New Länder governments reject German mega truck experiments

28 Apr 2011. The number of German federal states rejecting trials with mega trucks on public roads is growing further. With the Länder of Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt two more states oppose tests with oversized trucks as planned by the German federal government. The coalition agreements of both newly elected state governments take a clear stand against the Gigaliners.

The yesterday presented coalition agreement of green party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) and the social democrats (SPD) makes unmistakably clear that the state of Baden-Württemberg will not participate in a mega truck trial. It says: “We want to promote combined transport, especially the settling of decentralized handling terminals, to enable road haulers to switch to rail and waterways. The introduction of longer trucks would contradict this target. Therefore we will not participate in the trial of the federal government.”

Also in the state of Saxony-Anhalt the governing parties of christian democrats (CDU) and social democrats (SPD) took a stand against mega trucks: “The coalition partners oppose higher weights of trucks and the participation in trials with longer trucks.”

With their opposition to mega trucks both federal states changed sides after the recent elections. The previous government of Baden-Württemberg was supporting the trials during the conference of all transport ministers of the Länder in October 2010. The state of Saxony-Anhalt abstained during the vote. During the transport ministers conference the majority of states asked the federal government to withdraw its plans of a five year lasting trial with mega trucks.

What are the positions of the federal states on the German government's plans for mega truck trials?

* Hesse, which to-date was in favour of LHVs, says its participation is now an open question. Although Thuringia's transport minister Carius from the CDU supports the LHV trials, the state government's coalition agreement (CDU-SPD) is clearly against further trials of LHVs. It states: "The pilot project on the use of 'Longliners' will not be extended by the Free State of Thuringia."

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