Last updated 18:00GMT, Sunday 8 February.

.

TODAY: warning about trees down during high winds on major roads in South of France, A7, A9 + A54 (see below + @VinciAutoroutes). Frejus Tunnel now re-opened to trucks and transit buses. Snow A12>Innsbruck, A9 Graz-Linz, A10 Salzburg, S6 Leoben-Vienna + now A13 Brenner, Austria. High winds cancel ferries Greece, recovering from snow storm Croatia + roundup snow Bulgaria. High winds and snow Scandinavia – Storm Ole heading east from Norway via Sweden, expected to ‘weaken’ as it hits west Finland (drive warning update) but major blizzard expected Moscow today.

Northern Spain: recovering after heavy snowfall. A67 Santander-Palencia has re-opened. Other major routes clear but chains mandatory in the mountains. See DGT website for latest, black mark is closed, red is chains needed.

.

CHANNEL DELAYS: Brittany Ferries Plymouth-Roscoff/St Malo disrupted/cancelled until tomorrow.

WEATHER ALERT: amber alert high winds France, Norway, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Austria, Montenegro, Italy, snow Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Greece low temperatures Croatia, heavy rain Italy, Greece.

WEATHER: settled West, heavy snow East (north to south).

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: no queues.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A9 southbound to Nimes, incident Remoulins delay 45mins.

A60 southbound to (Trier), major accident Bitburg/Bickendorf delay down to 45mins.

A1 both ways Linz-Vienna, earlier multi-vehicle accident Amstetten, re-opened westbound; delay down to 45mins eastbound.

Earlier: A12 westbound to Innsbruck, weather, heavy traffic, total delay down to 10mins. B179 Fernpass northbound Reutte-Fussen, heavy traffic, earlier incidents, total delay still 15mins; now no delay southbound. 

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

.

Demonstrations are expected to clog traffic in Paris today, and cities around France tomorrow.

Last week’s Auto Ecole – driving school – demonstration on the Paris Boulevard Peripherique. Photo @NunesEric

Biker demo through Paris this afternoon, departing Chateau Vincennes in the east at 14:00 then heading into the city centre via Avenues Daumesnil, Lyon, Bastille, St Antione, Rivoli, Coutellerie and Victoria (according to @cricreteil) – basically the major roads parallel to the Seine in the north (no sign of major disruption yet though 3,000 bikes have apparently turned up).

Protesting over plans to ban older bikes from the city, due to be discussed in the city council tomorrow, see more.

Also, another bike demo is called for Monday morning 08:00-12:00 Place du Chatelet (off Avenue Victoria).

Driving schools are also set to re-run their demo of last Monday when they clogged the Boulevard Peripherique ring road.

Gathering at 07:00 at Roissy (Charles de Gaulle Airport, north Paris) then heading into city centre via A1 and A3 (actually another demonstration by taxis).

Another driving school demo is planned between Rosny sous Bois in the east, Porte d’Auteuil in the west and Place Vauban central south. Not planned to finish before 18:00. 

There may also be driving school demos in other cities around the country, see more (and this from The Connexion).

.

Last updated 17:00GMT, Saturday 7 February.

.

TODAY: Dover-Calais almost completely recovered from high winds this morning. Busy day to and from ski resorts (now finished). Very icy earlier northern Netherlands + A1 to Hamburg. Earlier avalanche warning southern French Alps – road between Isola and Isola 2000 ski resort closed (now re-opened). Security conference lockdown in and around Munich (#MSC2015). Recovering snow/ice central Italy, Parma-Bologna-Florence, still sleet A6 Turin-Genoa. High winds cancel ferries Greece tomorrow, recovering from snow storm Croatia + roundup snow Bulgaria.

High winds and snow Scandinavia – Storm Ole heading east from Norway via Sweden, expected to ‘weaken’ by the time it hits Finland west coast tonight. Major blizzard expected Moscow tomorrow.

