that a truck thunders past about every twelve seconds. And with “dosing” there are often 5,000 trucks a day. Almost 10,000 trucks were counted in the Inn Valley on peak days. Calculated on a yearly basis, between two and 2.5 million trucks use the Brenner route.
Multiple options to mitigate the situation
When asked what possibilities she saw for Bavaria and Germany to quickly defuse the situation, Felipe came up with several key points. A Munich-Verona corridor toll, as recently brought up by the Bavarian Prime Minister, finds it excellently suited to creating “cost truth on the road”. This would make rail transport more attractive. In addition, she suggests that trucks in Bavaria should be dosed “first thing in the morning when driving on the autobahn.” Controlling traffic with intelligent systems – it was actually agreed that we would go ahead together. “Unfortunately without any noticeable success so far,” says Felipe.
And that’s still important to her: that there shouldn’t be any bad blood between Bavaria and Tyrol. “I have a lot of sympathy for all the residents, in Bavaria, Tyrol and South Tyrol.” Everyone has the same big problem: the ever-increasing traffic avalanche, against which one has to defend oneself. In fact, in the Bavarian Inn Valley, one often hears a certain admiration for the Tyroleans with their tough measures to protect their own population. Sentences like: “They’re doing it right, we should do the same on our side” can be heard from citizens as well as local politicians.
Transit traffic should stay on the Autobahn
Bus operator Margreiter, for example, cannot understand why Bavaria does not also prohibit alternative traffic on country roads and through the villages. So: transit traffic has to stay on the freeway, even in traffic jams. Tyrol is showing the way, he says, it’s possible if you want to.
In fact, the Tyrolean state government has just announced this measure “to protect its own population,” as they say. On the Pentecost weekend, travelers from Germany to Italy are not allowed to exit the autobahn. Destination, source and resident traffic is exempt from these bans. This applies northbound on June 18th and 19th, and in both directions on all weekends between July 9th and September 11th.
And the dates for the next block handling have also been set: on the days before and after Pentecost and in the week from June 13th to 17th it will be tight again in the Inn Valley.