The UK sees strong – and accelerating – sales of electric vehicles but respectable growth elsewhere in Europe overall is latterly let down by a sharp decline in the Netherlands.

Also, Condor launches its brand new boat. Spanish police set up an English language ‘Driving in Spain’ website. A shocking number of drivers are falling foul of the new truck ban on the A40 Rhine Bridge near Duisburg. Three of Europe’s transport ministers fall foul of corruption probes.

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES POWER AHEAD IN THE UK

Sales up 50% in Europe overall last year but final quarter skewed by sharp drop in the Netherlands.

Netherlands: overall sales of electric vehicles might have fallen by more than forty percent in 2014 but Nissan says sales of its pure electric Leaf – pictured above on the N329 ‘Glowing Highway’ at Oss near Nijmegen – grew by 313% in the Netherlands last year.

Sales of electric vehicles rose by 50% overall in Europe in 2014 to almost 100,000 units according to new figures but a fifth of those registrations were in Norway alone.

Meanwhile, the final quarter of 2014 saw an overall fall of 7.7% though that figure was entirely skewed by the Netherlands, the only market to register a significant decrease.

Eighty percent fewer EVs were sold in the Netherlands in Q4 according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), down from 16,926 units in 2013 to 3,241 in 2014.

However, sales are absolutely powering ahead in the UK. Overall numbers reached 15,361 in 2014, a 300% increase on 2013. The final quarter meantime saw an 800% rise to 6,086 vehicles.

Growth was not quite so impressive in other major markets. Germany was up 70% for the year and 46% in Q4 while France grew by 30% in 2014 and 53% for Q4.

Electric vehicles are struggling to catch on in Italy, despite the country having among the most expensive fuel in Europe.

Total sales were just 1,473 in 2014 which might have been up 25% on 2013 but sales fell by one percent in Q4.

Pure electric vehicles accounted for 58,244 of total electric vehicle sales in 2014, up 73.2% year on year, compared to 39,547 range-extender and plug-in hybrids, up 25%.

In Q4 however, range extenders and plug-in hybrid sales were down by just under a third to 12,466, compared to a rise of 40% for pure EVs, to 17,599.

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A big day tomorrow for Condor Ferries as it launches its brand new Condor Liberation ship in Jersey. The event is expected to attract lots of spectators so passengers are warned to turn up in plenty of time, at least one hour for drivers. From next week, all journeys between the Channel Islands and the UK will be on the new ship. Geek note: despite looking like a three-hulled trimaran, Liberation is actually a stabilised monohull.

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roundup: SPAIN. A new website written by traffic officers has been launched at N332.es. ‘The idea was to provide accurate information to foreign drivers as to both the rules of the road here in Spain, as well as changes to the law that they may not be aware of, a Guardia Civil officer told The Olive Press. The site is regularly updated with news stories and also includes FAQs and real time info on incidents and traffic jams. Users can also register for a weekly newsletter. GERMANY. Nearly 11,000 trucks, as of yesterday – 95% of the foreign registered – have been fined for breaking the truck ban on the A40 Neuenkamp Bridge near Duisburg reports DerWersten.de. The bridge closed to trucks last Monday indefinitely for urgent repairs. Trucks 3.5t+ who ignore (or don’t understand) the ban – which kicks in from J10 Rheinhausen – are fined €150 on the spot. Those exiting at J11 Homberg, the last junction before the bridge eastbound, are fined €75. TRANSPORT. It hasn’t been a great week for transport ministers. Italy’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Maurizio Lupi resigned today after his son accepted a €10,000 Rolex watch from a businessman arrested on Monday in a probe on public works contracts. Neither Lupi nor his son are under investigation says Ansa.it. Over in the Czech Republic, the country’s recently appointed transport minister Dan Tok – previously head of a construction company – has already been embroiled in an alleged corruption scandal reports Ceske Noviny. All parties protest their innocence says Prague Post. There’s certainly a whiff about this one, of what remains to be seen. Finally, anti-corruption prosecutors have requested the pre-trial detention of Romania’s former transport minister Dan Sova on three charges of ‘accessory to abuse of office’ reports Business-Review.eu.

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Government allegedly balks at unpopular car bans ahead of Sunday’s local elections.