Northern Spain: recovering after heavy snowfall. A67 Santander-Palencia still closed (though signs of movement) otherwise major routes clear but chains mandatory in the mountains. See DGT website for latest, black mark is closed, red is chains needed.

.

CHANNEL DELAYS: P&O Dover-Calais delay 30mins. Brittany Ferries Plymouth-Roscoff/St Malo disrupted/cancelled until tomorrow. Condor Ferries rescheduled Clipper, weather.

WEATHER ALERT: red alert high winds Norway, Poland amber alert high winds France, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Croatia, snow Poland, rain Italy.

WEATHER: dry West. Snow and gales Scandinavia.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: no queues.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A15 eastbound into Paris, accident Cormeilles delay down to 60mins.

B23 eastbound into Garmisch, earlier level crossing fault, delay 1h15.

Earlier: now no delay A21 eastbound Lens-Douai, S16 eastbound to Innsbruck, A3 northbound Cologne.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

.

Surprisingly for what is expected to be such a busy day, all was calm first thing on the all-important B179 Fernpass border crossing between Germany and Austria. Most importantly the weather is good (though there are reported snow drifts on the A7 at Kempten). See for yourself at tirol.gv.at/verkehr

.

Traffic will be heavy at the weekend as the skiing holiday season begins in earnest. The really big queues however will be next weekend.

Also, bravehearts embark on an arctic journey, with a caravan. Romania drastically increases traffic fines. Against the odds MyFerryLink lives to fight another day, and the German ‘foreigner toll’ gets a thorough kicking in parliament.

.

WEEKEND TRAFFIC: SKI SEASON GETS INTO STRIDE

Will be busy around ski resorts but better than next weekend.

After a trial run last weekend, the skiing season really gets into its stride tomorrow (Saturday).

The Rhones-Alpes region in south east France is on red alert – very busy – for arrivals.

At least the roads will be better than the following two Saturdays which are both black days, i.e. as bad as it gets.

The German ‘winter sports routes’ – those to the border with Austria from the A8 Stuttgart-Munich south – will clog with weekenders and tourists from east Germany, who start winter holidays, and even from Scandinavia says ADAC.

Roads north will be busy too, though likely less so, with those heading eastwards.

Meanwhile, last Saturday was very crowded in west Austria and is set to be worse this weekend says OAMTC.

Switzerland fared relatively well last week. TCS warns of congestion around ski resorts but doesn’t spell out an apocalyptic scenario though the border crossing at Basel will be probably best avoided.

Presuming people in northern Italy are able or willing to drive after the wintry chaos of the last few days, the hot spot will be the A22 Brennero motorway up to the resorts in the High Dolomites.

Sunday will be much quieter all round.

As ever, much depends on the weather. The heavy snow affecting northern Italy recently should turn to rain and head east says the BBC.

Snow will move across Scandinavia towards Russia and possibly the Czech Republic.

Spain is also set for a measure of relief though temperatures will be very low in the centre of the country and heavy snow has not been ruled out in the north.

.

Mad people are towing a caravan to the Arctic. Follow along at #HybridAdventure. More later.

.

roundup: ROMANIA. Fines for traffic offences have been dramatically increased after Romania was found to have the EU’s least safe roads in 2013 with 92 deaths per million inhabitants. The penalty for driving while talking on a mobile phone, or for not wearing a seatbelt, is now €360 – ten times greater than previously – reports Romania-Insider.com. The maximum fine is €2160 for causing an accident while speeding or intoxicated. CROSSING THE CHANNEL. MyFerryLink has unexpectedly won leave to appeal the latest Competition ruling barring it from the Dover-Calais route. With owner Eurotunnel recently deciding to sell the operator it had appeared the long running saga was nearing the end. The hearing is likely to take place at the Court of Appeal in London before 13 March said the firm in a statement. GERMANY. The ‘foreigner toll’ came in for heavy criticism during a meeting of the Bundesrat Federal Council this morning. Technically the toll does not need the agreement of the states – only Bundestag MPs – since it will be administered centrally but the ‘fundamental doubts’ widely aired on whether it contravenes European discrimination laws, and about the amount of revenue it will raise, put extra pressure on transport minister Alexander Dobrindt. Observers speculate the toll plan may have to be delayed or postponed.

