As soon as the extended sectoral driving ban comes into force at the beginning of 2020, the transit lorries affected will only be able to cross the Brenner Pass by rail. ÖBB has taken precautions early on and in close cooperation with the Federal State of Tyrol in order to be able to handle an increased demand for Rolling Road (ROLA). At the same time, the ROLA prices on the Brenner axis will not be increased at the beginning of 2020.
In concrete terms, ÖBB will make available a capacity for 250,000 trucks per year on the ROLA on the Brenner corridor from the beginning of the year and will increase this to 400,000 trucks in the course of the year. This means the current capacity will ultimately be doubled. “The expected shift of trucks to rail can be managed and trucks can be transported through Tyrol in an environmentally friendly way”, tells a press release.
All in all, this results in one ROLA-train per hour and direction on the Brenner corridor when fully expanded. If the available capacity was fully utilised, this would mean around 1,000 fewer trucks per day on the motorway. Successful test runs in spring and autumn of this year showed that this train programme can be managed.
All ROLA low-floor wagons are equipped with disc brakes and emit only low noise. The remaining freight car fleet of ÖBB Rail Cargo Group consists of two thirds of quiet wagons and more than 90% of it will run on quiet brake pads by the end of 2021.
Another important change for Tyrol will be the so-called Quieter Routes, which will be introduced throughout the EU from 2024. From 2024 onwards, all freight wagons running on these routes must be “quiet”.
In Tyrol, the Kufstein-Brenner railway line will become a Quiet Route, which is in fact equivalent to a ban on “noisy” freight wagons in Tyrol. The required measures will bring about a halving of the perceived noise level in freight traffic.
