Munich (dpa / lby) – Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder and Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (both CSU) want to continue to achieve a fundamental end to the Tyrolean block handling. There is no reason to continue working with this instrument as a good neighbor, said Söder on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting in Munich. “Of course, our goal is that block handling is permanently eliminated,” said Bernreiter.
The day before, Bavaria had reacted with road closures for the first time. Trucks transiting southbound are no longer allowed off the 8 and 93 freeways on block handling days. This is to protect residents from evasive traffic.
The blocks were not aimed at Austria, emphasized Söder. Rather, it is a measure against truck traffic, “which then tends to be concentrated here”. He hopes that the European Union will “finally” make a decision: “Is block handling legal or not? We are firmly convinced that it is actually against EU law.”
Bavaria and Tyrol have been arguing for years about the measure whereby Tyrol only allows trucks across the border into the country in small doses on certain days. The result is regularly long traffic jams on the Bavarian side. The route from Munich through Tyrol via the Brenner Pass is a main route towards Italy. For the summer and holiday travel, the topic is likely to take a back seat for the time being, as Tyrol has so far only planned the next block processing for October 4th.