.

The British government sees aesthetics as a top priority as it starts a massive roads upgrade project in thinking clearly influenced by the heir to the throne.

Also, fuel prices are on the way back up in Luxembourg, Denmark and Hungary. Eurotunnel to start a dedicated freight service update twitter account. EU money goes towards a chain of CNG stations in northern Sweden. The 2015 German traffic jam calendar is out, plus thousands more truck parking places are planned along autobahns.

.

BRITAIN TO BUILD ‘BEAUTIFUL ROADS’

Design Panel to oversee roads. Overtly influenced by Prince Charles.

As it embarks on a £15bn upgrade programme the British government wants to create ‘a road system in harmony with its surroundings.’ Photo, Long Mynd, Church Stretton, Shropshire via @TheAA_Lifestyle.

A leftfield speech from a government minister has (re)introduced a fresh concept to British road building: beauty.

Lincolnshire MP John Hayes – Minister of State at the Department for Transport with responsibility for roads, senior parliamentary advisor to the PM, member of the ‘socially conservative’ Cornerstone Group and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) – spoke on Wednesday (though it is not clear to whom).

Hayes’ in-depth argument against ‘crass, ugly and ubiquitous’ road design – which, as others have commented, seems to be self-written – also seems to be heavily influenced by the Prince of Wales. The heir to the throne has often railed against modern design and the rejection of classical design principles.

As Hayes said, ‘Much modern architecture fails precisely because it rejects those principles of design that time has taught us delight the senses.’

He cites the UK’s first motorway, the Preston Bypass – and the dualling of the A30 to Cornwall – as road projects where ‘good design was central to engineers’ vision’.

Hayes dismisses the ‘assumption that all road building is bad and destructive’ as crude and outdated.

Immediate reaction on twitter ran the whole gamut, from bored and angry – one commentator called him ‘delusional’ for thinking the HS2 rail line was in step with its environment – to shocked and amazed (us). Another called the speech ‘a refreshing change for the good’.

Going forward, Hayes lays out a ‘five point plan for engagement’ from getting local communities more involved, to giving projects more ‘local character’, establishing a ‘Roads Design Panel’ – and a set of design principles (here he specifically cites Prince Charles) – and making Highways England ‘an exemplar of good design’.

Read the speech in full here.

.

Throwback Thursday: a battered, rusting Fiat 500L, windows open and doors ajar in Rome, April 2010. Photo @DriveEurope.

.

roundup: SWEDEN. €2m of EU cash will help fund a chain of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) filing stations along E4 on the north coast. The money will build two new stations, at Harnosand and Umea, and upgrade two existing ones at Sundsvall and Skelleftea. Due to finish in December 2015. EUROTUNNEL. The Channel Tunnel operator revealed this morning it will start an account dedicated to freight service updates. The existing @LeShuttle account started last year deals with passenger shuttle customers only. Eurotunnel didn’t say when the new channel would come on-stream but told one customer to ‘watch this space’. FUEL. Diesel in Luxembourg has edged up past the €1 barrier again… it now sells for €1.025/l says Wort.lu compared to €1.111 for unleaded95. Meanwhile, unleaded95 in Denmark has now risen to €1.50, and diesel to €1.328 reports Copenhagen Post (euro conversion via fuel-prices-europe.info). Petrol prices have increased in Hungary by the largest amount for two years says Portfolio.hu. Unleaded95 is now €1.088. The rise in diesel to €1.136 is the biggest since September 2013. GERMANY. The ADAC motoring club has published its 2015 annual jam calendar, in pdf form. Being as German roads can get so outrageously busy at holiday times hot dates are definitely worth bearing in mind when planning trips. The next super-busy day is Thursday 2 April. Also, four thousand new truck parking places will be opened in the next few years on top of the existing 43,000 it was announced today. The spaces will be concentrated on the A45 Dortmund-Frankfurt, the A6 near Sinsheim/Heilbronn, A7 at Kassel and A9 at Munich, 1,800 of them will open this year.

