Transport ministry: LHV trials to last five years

Berlin. The Federal Transport Ministry has for the first time announced that the trials of longer and heavier vehicles (LHVs), scheduled to begin in 2011, will last for five years. "The proposed exemption provision will be limited to five years so that the cost of newly acquired vehicles can be written off," stated state secretary Klaus-Dieter Scheuerle in a letter to the German Pro-Rail Alliance.

The alliance's managing director, Dirk Flege, criticised the long duration of the trials and the justification given by the ministry. "Satisfying road haulers is obviously more important than the public's opinion," said Flege on Monday in Berlin. He pointed out that 73 percent of Germans were opposed to longer heavy goods vehicles on their roads. In Flege's opinion, the fact that the five-year trials extend into the next federal government's legislative period would make it "collectively liable". "The promises that have been made to road transport companies are obviously more than generous," complained Flege.

The Pro-Rail Alliance is also generally sceptical of the fact that the trials were taking place under laboratory conditions. "The problem with the trials is that they will not provide any new insights. The important questions have already been answered by the various local state trials and existing studies. To date, the federal ministry still has not been able to provide a plausible explanation as to why this test is at all necessary. In any case, field trials under laboratory conditions will not demonstrate just how dangerous and environmentally damaging mega trucks really are. To this extent the test is, above all, simply gratuitous," said Pro-Rail Alliance manager Flege. However, he welcomed the fact that the federal ministry has for the first time announced the requirements for the trials. In his letter, state secretary Scheuerle states: "The field trials of longer vehicles will be viewed positively if the evaluation shows, among other things, that LHVs do not impact negatively on road safety, infrastructure or the combined transport system, and that they do not lead to freight transport being shifted from the railways back onto the roads."

The Pro-Rail Alliance said that putting modal shift alongside traffic safety at the top of the requirements list gives it the right weighting. "We will be judging the ministry on this promise," said Flege, and referred to Tuesday's joint press conference being held by the police, automobile clubs and the railway lobby under the heading 'Why LHVs are a safety risk'.