Bavaria is reacting to the truck block handling in Tyrol: As early as next Monday, roads away from the Bavarian motorways will be closed to cross-border truck traffic on the relevant days. This was announced by Prime Minister Markus Söder and Minister of Transport Christian Bernreiter (both CSU) on Friday at a site visit on Autobahn 8 near Rohrdorf. This is to prevent trucks that want to avoid the motorway backlog because of the block handling when entering Tyrol from clogging up smaller roads off the motorway and causing chaos in neighboring communities.
These consequences are no longer acceptable, stressed Söder. “We also have to take care of the protection of our population.” He therefore called the Bavarian step a kind of self-defense to protect the citizens and to protect the Inn Valley. But it was only an interim solution, he emphasized. The main goal remains that there will no longer be any truck block handling in Austria in the future.
Should Tyrol continue to be tough and keep block handling, Bavaria will demand EU infringement proceedings. The Austrian measure is considered illegal, emphasized Söder.
According to Bernreiter, warning signs on the motorways should alert truck drivers to the road closures – but the federal government has so far rejected a ban on leaving the motorways. “So far we have not come to a solution,” said Bernreiter. “It is requested that the trucks do not leave the motorway – but it is not ordered.” The closure of the side streets is to be enforced by the Bavarian police. According to Söder, additional police officers will be deployed in the region for this purpose.
The background to the whole thing is a dispute between Bavaria and Tyrol that has been smoldering for years. In order to relieve the pressure on the Inntal autobahn leading to the Brenner, the Austrian state restricted entry for trucks on several dozen days this year. There is a so-called dosing calendar on which the days with block processing are announced. This year there are 38 days in total, 21 in the first half of the year and 17 in the second.
At the Kufstein/Kiefersfelden border crossing, a maximum of around 300 trucks coming from Germany will be allowed to enter the country every hour. If necessary, the heavy traffic is brought to a complete standstill. This regularly leads to traffic jams in the Munich area – and to sometimes chaotic conditions in communities along the Autobahn in Bavaria.