.

Last updated 18:00GMT, Wednesday 4 February.

.

TODAY: very busy with freight traffic Dover, Calais and Eurotunnel. Overnight ‘mandatory truck parking’ A7, A8 and A9 South of France lifted this morning after snow storm last night. Also, black ice A28 Rouen-Abbeville, Limoges. Sleet Mont Blanc Italy, A7/A26 Genoa. Recovering state of emergency floods Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece (see latest).

SPAIN: heavy snow across northern Spain last night, trapping some motorists for hours, and north east this morning. Bilbao and Barcelona now both massively improved, see below. Police advising drivers not to travel unless absolutely necessary in affected areas. Snow chains essential at altitude. Bad weather expected to continue.

NEWS: French truck driver strike talks break up without solution; next meeting 9 February.

.

CHANNEL DELAYS: no delays notified but reports very busy into Dover and Calais this morning. Eurotunnel freight, earlier disruption, UK: increased to 60mins wait before check-in + 2h30 transit time; France still 90mins + 3h00. MyFerryLink delay 35mins.

Brittany Ferries knock-on disruption to Portsmouth<>Santander services until Thursday. Most Plymouth-Roscoff cancelled Friday-Sunday. Plymouth-St Malo cancelled Sunday 8 February.

WEATHER ALERT: red alert high wind Sardinia. Amber alert snow France, snow, high winds Spain, Montenegro, snow, storm Italy, high winds Switzerland, Serbia.

WEATHER: cold. Heavy rain South.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: no queues.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A28 northbound to Zwolle, holdup Epe ‘winter storm’ delay down to 45mins. A50 both ways Eindhoven-Nijmegen ‘winter storm’ Oss delay northbound 1h15; southbound 1h15 + A59 eastbound delay 45mins. A1 westbound Enschede-Apeldoorn, earlier accident Rijssen, re-opened, delay back to 1h10. A1 southbound to Amersfoort earlier accident Baarn delay 45mins.

A3 northbound Cologne, accident lane blocked Leverkusen, closed, delay down to 50mins + A4 eastbound into Cologne delay still 1h25; westbound delay 45mins. A3 northbound Nuremberg, re-opened, lane closed, delay down to 50mins. A8 westbound to Ulm, road works Burgau delay 1h20.

Earlier: n/a.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

.

Bentley Blue Train: a star of this week’s Retromobile Show in Paris, starting today, is this 1930 Bentley Speed Six, owned by three time Le Mans winner – and Bentley chairman – Captain Woolf Barnarto, one of the original Bentley Boys. The same year the car was delivered he accepted a wager to not only race the famous Blue Train back to Calais from Cannes but to also be in his London club before the train arrived at the Channel. Leaving at 17:54, after finishing his drink, Barnato made it with four minutes to spare just after 15:30 the next day at an average speed of 43mph over the 940 miles. The 6.6 litre, straight six engine developed 180bhp and topped out at 100mph.

.

Analysing the annual results from Eurotunnel, the ferries and Port of Dover reveals some interesting trends.

Plus, drivers set off from Glasgow (and Barcelona, Turin, Reims and Copenhagen) in a recreation of the original Monte-Carlo ‘rally’. Also, annoying road works on the A8 to Luxembourg and E40 to Calais and Dunkirk.

.

CROSS-CHANNEL 2014: A BUMPER YEAR ALL ROUND

Coaches shift to the ferries, cars to Eurotunnel while trucks seemingly hedge bets.

It was a decent year all round for cross-Channel operators – the industry looks to have recovered from the Credit Crunch – but the prize for achieving the most milestones goes to Eurotunnel.

Total revenue from passenger shuttles grew by 7% to pass the €500m mark for the first time.

