State transport ministers put the brake on LHV trials

Berlin. The Pro-Rail Alliance said it was very happy that the summit of state transport ministers is opposing the national trials of longer, heavier vehicles planned for early 2011. “We are relieved that common-sense transport policies are prevailing at federal state level,” said the managing director of the German Pro-Rail Alliance, Dirk Flege, on Thursday in Berlin. “Trials of mega trucks that people do not want, that violate existing law and are opposed by the majority of the states will be hard to justify,” added Flege. “From today, large-scale national trials of mega trucks are politically dead.”

Flege is also convinced that the negotiations between the states and the federal government that were announced on Thursday at the summit of state transport ministers in Weimar will not alter the situation. The newly founded ‘Initiative for Innovative Vehicles’ is “last ditch attempt” by the combined economic power behind the supporters of mega trucks. The federal states have saved the taxpayers billions with their vote, said Flege. Other road users can now also breathe a sigh of relief. “Today, every fifth fatal road accident already involves a heavy goods vehicle. Longer, heavier vehicles will mean additional problems." On top of that, it will also avoid the unwanted side effect of shifting transport from the railways to the roads. “With their rejection, the federal state ministers have done a great service to the environment and their citizens.”

The Pro-Rail Alliance has been coordinating resistance to mega trucks in Germany since the summer of 2007, and the pan-European opposition campaign since early 2008 (www.nomegarucks.eu). In cooperation with the Association of German Cities, the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) and the German Institute for Urban Studies (difu), the Pro-Rail Alliance recently published a legal report that concludes that it would be unlawful for the federal government to grant special permission to allow the trials to take place without the approval of the federal states.