TIROLER ZEITUNG "Editorial" from June 5, 2023 by Peter Nindler "The Fernpass Tunnel is useless on its own"

2023-06-04 20:01:19

Innsbruck (OTS) – A tunnel would ease the road to the Fern Pass, but would not solve the traffic problems in the Ausserfern. Bold steps are needed here, such as a general dosage or even a limiting booking system for travel.

Procrastinating on a problem doesn’t solve it. The long-distance pass strategy that has been enforced in recent years with road construction and traffic control measures, more attractive public transport, noise protection or a metering system in Reutte-Süd has undoubtedly led to an improvement. But not for relief. Fundamental decisions would have had to be made for this, which the Greens, as government partners of the Tyrolean ÖVP from 2013 to 2022, were not prepared to make. This includes the controversial 1.4-kilometer Fernpass tunnel.
The Fernpass is a bottleneck, the people of Ausserfern are mainly affected by the popular travel route from southern Germany to the Tyrolean holiday regions or to the south. After all, 27,000 vehicles a day on the travel weekends simply mean traffic jams. The Fernpass tunnel would at least alleviate the situation on the 9.5-kilometre-long and winding section up to the Fernpasshöhe, but does it fit into an overall concept? That’s what matters in the medium term, not whether the 52 kilometers to the German border should be subject to tolls or not.
In principle, a toll would make sense, but the exception to this for residents in the Reutte district, analogous to the Felbertauern in East Tyrol, would have to be guaranteed. However, this should not work under EU law and the toll will probably be history. The tunnel alone is certainly useless. A railway tunnel between Ehrwald and Silz (17.5 kilometers) with an estimated cost of 1.5 billion euros remains a vision, although ÖBB has announced a potential analysis. And the exit bans are a self-defense measure so that at least the through-roads remain passable.
So, to put it bluntly, one question cannot be avoided: How much can the Fern Pass route actually take? Doesn’t it generally require a dosing system so that traffic can roll through the Ausserfern as smoothly and without congestion as possible? Actually, the Fernpass is in no way inferior to the Brenner Pass, overall, both form a common destiny in terms of holiday travel to Italy. And only bold steps can ultimately lead to a rethink.
If a booking system for transit or heavy traffic on the Brenner axis is already being discussed, this model, which is geared towards capacity limits, would also make sense for individual traffic: both on the Brenner Pass and on the Fern Pass. Together with a tunnel.