The number of cars using the Channel Tunnel increased by 4% to crash through the 2.5m barrier (compared to the short crossing market overall which grew by 1.5%).

Meanwhile, industry association Direct Ferries says the total number of cars crossing between the UK and the Continent by ferry grew by just 0.9% to 3.82m.

Eurotunnel might be increasingly popular with car drivers – the operator has a firm majority market share now of 51.4% – but it fared less well with trucks and coaches.

The number of trucks might have grown 6% in 2014 but the market as a whole expanded by 8% admits the Channel Tunnel operator.

At the same time the amount of freight moving through Dover hit record levels. The port saw 2.42m trucks in 2014, up 9.7% on 2013 and 2.5% higher than the previous record set in 2007.

Eurotunnel maintains its market share of the cross Channel truck market remained stable at 37.8%. The only sector that fell was coaches, down by 2%.

While Direct Ferries says the overall numbers of coaches crossing the Channel by grew by 6.2% to 110,000, Dover-Calais operator MyFerryLink saw coach numbers grow a huge 118% (with trucks up 22% and cars up 7%).

.

Unlike the modern World Rally Championship Monte Carlo Rally – which starts and finishes in Monaco – the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique begins like the original used to, in the home cities of competitors (or thereabouts). Last Wednesday, the first runners left Glasgow with those from Copenhagen leaving the next day and from Turin, Barcelona and Reims on Friday. The drivers met – or ‘rallied’ – in Saint-Andre-des-Alpes on Saturday where the timed stages began. Since then the cars have taken in all the classic roads of the original – as far north as Valence – before the finish, at dawn, tomorrow morning in Monaco. See a blow-by-blow account of the route at acm.mc/en/rallye-monte-carlo-historique. Photo Mercedes 190SL on the 2014 event, Automobile Club de Monaco.

.

Road works roundup: GERMANY. The A8 between Saarlouis and Luxembourg at Merzig will shut alternately for three weeks this month for tree clearing, in the direction of Luxembourg from Thursday-Saturday 5-14 February then towards Saarlouis Tuesday-Saturday 17-21 February. The diversion throughout will be via the parallel L170. BELGIUM. The France-bound side of the E40 (A18) just across the Belgian border will be resurfaced from next Monday (16 February) until early April. Traffic will be contraflowed on the Ostend/Brussels-bound carriageway – from J2 Oostduinkerke and J1 Veurne (exits closed) – and limited to 70kmh. As this is the main route between the Chanel Ports and Belgium delays are likely. The contractors are working six days each week to complete the work ahead of the Easter holidays..

.

Amsterdam steals a march on emerging Intelligent Transport System (ITS) technology with a new app which diverts drivers different ways around accidents and incidents.

Plus, road closures in the Pyrenees see drivers escorted off the mountains in massive convoys. Amateur photographer in scenic photo stop fail. Homemade windscreen wash warning from Spain. Good news on the Sofia-Istanbul motorway. No weigh Dover!

.

NEW ‘DYNAMIC’ TRAFFIC APP FOR AMSTERDAM

Large scale trial of system which sends some drivers one way, other drivers another.

The A10 Amsterdam ring road. Photo @DriveEurope.

A new ‘dynamic’ traffic app which patches users straight into the city’s real-time traffic management service is being trialled in Amsterdam.

Called ADAM – a sister app EVA guides drivers to events at Amsterdam Arena – the idea is that the system can confidently divert drivers heading for the same traffic jam in different directions to reduce congestion on alternative routes.

The developers – a consortium of national roads manager Rijkswaterstaat, the national VID traffic service and the city council – say, ‘Currently many app builders complain that the information provided by the authorities is too slow and not uniform. ADAM changes all that. This new smart traffic app gives information directly from the traffic control centre. It brings the traffic centre, as it were, inside the car.’

ADAM is aimed at commuters rather than visitors. It’s not a blow-by-blow navigation system as such.

The test area includes the roads inside the A10 ring road and parts of the A9, A4, A1, A2 and Schiphol Airport.

