A truck traffic puzzle

Just Bahn activist is in favor of road expansion in Gmünd

Gerald Hohenbichler, the leading pro-Franz-Josefs-Bahn campaigner, is also calling for a significant improvement in the transport infrastructure as a result of the major economic growth in Gmünd.

(Bild: Honorar)

Many companies thrive in the town of Gmünd, which lies directly on the border with the Czech Republic. According to Gerald Hohenbichler, the massive truck traffic is pushing the limits of citizens and infrastructure. However, the company's success is apparently not reflected in the heavy goods traffic, as neither the head of the town nor figures from the office of the regional transport council make this comprehensible.

The tracks have long since grown over - from a distance you can only partially guess that a rail infrastructure was built there along the border many years ago. Despite the great economic success of the local companies, freight traffic in the Waldviertel town of Gmünd is not running on rail again, as pro-Franz-Josefs-Bahn campaigner Gerald Hohenbichler would like to see.

Road expansion makes sense
However, Gmünd would not only receive a lot of heavy traffic from economic growth, but also from transit. This is why the rail advocate is calling for the expansion of the road network. He is also aware that it is currently virtually impossible to effectively shift freight traffic to rail.

Massive load on both sides of the border
Hohenbichler has now identified a massive burden due to the non-expansion of roads on both the Austrian and Czech sides, but this is the only way to keep the avalanche of trucks away from local residents. This is because heavy goods vehicles would ignore the driving bans in both countries and the roads would collapse under the weight of the heavy vehicles. Noise and exhaust fumes are not only an issue in his home village of Breitensee, through which the main road runs.

Successful companies in the business park
He is also concerned about the cross-border Access Industrial Park because large companies are still expanding rapidly there. A new fish farm with an annual production of 3,000 tons of salmon is also planned there, near the civil defence center. For Hohenbichler, however, it is difficult to imagine that the narrow road will be able to accommodate even more trucks.

No problem for the mayor and state councillor
Mayor Helga Rosenmayer has not yet noticed any major traffic congestion. "As far as I know, it's not a problem for the authorities at the moment," says the mayor. The office of Transport Minister Udo Landbauer is also surprised: "The counts in the region show that truck transit has actually decreased in the last two years."