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Photo via @Anne_Hidalgo

Green Party activists upset over the government’s refusal to allow ‘alternate traffic’ during this week’s pollution spikes will sue the government for ‘endangering the lives of others‘.

They will also demonstrate outside the Ministry of Ecology tomorrow (Friday) afternoon.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo herself expressed some frustration tonight that the second request this week for traffic restrictions had been rejected.

‘The health of Parisians is not negotiable,’ she said via Twitter. ‘I maintain my request for alternating traffic.’

Hidalgo requested earlier today that the public transport be made free, transit HGVs be diverted away from the Ile de France capital region and that only cars with registration plates ending in either odd or even numbers be allowed in the city on successive days, so-called ‘alternate traffic’.

However, Paris police denied the latter request this evening. Speed limits will be cut by 20kmh on Friday instead.

Meanwhile, the Paris deputy mayor Christophe Najdovski – also a Green Party member, and responsible for transport in the city – accused Ecology minister Segolene Royal of ‘looking elsewhere’.

Some interpret that to mean Royal is reluctant to impose unpopular car bans ahead of Sunday’s municipal elections.

Hidalgo was elected last March, a few days after the city’s previous pollution episode, on a promise to improve air quality. She has since introduced progressive bans on older vehicles and a range of incentives on cleaner transport.

Pollution levels in Paris have varied wildly this week, specifically the allegedly carcinogenic fine particles given off by diesel engines, household heating and some industrial processes. For a few hours on Wednesday Paris was reportedly the most polluted major city in the world before levels subsided. However, a new spike is predicted for tomorrow. Paris Air Report says that currently ‘there is no end in sight’.

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More good news for the proposed UK-Scandinavia ferry as the Chancellor of the Exchequer pledges support.

Also, Tour Auto reveals the route for this year’s event. Buyers line up for MyFerryLink. Will coaches be exempt from new Exit Checks? Strict anti-pollution measures narrowly averted in Paris. Foreign truck drivers under attack in France. Mega-fines for trucker pair in Denmark. 

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£300K BUDGET BOST FOR UK-NORWAY FERRY

Chancellor pledges marketing support money for proposed new route.

Bergen harbour, Norway.

The proposed UK-Norway ferry route received a major boost from the Chancellor of the Exchequer today.

Significant funds have been promised to support tourism marketing efforts between Newcastle and Scandinavia.

In his 2015 Budget statement earlier, George Osborne said, ‘The government will provide £300,000 funding for a new marketing campaign to promote the tourism links between Newcastle and Scandinavia in 2015.’

The move was immediately welcomed by Norwegian Seaways, the company behind the new route. It announced last month it would start sailings between Newcastle, Bergen and Stavanger in March 2016, restoring the ferry link between the UK and Scandinavia lost when DFDS pulled out of the Harwich-Esbjerg route last September.

Operations Director Paul Woodbury said, ‘Great news in today’s Budget that the government will support our UK/Norway ferry talks and commit to £300,000 in marketing support. It is a positive step towards reinstatement of the Newcastle-Norway ferry service.’

Sarah Stewart, chief executive of local tourism board the NewcastleGateshead Initiative also threw her support behind the bid.

She told The Journal today, ‘Most recent estimates indicate a ferry route could deliver significant numbers of passengers a year and provide a major economic boost for the region, as a result of both improved trade links and inbound tourism.’

As was highlighted in the Scottish parliament debate on support for the UK-Norway ferry in January, due to state aid rules official support for such services is effectively limited to money for general marketing. The danger for Norwegian Ferries is that another operator could decide to take advantage.

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One of Europe’s most prestigious and exciting classic car trials – certainly one of the biggest with around 250 top notch entries – Tour Auto Optic 2000 prides itself on never using the same route twice. It always starts in the same place however, the Grand Palais in Paris where the cars spectacularly assemble under the copper and glass roof. Last year’s event headed through east France, finishing in Marseilles. This year the destination is Biarritz, in the very south west near the Spanish border, via the Magny Cours, Charade, Albi and Pau racing circuits and Vichy, Clermont Ferrand and Toulouse. It kicks off on Monday 20 April and last for five days. See more at TourAuto.com or @TourAuto or check back @DriveEurope for a blow-by-blow look at the route nearer the time.

