Toll for trucks on Brenner highway lowered

The toll for heavy vehicles at the Brenner highway will be lowered with 25% at the start of 2016. The decrease of the toll is a necessary adjustment to the European laws according to the Austrian Ministry for Transport. This is due to the Heavy Goods Vehicles directive, which states that the revenues from toll can’t be higher than the infrastructure costs.

While the transport sector greets this change with happiness, the environmental organization Austria-Tirol Transit Forum is indignant. The chairman of the forum, Fritz Gurgiser, wrote to the Minister of Transport Alois Stöger that this change is a brutal attack on the environment in North Tirol. This change is in contrast to the attempts to decrease the impact of the traffic in this important area of the country. Gurgiser demanded minister Stöger to withdraw this change immediately. However the Ministry for Transport claims that without these adjustments of the toll legal proceedings will be started to enforce the European laws.

Source: www.verkehrsrundschau.de