Press
Waiting times of up to 2.5 hours. Border controls cause massive traffic jams at the Brenner Pass – and the next travel frustration is already looming.
Brenner – It is now a good 26 years since border controls within the Schengen states of the EU were abolished. The barrier at Brenner also fell on the night of April 1, 1998. Now Italy has temporarily reintroduced border controls – to prevent militant counter-demonstrators from entering via Austria and disrupting the G7 summit in southern Italy.
The G7 summit will take place from June 13 to 15 in the remote luxury resort of Borgo Egnazia in Apulia. Italy is chairing the summit. Representatives of the major industrial nations will discuss the development of Africa, climate change, the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, migration and artificial intelligence. The right-wing populist government of Giorgia Meloni has invited representatives from twelve countries and five international organizations to the summit.
All open crossings to Italy are now being controlled again
In order to ensure that the summit could take place without disruption, Italy suspended the Schengen agreement on free border traffic and border controls on entry into Italy were reinstated, including at the Brenner Pass. At the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001, there were violent clashes with counter-demonstrators. The controversial police operation left one demonstrator dead and hundreds injured. The use of torture and mistreatment by Italian security forces attracted particular attention.
The current controls at the border affect not only the motorway, but also the Brenner federal road in Tyrol and the state road in South Tyrol. Checks are also being carried out again at the Reschen Pass, the Drautal federal road and at Nassfeld, as well as on the Alps-Adriatic motorway near Tarvisio. The Timmelsjoch is still not open due to the risk of avalanches, and the Plöcken Pass is closed until further notice due to a severe rockfall in winter.
A huge traffic jam forms at the Brenner Pass with a waiting time of two and a half hours
On the Brenner motorway, the controls that were re-imposed on Wednesday caused traffic jams on Friday, and then on Saturday the wave of travelers heading south caused a collapse: cars, motorcycles and trucks were backed up on the Tyrolean side of the motorway for almost 20 kilometers back to Matrei am Brenner. For travelers, this meant, according to oRf Waiting times of two and a half hours. Even on the Brenner federal highway, which is actually closed to transit, there was a traffic jam with waiting times of over an hour. On Sunday, too, the cars were backed up again, and the same was true for the Alps-Adriatic highway between Villach and Tarvisio, where you arrive via the Tauern highway, which also has delays.
Holidaymakers must also expect significant disruptions next weekend: the controls will continue until Saturday, June 15. This means: traffic jams on the way south again. The fact that the avalanche of metal is currently forming in Tyrol is a reversal of the situation. Because of the truck block processing at the Tyrolean border, there are usually traffic jams in the Inn Valley on the German side and at the Brenner on the Italian side.
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