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roundup: CROSSING THE CHANNEL. There are four potential buyers for MyFerryLink reveals Eurotunnel CEO Jacques Gounon at the company’s annual results presentation today. He expects a sale price of between €120-150m according to The Guardian. Meanwhile, after a warning from the UK Chamber of Shipping that new Exit Checks due at all UK ports on 8 April could mean queues on the Dover-bound A20 as far as Folkestone, Home Secretary Theresa May refused to rule out making coach parties exempt from the new identity checks at yesterday’s Home Affairs Select Committee meeting. She says she will wait for the results of recent trials before making any decisions. FRANCE. Touch and go in Paris today as, briefly, the French capital became the most polluted major city on earth thanks to raised fine particle levels. Mayor Anne Hidalgo requested – from the government – ‘alternate traffic’ where only cars with registration plates ending with either odd or even numbers, depending, would be allowed to drive in Paris but pollution was forecast to fall before she got an answer. Interestingly, the last time alternate traffic was used in Paris was exactly one year and one day ago. Meanwhile, farmers believed to be angry at foreign competition are said to have set fire to a Spanish truck carrying pork in the Brittany town of Landivisiau last weekend reports TrackerInfo.eu. The driver was allowed to escape with the tractor unit. At the same time, 37 mainly Polish and Lithuanian trucks in the area were vandalised with black paint says Trasporto Europa. DENMARK. Two Hungarian drivers working for a Dutch haulier were each fined 100,000DKK (£9700) – and the haulier 300,000DKK – after police stopped the vehicle in Kolding and found it had been driven almost continuously for six days reports Avisen.dk. The pair claimed one rested in a minibus en route between the other’s rest periods.

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The Stuttgart-Heilbronn-Karlsruhe triangle is ‘the natural habitat for pure driving machines’.

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Hire a 911 from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart from €99 per hour. More prices, and the other models available, below.

It’s all very well being able to hire a 911 by the hour from the Porsche Museum but where are you going to take it?

Stuttgart is in shouting distance of the Black Forest, the Jura Mountains and the Alps, but they are all too far away for a quick test drive.

There can’t be many out-of-towners who know the best – or even the good – roads in the area. We certainly don’t.

Happily, thanks to typical Porsche attention to detail, the package includes detailed route maps with driving times ranging from one to three hours.

By amazing coincidence, these roads have just received some of the highest praise imaginable.

Veteran journalist Georg Kacher’s recent first drive of the Cayman GT4 – which sadly isn’t available on Porsche Drive, yet – said, ‘The country roads in the Stuttgart-Heilbronn-Karlsruhe triangle are the natural habitat for pure driving machines.’

Thanks to the Museum being so close to the A81 autobahn drivers won’t waste too much time stuck in traffic, and they get the earliest opportunity to try out the legendary Porsche acceleration.

From there, Kacher’s country roads are within easy reach, see map below.

Prices range from €69 per hour for a Boxster or Cayman GTS, with a 100km allowance, up to €2,599 for a week and 1500km with any of a wide range of 911s, including the Targa.

There’s also a long weekend option – Friday afternoon to Monday morning – with a 750km allowance starting at €499.

Beware the excess charges however. A lost key costs €2,500. Every extra kilometre is charged at €1, or €2.50 per litre to refill the tank. Cars skidded into ditches cost €3.50 per km to recover.

For more information see Porsche-Drive.de.

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Hire a Porsche 911 Carrera S, 4S, 4S Cabriolet or Targa 4S, all with PDK double clutch gearbox, for €99 per hour (100km), €249 for three hours (250km), €399 for one day (500km), €799 for a long weekend (750km) or €2599 per week (1500km).

Hire a Boxster or Cayman GTS, or Macan S, all with PDK double clutch gearbox, for €69 per hour (100km), €179 for three hours (250km), €299 per day (500km), €499 for a long weekend (750km) or €1899 per week (1500km).

Hire a Panamera S E-Hybrid (auto) or GTS (PDK) for €89 per hour (100km), €229 for three hours (250km), €369 per day (500km), €699 for a long weekend (750km) or €2399 for a week (1500km).

