Sunseeking Germans Face Swiss Backlash Over Alpine Holiday Congestion

(Bloomberg) – Switzerland wears tolerance to foreign drivers clogging the highways that some politicians now want to make extra payment for privilege.

Always consisting of mostly German and Dutch drivers every summer, he has always transformed the calm Alpin valleys into 24 -hour streets, encouraged local anger and took action.

Simon Stadler, a deputy of Uri Canton, said, “Until a few years ago, the increase in holiday traffic was limited to several weekends per year,” he said. “Now is a month when traffic spreads to our state roads.”

The stadiums want to distribute extra fees in the Switerland region, which is represented in the center of Switzerland at the worst hot point around the Gotthard Road tunnel, among the advocates on the left and right of the political spectrum in Bern.

As Switzerland’s US President Donald Trump claims with 39%tariffs, the issue is far from the summit of the political agenda, but this is equally emotional. A local traffic issue has another front in discussions on mass tourism and costs and benefits.

For Switzerland, which is said to have challenged foreign persecution in Uri, the folk hero William Tell, how they can handle the rising mountains and pastoral landscapes, only obstacles to overcome the invading drivers, a question that can test relations with the surrounding European Union.

More than five million cars and 900,000 trucks per year use 16.9 kilometers (10.5 miles) under Gotthard Masif. When it was completed in 1980, the longest engineering success of its species has only one strips in all directions and creates one of the worst bottlenecks in Europe.

This type of infrastructure, whose passages were once associated with the military achievements of Hannibal and Napoleon Bonaparte, domesticated the alps from France to Austria. However, such achievements for transportation create potential compression points.

A 17 -kilometer tail return at the northern entrance of Gotthard on July 26 was one of many people this summer. Such jams emergency services, while the traffic is poured to local ways, the noise and smoke in villages like Gurtnellen is only 7 kilometers away from that portal. With less than 500 people, he has lost one third of the inhabitants in the last thirty years.

“The quality of life is deteriorating rapidly,” Gurtnellen Mayor Verena Tresch-Arnold said. “You can’t go out anymore and it’s hard to breathe because the smell of tires stands in the air.”

Dorothea Baumann, a 61 -year -old life coach living with one of the clogged roads, began to wear headphones in the garden or trying to sleep at night.

Austria knows such problems very well. The Alp highway on Brenner Pass sees more than three times Gotthard’s traffic. The protests are routine and a local mayor threatened to block it if traffic is not processed differently.

Unlike the 40 Swiss Franc ($ 50) wage collection approach from everyone who uses Switzerland’s highways, Austria is more targeted and allows foreigners to pay national wages for a day. Each use of Brenner adds 12 € ($ 14) to the holiday invoice. Traffic congestion still occurs, which shows that pricing alone is not a problem.

Stadler’s proposal aims to soften traffic flows. Using the cameras that recorded the plates at the border and using the cameras using dynamic pricing according to the time of the day or season, they would receive extra fees for the vehicle owners when they transfer Switzerland without staying overnight.

The measure may affect the transition drivers, especially from Germany to Italy or beyond. For example, traveling from the Gotthard tunnel to Chiasso from Basel in the north to the south border is a 289 -kilometer journey. If it is assumed without any traffic and break, it may be below four hours.

The impact on foreigners may be problematic for Switzerland’s relationship with the EU, which is based on agreements, including load traffic and trade rules. A renewed agreement was completed last year, but still needed the approval of Swiss voters.

“Such measures should be proportional and consistent, and in this respect, this offer raises great concerns, Ast said Astrid Epiney. “The other question is whether there is a smart political movement and whether it is.”

Mountain traffic has been controversial for decades. In 1994, Swiss voters accepted an offer to radically shift trans-alpine goods transportation to the railways. These demands are not fulfilled.

Earlier this year, deputies rejected a road load for Gotthard with a single vote despite the survey showing wide voter support. If the new effort in the parliament fails, this is a reason why the stadiums forced for a plebicide.

Another solution to alleviate the blockage is to increase the capacity. In an old tunnel, the debate on the Alp traffic, although the business started in a second Gotthard tunnel to renew the old one and create hard shoulders for each road strip, is the debate that voters will take a constitutional amendment to double the vehicle flow.

Stadiums and colleagues may see the daylight of the proposal years ago. However, there is some understanding of potential goals.

Switzerland says he can do it as he wishes.

“If they want to harass tourists even more, they should definitely do that,” he said. “There is no way around.”

70 -year -old Klaus Meilick, near Stuttgart in Southern Germany, thinks that an extra accusation will not determine him when a regular Gotthard user takes his camp to Italy.

“I would still take the route,” he said. “If you want to pass the country, you should pay the price.”

-Indy Scholtens and Demetrios Pogkas.

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