Mayor remains firm

Parking fee more expensive than food: rip-off in mountain village!

The Gleirschalm is particularly popular with families. However, many do not want to pay eight euros for two hours of parking.(Bild: Peter Freiberger, Krone KREATIV)

For the duration of a short walk in tranquil St. Sigmund in Sellrain (Tyrolean district of Innsbruck-Land), you have to pay an extraordinary eight euros in parking fees. Day trippers are staying away, the local mayor does not understand the criticism and does not want to change anything.

"Parking here is more expensive than my food!" That's how the landlady of the Gleirschalm in the Sellraintal valley commented a year ago on the parking fee at the entrance to the Gleirschtal valley, which the municipality of St. Sigmund had raised from five to eight euros. It takes just under half an hour to walk from the parking lot to the alpine pasture, which is very popular with families and tobogganers.

Alpine pasture owner extremely annoyed
The landlady has since left the alpine pasture, but the parking fee has remained at the same level – with no possibility of a sliding scale. This also greatly annoys Hansjörg Witting, the owner of the Gleirschalm.

Walkers stay away because of parking fees
"You hardly see any Sellraintal residents walking in St. Sigmund or Gleirsch anymore," he says. It is also bitter for those locals who want to visit the Riegelkapelle chapel behind the alpine pasture. It is considered a kind of pilgrimage site in the region. Those who only want to walk to the Gleirschalm for coffee and cake or take a short tobogganing trip there are particularly affected.

You hardly see anyone from the Sellrain Valley walking to St. Sigmund or Gleirsch anymore.

Hansjörg Witting, Besitzer der Gleirschalm

Local mayor rejects proposed solution
That is why Witting recently sent the parking fees for Scharnitz in the Tyrolean Karwendel to St. Sigmund's mayor, Anton Schiffmann. The fees there are cheaper and include a sliding scale. "That would be a solution that everyone would be happy with," says Witting.

However, Schiffmann has no intention of adapting the system. "No changes are currently planned," he emphasized to the "Krone" newspaper. The mayor also rejects a sliding scale.

Landowners initiated the increase
The parking areas—including those in Lüsens and Praxmar—are leased, and the fees are set in consultation with the landowners. One of the landowners, Lois Melmer from Gasthof Praxmar, initiated the increase a year ago.

Parking in neighboring towns much cheaper
St. Sigmund is completely isolated in the region when it comes to parking fees. In the Lüsener Valley, a ticket for the Juifenalm car park costs only four euros, as does the one at the entrance to the Fotscher Valley.

And even across Tyrol, eight euros is probably the Everest of parking fees.