Hire a Cayenne S Diesel with Tiptronic S automatic gearbox for €79 per hour (100km), €199 for three hours (250km), €319 per day (500km), €599 for a long weekend (750km) or €2099 per week (1500km).

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A trial on the A58 between Tilburg and Eindhoven aims to smooth out so-called ‘Ghost Jams’ by feeding drivers target speeds via a smartphone app. It’s a small part of a big cross-Europe experiment in new Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems.

Also, The Game of Thrones’ King’s Road revealed. The UK government backs a clearway plan for Dover A20. Croatia ditches motorway sell-off, but where does this leave the planned Adriatic-Ionian motorway? Poland moves to owner/keeper – rather than driver – traffic fines.

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SMOOTHING OUT ‘GHOST JAMS’ ON THE A58 TO EINDHOVEN

Drivers set target speeds via smartphone to overcome ripple-effect traffic jams.

Spook or ghost files are jams which occur for no other reason than one vehicle on a busy road randomly braking too hard.

The ripple effect as those behind brake too is amplified to the point that traffic comes to a standstill, see video above.

The A58 between Tilburg and Eindhoven in the southern Netherlands is well known for spook files.

Up to 40% of jams on the A58 lack an obvious cause compared to 22% nationally hence it being the ideal test bed for a new smartphone app which aims to smooth out traffic flow.

It works by monitoring traffic ahead in real time then calculating the ideal speed at which following drivers can overcome these ghost file traffic bumps.

The info is fed back continuously via the smartphone mounted on the dashboard.

Drivers are advised to achieve target speeds gently to avoid starting a braking ripple of their own.

Just two percent of the 73,000 vehicles which use the 17km test stretch daily need to take part in the trial, starting this month, to improve journey times for everybody it is claimed.

Foreign drivers can take part just by downloading one of the three apps used in the trial – Zoof, Smartcar and Flow Patrol – all available for free from app stores.

Interestingly, A58 was involved in an earlier experiment in 2011 to lower the speed limit to as little as 70kmh though in fact more jams resulted.

This specific project is a collaboration between the roads directorate Rijkswaterstraat, the regional council and the ministry of Transport.

It’s a small part of a wider experiment to test the first applications of new Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) – vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communication – on a 1200km corridor between Rotterdam and Vienna, all intended to reduce congestion, increase road capacity and improve safety.

See more on C-ITS or more on the A58 Spook Files project (Dutch only).

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The Dark Hedges: much of the cult TV series Game of Thrones was filmed in Northern Ireland and the locations have been assembled in a new website. The Dark Hedges, an avenue of beech trees planted by the Stuart family in the eighteenth century to wow visitors to their Georgian mansion, Gracehill House, doubles as the King’s Road in Series Two. It’s actually off the Ballinlea Road between Ballymoney and Ballycastle on the north coast, opposite the Gracehill Golf Club. For more information see DiscoverNorthernIreland.com/gameofthrones/

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roundup: DOVER. The government will support a proposal to make the A20 into Dover a clearway with no stopping or parking permitted reports Dover Express. MPs debated traffic management in Kent in parliament earlier this week, wrapped up by ‘beautiful roads’ transport minister John Hayes. Two new thousand-space truck parks were also proposed by local MPs. CROATIA has abandoned plans to sell off its motorway network reports BalkanEU.com. The government had been in talks with investors such a Goldman Sachs and Australia’s Macquarie Bank, among others, about a forty year concession contract to off-load state debt and interest payments and stimulate further improvements. However, citizens opposed collected a 530,000 signature petition. Earlier this month, the German deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel formally approved the Ionian-Adriatic motorway, one of the particular projects to benefit from the concession plan. POLAND. In an apparent effort to increase yields from traffic fines – forty percent of speeding penalties for instance go unpaid, apparently – the major collation party wants to make the owner or keeper of the vehicle liable rather than the driver reports Radio Poland. The issue of countries which fine the driver and those which fine the owner cropped up during the debate on the new EU Cross-border traffic fines directive in December. It’s still unclear whether the owner or driver is liable for these fines.

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Distinctly classical approaches from P&O and DFDS to their similarly good value Club Class lounges, Dover-Calais.

