The Brenner is a miracle of post-war engineering and one of Europe’s great drives: an Alpine autobahn on concrete stilts up to 140m high that connects Bavaria and Austria with Italy.
But growing traffic and environmental concerns could see one of the continent’s most important north-south arteries transformed this weekend into the site of a High Noon standoff.
Austria is threatening to tighten further the screws on motorists from Friday, when 13 million Bavarians get their summer holidays and many head south.
Fearing eye-watering tailbacks and angry voters, Germany’s federal transport minister has called a crisis summit with regional politicians on the same day in a bid to keep the holiday traffic flowing.
Tensions began to build in mid-June when the Austrian state of Tyrol blocked transit motorists, anxious to dodge holiday tailbacks and a €10 Brenner toll, from using slip roads down from the Brenner Autobahn.
Proving they were serious, local police turned back up to 1,000 motorists in the first weekend while the interior ministry in Vienna forwarded details of the road closures to all major sat-nav companies and demanded software updates.
Further north in Berlin, Germany’s federal transport minister Andreas Scheuer, from Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), attacked the move as a “foul from Austria”; his party colleagues in Munich dismissed the move as “unspeakable chicanery” against its motorists.
“I expect that the European Commission bans such behaviour very quickly and ensures free travel for traffic in Europe,” said Hans Reichhart, Bavaria’s transport minister, threatening retaliatory measures in Bavaria.
But Tyrol’s governor, Günther Platter, told the Bavarians “not to play the wounded party”. Days earlier, on foot of an Austrian complaint, Mr Scheuer’s toll proposal for private cars was struck down as discriminatory to non-German drivers by the Court of Justice of the European Union.
A European Commission mediation on the Brenner brought no agreement and Tyrol has promised to step up its road blocks as needed.
Villages
The dizzying Brenner Pass and its spectacular Europe Bridge is one of the continent’s highest crossings. But the relentless growth of road traffic has seen small villages below, bypassed by the motorway in the 1960s, now choked up again.
“For days it wasn’t possible to cross the street with a child,” said Alexandra Virabisi in the village of Kematen to Der Spiegel. “As the mother of a seven and four year old . . . I have to say that the limit has been reached.”
With an eye on the Fridays for Future climate protests, Tyroleans living under the Brenner Pass hope to tap a shift in public opinion on mobility and climate issues to throttle what they see as unsustainable levels of private traffic through their spectacular Alpine valley.
Their campaign faces considerable challenges, including millions of Germans who view driving – and Italian holidays – as fundamental human rights. But Austria is playing hardball, accusing Germany of failing to meet its transport commitments.
As well as demanding an increase in lorry tolls, which are nearly six times cheaper in Germany, Austrian politicians are demanding Germany work harder to realise an alternative train route, allowing greater capacity than the current Brenner route.
In addition they are anxious for Germany to catch up on its end of tunnel being built beneath the existing Brenner route. On both rail and tunnel projects, the Austrians say the Germans are at least a decade behind schedule.
Ahead of Friday’s crisis summit, after a decade of promises from Berlin on the Brenner, Mr Platter is playing hardball for concrete measures to reduce transit traffic through the pass. “Everything else,” he warned, “is pointless.”
