NEOS calls for comprehensive plan to ease A13 traffic
Wednesday 2nd September 2026 on 11:45 in
Austria
NEOS Tirol is calling for a comprehensive plan to permanently ease the burden on residents along the Brenner motorway, ORF reports. The proposal covers the section between Schönberg and the Europabrücke and includes digitising toll stations and examining alternative motorway routes.
Traffic in the Wipptal valley, particularly on the A13, is continuing to increase. The motorway operator ASFINAG is facing major investments that will shape the transport infrastructure for decades, said NEOS parliamentary group leader Birgit Obermüller. She called for alternatives to simply renewing the existing infrastructure to be examined.
Manfred Kerber of the association Lebensqualität für Schönberg said ASFINAG should commission a comprehensive study of route options and feasibility for the Schönberg to Europabrücke section.
Digital toll collection proposed
Obermüller questioned the size of the current toll facility in Schönberg. NEOS Tirol says digital toll collection is needed to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion. Obermüller said fully digital tolling was essential for modern infrastructure and warned that building a new toll station based on outdated concepts could miss opportunities for modernisation.
Alternative route and noise protection
NEOS also wants an alternative route to be examined. Under the proposal, the existing Schönberg curve after the hairpin bend would be lowered, allowing the motorway to enter the mountain in a wider radius. This could move through traffic farther away from residential areas.
Obermüller also called for significantly improved noise protection along the transit route to protect residents’ health. She said experts would have to assess whether the options were technically, geologically and economically feasible before billions were invested in renewing the existing infrastructure.
There was still a chance to make the Wipptal’s transport infrastructure fit for the future, Obermüller said. If that opportunity was missed, people should not have to be told in ten years that better options were no longer possible because everything had already been built.