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It’s Arne Jacobsen inspired Danish functionalism for the DFDS First Class lounge while P&O opts for German modernism in its Club Lounges with Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chairs.

Ultimately it could come down to whether you prefer Mies van der Rohe or Arne Jacobsen.

P&O’s Club Lounge features van der Rohe’s classic Barcelona Chairs while DFDS’ slightly more utilitarian First Class has enveloping Jacobsen-style Egg loungers and matching footstools.

(Neither are real, surely. Official repro Barcelona chairs start at £5k, Eggs are £4.3k).

While P&O’s is undoubtedly the classier environment – also with a dedicated outside deck area, and lots of staff – there are only eight easy chairs in the DFDS lounge, segregated from each other, for some really comfortable peace and quiet.

The problem with both is food. For something proper to eat you have to join the masses downstairs. That’s annoying when part of the point about using the ferry, compared to the train, is the opportunity to enjoy a hot dinner.

There is a waiter-served snack menu on P&O, which is nice, but doesn’t quite fill the hole. 

Both have unlimited free tea, coffee, soft drinks, Danish pastries and biscuits plus a range of daily newspapers.

There’s also a complimentary glass of ‘sparkling wine’ with P&O which is a bit politically incorrect for drivers on a ninety minute crossing. DFDS offer free wifi albeit with a limited amount of data.

The other issue is priority boarding at £10 extra with both operators, something you might think was central to a ‘Club Class’ experience.

Nit picking aside, for less than ten percent of a typical ticket price, each – £10pp DFDS, £12pp P&O – we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend either.

A trip downstairs during our late July P&O crossing Calais to Dover really brought home what we were missing. Compared to the clink of glasses, low hum of conversation and background jazz in Club Class it was absolute carnage.

Wild-eyed and arms outstretched, the poor assistants were literally defending the shelving in Duty Free as hordes of shoppers came in tactical waves.

Calm was at less of a premium in late December on DFDS Dover-Dunkirk but there’s no denying the pleasure to be had wafting through the pubic area, first class pass in hand, to the Star Trek-style glass doors guarding the first class cabin. It’s not quite like ‘turning left’ on an aircraft, but close.

As part of National Ferry Fortnight, ending tomorrow (Sunday 15 March), P&O is offering a 50% discount on Club Class tickets. For this, and the other NFF special offers, see here.

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A report into Norway’s 2013 Gudvanga Tunnel fire makes uncomfortable reading but the authorities say all the recommendations either have been, or are being, put into practice.

Also, a new warning will appear on French motorways about ‘wrong-way drivers’. Will the Netherlands be the next to introduce a minimum wage law for all truck drivers? Monster fine for truck driver in France. New ‘dynamic’ truck parking info in Germany.

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DAMNING REPORT ON GUDVANGA TUNNEL FIRE

Authorities says recommendations are already in hand.

Photo Monika Blikas, from Statens Havarikommisjon for Transport report on Gundvanga Tunnel fire, aibn.no, see below.

The report into the Gudvanga Tunnel fire – in which 67 people were trapped and 28 injured, five of them seriously – comes to several damning conclusions.

On 5 August 2013, a Polish-registered truck caught fire in the 11.4km tunnel – on the E16 between Bergen and Oslo – 3.5km from the eastern entrance.

The report, published today, says the lack of monitoring equipment meant the fire service had no idea how many people were inside, or where they were located.

When smoke was ventilated westwards according to a pre-determined rescue plan – through 8.5km of tunnel – it ‘blocked the only possible evacuation route for road users on the Gudvangen side of the fire’.

Further, there was no way for the authorities to communicate with drivers. Only those in the immediate vicinity realised what was happening. Worse, the communication network used by rescuers was out of action and the incident commander, apparently, was not in the command centre.

Finally, the tunnel design and technical equipment ‘did not adequately facilitate self-rescue’, i.e. there were no ‘safe areas’ for people to congregate.

In a brief statement, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration said the six recommendations made in the report were all in hand.

Despite an overall road safety record which compares well with the UK, concerns have been raised previously about the condition and facilities in some of Norway’s road tunnels.

