Transitforum rejects planned Brenner truck slot system

Austria’s Transitforum has criticised a planned slot system for trucks crossing Tyrol, saying it would not reduce transit traffic without an effective upper limit, ORF reported.

Nearly 53,000 more transit trucks crossed the Brenner by the end of July than during the same period last year. That amounts to an additional 300 to 400 heavy trucks on each working day.

The number of articulated trucks and trucks with trailers increased more sharply than other traffic at the Brenner.

Tyrol is seeking to curb transit traffic through measures including traffic metering near Kufstein, a night-time truck driving ban and a sectoral driving ban for certain goods such as waste, timber and excavated material. These measures are being reviewed at European Union level.

The state government plans to regulate truck transit through Tyrol with a slot system that would assign time windows for crossings. The Transitforum said that without a truck cap, the system would merely distribute heavy traffic more efficiently across the motorways and create additional capacity for transit trucks.