Reckoning with politics

Traffic jams just the beginning: Chamber identifies total failure

Two lanes on 170 days a year, otherwise one lane: the Lueg Bridge will become a bottleneck in 2025.

(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

"Tyrol must not become the largest parking lot in the world", warns the AK Tirol and calls for truck driving bans. The FPÖ criticizes "inaction": it has long been known that the Luegbrücke will be a one-lane road. Transport Minister René Zumtobel (SPÖ) was invited as an expert to the German parliamentary committee.

"Tyrol is on the brink of gridlock": AK President Erwin Zangerl warns of this. Traffic jams with waiting times of up to three hours in both directions over the Brenner Pass, like last weekend, are just the beginning.

"In reality, the possibilities of traffic calming have already been exhausted, while the real avalanche of traffic has not even started yet. What Asfinag itself has predicted, namely traffic jams all the way back to Kufstein, will become reality by the start of the 2025 vacation season at the latest," fears Zangerl.

I see total political failure here, because how else would it be possible for the entire country to be driven to a standstill by one of the Republic's companies?

AK-Präsident Erwin Zangerl

Bild: Birbaumer Christof

"Priorities set incorrectly"
For him, this is an admission of total failure on the part of those responsible at Asfinag and politicians. "Instead of treating and working out the tunnel solution and the renovation on an equal footing, the solution that we know will lead to enormous traffic problems was pushed forward."

Traffic jam as far as Kufstein: "World's largest parking lot"
Asfinag is a company of the Republic and has to protect the interests of the citizens. "But it is also evident here that public companies only have profit in mind, not the well-being or health of the population." Tyrol must not become the world's largest parking lot, which is why the AK is calling for a ban on transit trucks on single-lane days.

Decision-makers surprised again
FP-LA Evelyn Achhorner criticized the fact that they had known about the impending single lane on the Luegbrücke bridge since 2022, but had done nothing. Simultaneous work on bridges led to chaos. "Similar to the snow chaos at the end of February, neither Asfinag nor the province of Tyrol were prepared for this." 

Shifting to rail as a goal
Tyrol's Transport Minister René Zumtobel answered questions from the Transport Committee of the German Bundestag in Berlin on Wednesday. It was about the access routes to the Brenner Base Tunnel, which are being blocked by citizens' initiatives in Bavaria. "The increased volume of traffic calculated up to 2040 can only be managed if trucks are shifted to rail, individual travel is reduced through attractive public transport options and, at the same time, further measures are taken to make the shift to rail attractive and economically viable at European level", the Provincial Councillor refers to Tyrol's demands to reduce bureaucratic hurdles in rail freight transport and to establish cost transparency between road and rail as well as to introduce the digital traffic management for trucks on the Brenner corridor as a pilot region.