The 2012 EuroTAP Tunnel Test rated several as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

Shortly after Gudvanga re-opened, a month after the fire, a £10.5bn roads rehabilitation programme was announced. Tunnels are the top priority with 200 to be either renovated or replaced completely by 2019.

Gudvanga Tunnel, 90 miles north east of Bergen beside the noted Naeroey Fjord, opened in 1991 and is Norway’s second longest. By contrast, Laerdal Tunnel, also on E16 between Bergen and Oslo, the world’s longest at 24km and opened in 2000, is considered state of the art.

Download the report here, including a summary in English.

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‘Contresens’: from today, French motorways use a standardised warning about ‘Conducteur Fantome’, wrong way drivers. Each year there are about 400 instances in France of mad, bad or drunk/drugged drivers driving against traffic on major roads (very rarely English, by the way) resulting in just over five percent of motorway accident fatalities. The new warning appears on overhead gantries and the traffic radio station 107.7fm. In such circumstances drivers should slow down, leave a large gap ahead to increase the field of view and leave the motorway at the next exit:

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roundup: NETHERLANDS could be the next country to introduce minimum wage rules for all truck drivers working on its territory. Employment minister Lodewijk Asscher is reportedly examining the possibility. Germany introduced a similar law on 1 January – since suspended for transit drivers pending an EU investigation – and France is shortly to follow suit. The Dutch minimum wage is €9.02 per hour. FRANCE. A truck driver from Serbia was fined €38,870 on the A7 in the Vaucluse region of south central France this week after being found to have had just 6h22 sleep in four days reports @Gendarmerie. The driver was prosecuted for 53 offences in total. GERMANY. A new ‘dynamic’ parking system has been installed at five stops on the A5 southbound to Basel, Switzerland, by SWARCO AG. A total of 115 signs have been installed to give drivers advance notice about the number of vacant spaces and to cut down the time spent searching. The information is also available online, for free, here.

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After a very public row about the fat profits made by motorway operators, a workable compromise seems to have been reached. But the real cost to drivers – road safety – was not part of the negotiations.

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Photo @DriveEurope

It took longer than the few days predicted by President Hollande, but it seems peace has finally broken out between the French government and the motorway operators after an unseemly row about the latter’s ‘excessive profits’.

A leaked copy of the report from MPs on the ‘Working Group on Motorway Concessions’, widely reported today, seems to have come up with a workable compromise.

Apparently MPs bought the argument from motorway operators that average profits over the lifetime of the concessions were around eight percent despite margins reaching nearly twenty five percent towards the end.

However, the report recommends, among other things, that the 0.57% toll increase due on 1 February should go ahead as planned, that the stalled €3.2bn ‘motorway stimulus package’ – expected to create 15,000 jobs – should re-start immediately, and that low emission vehicles and car-sharers, etc, should get discounted tolls.

In future, if traffic levels are higher than expected operator contracts would be shortened or toll rates reduced.

The final report will be officially published within the next few weeks, likely after departmental elections on 22 March.

So, the autoroutes are not about to be re-nationalised – an MP resigned from the committee on Monday saying that option was never truly on the table – there will be no big cuts to tolls, or – as Ecology minister Segolene Royal proposed last year – no toll free weekends.

That’s bad news for drivers, but could it be bad news for road safety too?

While France’s motorways are among the safest in Europe, accidents on other roads drag the country down overall to only just above the EU average.

Road safety has been volatile in France over the past few years though the underlying trend has been definitely downward and the blips have been easy to explain.

The 12% rise in road deaths recorded in January however was a shock. With the economy still struggling, is it too much to imagine drivers are increasingly diverting away from expensive motorways to cheaper but riskier main roads?

Bear in mind, the one way road toll between Calais and Nice is now €105.40.

Diversion, a well-known phenomenon, is likely a too-simplistic explanation. Safety stats for February, due any day now, might show France is back on track*. Germany and the UK are struggling with road safety too. The European Road Safety Council is promising an in-depth analysis in June. But it’s a plausible, if scary, explanation.

Perhaps the real price being paid by drivers in France is even higher than the one motorway operators dare charge.

UPDATE 12 March: figures out today say road deaths increased by 6.7% in February 2015. More later.

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One way or another, the road sides in France are being subjected to a concerted clean-up effort though fears about the end of tree-lined avenues are probably overstated.

Also, fears for Montenegro’s ‘most important road’ as the country prepares for its first ever motorway. MEPs vote for highly controversial cleaner, safer trucks. Bosnia puts an end date on Corridor 5c. UK freight truck exports have finally recovered from the Credit Crunch.

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SPRUCING UP THE ROADS AROUND FRANCE

Overdue, ambitious and controversial plans to clean up the road sides.

Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres wants to project images of Versailles inside the A1’s Tunnel de Landy at Seine Saint Denis. Photo via Facebook.

The emergency €5m voted through parliament last week to clean up around the major roads in Paris has been put to use already.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls himself attended the start of clean-up operations yesterday.

While the money will be used to clear along all the major roads in the Ile de France capital region, the focus is in the north, particularly the A1 between Charles de Gaulle airport and the city centre what, for most visitors, is the gateway to Paris.

Valls wants to rid the road sides of years of accumulated rubbish, and the remains of Roma camps cleared last year, ahead of the Paris Air Show in June in the COP21 Paris climate conference in December.

At the same time, a former culture minister is trying to revive his own ambitious plans to spruce up the A1 in a speech today at the PM’s official residence L’Hotel Matignon.

Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres wants to landscape the A1’s verges, erect video screens along the road and – most striking of all – project images of Versailles inside the Tunnel de Landy at Seine Saint Denis.

The plan has been dismissed as fanciful by many but Vabre’s timing could hardly be better.

Meanwhile, environmental campaigners are upset over new plans to chop down France’s characteristic tree-lined avenues.

As predicted, after road deaths rose last year councils have been told to fell trees at accident hotspots but ASPPAR – the Association for the Protection for Roadside Trees – say the trees are safe and may even help motorists by giving advance warning about bends according to the Independent.

However, Chantal Perrichon from LCVR – the League Against Violence on the Roads – tells the paper trees are involved in one in eight of all fatal traffic accidents.

Update: in a statement, Association Prevention Routiere, part of the Commission on Road Infrastructure says, ‘There is no question of systematically cutting down trees… several design solutions can be decided according to local configurations including relocations, installing restraints on the shoulder or lowering the speed limit, especially on roads with a splendid curtain of trees or when driving into the heart of a real plant tunnel.’

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A road called ‘one of the most important in Montenegro’ – on the quickest route between capital Podgorica and the coast at Budva – is being washed away by a landslide reports Independent Balkan News Agency. The Western Balkans has suffered several episodes of severest winter weather, most recently heavy rain last week. With the landslide still active it is not certain the road will be in action for the summer. The detour, on a lower grade road, is 50km longer. Meanwhile, recruitment has started ahead of the country’s first motorway project, 170km from coastal resort Bar to Boljare on the Serbian border. The first shovelling should start in April. Photo via Twitter.

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roundup: TRUCK DESIGN. The European Parliament backed controversial new safer and more eco-friendly lorry design rules today to be phased in between 2018-22. Lobbying from manufacturers is widely blamed for delaying the new regulations which the Commission had wanted for 2017 (see more). Rounded cabs give a wider field of view for the driver, better aerodynamics improve fuel consumption while hybrid or alternative propulsion systems are given a one ton allowance (though payloads will not change). The Parliament had previously rejected Commission proposals to allow so-called megatrucks, 25.25m lorries with 60 ton payloads, leaving it Member States to decide within national borders. BOSNIA. Corridor 5c, the north-south motorway, will be finished by 2020 the director of highways Ensad Karic told the Sarajevo Times today. Construction has been slow but impressively steady since the US Wikileaks cable described 5c as ‘The Road Not Travelled’ in 2011. The first border section opened last September in the south, to the Catholic shrine Medjugorje. Thirty five percent, or 102km, is currently in operation, mainly between Zenica and Sarajevo in central Bosnia with sections around Zenica and down towards Mostar underway. FREIGHT. The number of ‘road goods vehicles’ travelling to Europe from the UK increased by 9% last year to 2.9m, beating the previous high set before the credit, in 2007, by 1% reports the Department for Transport (via the Road Haulage Association). Just under 20% of the 2.2m powered vehicles were UK-registered.

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Yet another German motorway bridge with structural defects will close to trucks for at least the next six weeks.

Also, a Norwegian trucker picks his Secret Place. Councils in the French Alps want to ban Euro 3 trucks from July. DFDS claims major loss Dover-Calais despite revenue upswing. Drivers stranded in Iceland storm, again.

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A40 DUISBURG RHINE BRIDGE CLOSING TO TRUCKS

Another major German motorway bridge needs urgent repairs.

The A40 Neuenkamp Bridge over the Rhine towards Duisburg – in the Ruhr region of west Germany – is the latest major road bridge found to be suffering from major defects.

It is one of an estimated forty percent of bridges in the country in poor condition.

As of noon Tuesday, Neuenkamp will close for trucks over 3.5t eastbound, barring them from the most direct route into Duisport, the world’s largest inland port and important steel making centre.

Urgent welding work is needed, estimated to take between six weeks and five months.

The diversion – via the A57, A42 and A3, see below – is said to take an extra hour.

Completed in 1971 the 775m Neuenkamp Bridge was designed to carry 30,000 vehicles each day but last year carried 110,000 vehicles per day including 11,000 trucks. It was previously renovated between 2004-2006 and the surface re-laid in 2007.

According to Deutsche Welle, bridges in the Nord Rhein Westphalia region (NRW), which encompasses Duisburg and the Ruhr, are in an even worse state than the rest of the country.

Out of 229 bridges surveyed so far, 150 will have to be rebuilt and 64 need repairs.

The Neuenkamp closure comes a few weeks after the A643 Schiersteiner Bridge between Wiesbaden and Mainz was found to have dropped 30cm overnight. It has been closed to all vehicles since.

The A1 Rhine Bridge at Leverkusen to the north of Cologne was closed to trucks 3.5t+ in March 2013, with other vehicles restricted to 60kmh, after structural cracks were discovered. It was expected to re-open in January but further damage uncovered during the work has seen that date put back by at least six months.

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Mercedes-Benz Trucks is running a series of ‘Secret Places’, spots nominated by drivers as their favourites. A Norwegian driver chose the curving Storseisund Bridge on R64 Atlantic Way between Kårvåg and Vevang – voted Norway’s ‘Structure of the Century’ – with its 23-metre-high arch to allow ships to pass underneath at all tides. ‘This bridge always makes for a very special experience,’ he says. ‘You go home every time with a completely different impression, depending on whether the tide is in or out, whether the wind is whipping up the ocean or the sun is shining. If you’re in luck, you might even see seals or whales from the cusp of bridge.’ See more Secret Places at roadstars.mercedes-benz.com

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roundup: FRANCE. Talking of truck bans, from 1 July 2015 the local councils in the Arve Valley, on the approach to the Mont Blanc Tunnel, want to ban all pre-Euro 4 transit HGVs. Due to its geography, the Arve Valley – Vallorcine-Chamoix-Servoz – is one of the most polluted regions in France (see a roundup from The Guardian). Since January, local authorities in the French Alps – also including the A43 Maurienne and N90 Tarantaise valleys and A41 Pays de Savoie, Annecy-Chambery – have been able to ban 7.5t+ Euro 3 and lower transit HGVs (and Euro 0 and 1 local trucks) during pollution spikes. The first ban in the Arve Valley ran from 7-10 January. CROSSING THE CHANNEL. Revenue grew by 9% on DFDS’ Dover-Calais/Dunkirk routes last year but the firm still lost €3.9m on the Dover-Calais leg the firm tells Dover Express. See our DFDS results roundup from last month. The route is under the microscope due to Competition authority assertions on over-capacity, despite weekly freight queues. DFDS will nevertheless start another ship Dover-Calais in Q2 this year. ICELAND. Around 120 drivers were rescued last night from the Holtavörðuheiði mountain pass in the west of the country during a blizzard reports Iceland Review. It’s one of a number of major storms to hit Iceland this winter as journalists on the launch of the Land Rover Discovery Sport found out in December. Holtavörðuheiði is on Route 1 ‘ring road’, the 830 mile road which circumnavigates the island. The weather is calm today but expected to worsen again tomorrow.

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