Users pre-load regular journeys and select them with one touch before starting off. They receive updates along the way via their smartphones mounted on a custom dashboard holder to minimise distractions.

They can also post voice messages which, after moderation, will be fed back into the system.

Two thousand drivers have been signed up so far with another 8,000 expected to get involved during the trial which lasts until the summer.

If successful, ADAM will expand to other cities in the Netherlands. After that, maybe it comes to a city near you.

.

Column – or convoy – driving is quite common in Norway. Divers are prepared to wait, sometimes overnight, for a snowplough escort along hard hit roads. This is the first time we’ve heard of it on mainland Europe however. Snowfall was so heavy in the Pyrenees over the weekend that roads up to many of the resorts were closed. On Sunday afternoon, after checking cars had snow chains on at least the driven wheels, police led a 500 car convoy down from Cautarets and 150 from Gourette. Most roads reopened on Monday morning but with more than a meter of snow expected again this week the possibility of more convoys cannot be ruled out. Photo @SylvieDurruty, Deputy Mayor Bayonne.

.

roundup: SWITZERLAND. A poor driver stopped to take photos near St Gallen only to see his car roll into a drainage ditch when he left the handbrake off. Let that be a lesson to us all. The man is liable for the full costs of retrieval reports thelocal.ch. SPAIN. A Gibraltar man has died after contracting Legionnaires’ Disease from his homemade windscreen washer fluid. ‘The public is strongly encouraged to use proper screenwash in their cars,’ a local official tells the TheOlivePress.es. BULGARIA. The Maritsa Highway, off the A1 Sofia-Black Sea motorway, down to the Turkish border at Kapitan Andreevo-Edirne on the way to Istanbul, will be completely finished by August reports Novinite.com. The southern section of the 117km road, from Harmanli, is already open. The northern stretch Chirpan-Haskovo could open in June. DOVER. As of Sunday 1 February, freight drivers no longer have to have their vehicles weighed before boarding. The ‘costly and time-consuming’ process has been removed as part of the govt’s ‘red tape challenge’ says Port of Dover. Drivers will however need a weight declaration.

.

Weekly review: Studio Torino comes unstuck in the Arctic. A safety ‘crisis’ on French roads sees a mass of new traffic rules as the government tries to crack down on fat cat motorway operators. Stena Line does a literally incredible job on its Harwich-Hook route. Germany joins a growing list of countries that cannot cope with snow, despite (expensive) ‘winter preparedness’.

.

Road trip destination of the week was definitely north Norway. Tesla Model S fan @Widodh drove 3346km to Setermoen from the Netherlands (for free using Tesla superchargers). Meanwhile Studio Torino took its new Moncenisio Cayman-based sportscar to Nordkapp. A detour back through Finland earned a €400 fine for driving at 74kmh in a 50kmh zone. Fines at more than 20kmh over the limit depend on income says @getpalmd. Student @djzanta says the rules incentivise him to go faster..

Never can a success story have played out so badly. Despite the number of fatal road accidents falling by 7.25% between 2012 and 2014 – thus confirming a decade-long downward trend – France has persuaded itself it faces a ‘road safety crisis’.

A major tightening of traffic laws was announced on Monday after figures showed road deaths rose by 3.7% last year compared to (a stellar) 2013.

French roads dominated the headlines in the first half of the week. The emerging saga/scandal of the massive profits made by motorway operators – up to 24% it was revealed late last year – came to a head on Tuesday when the Prime Minister himself halted the annual road toll increase planned for today (1 February) and tasked MPs with either renegotiating the concession contracts, or cancelling them all together.

The motorway companies will not back down. Their preferred way to illustrate their financial returns is to say ‘to take €1 out we need to put €5 in’ (see what they did there?).

Road operators in France aren’t the only ones with juicy margins. Austrian’s state-owned ASFINAG admitted last year it made €400m profit on a €1.3bn turnover.

This is all very interesting in the week that the EU’s new Transport Commissioner let it be known she was working on a new pan-Europe road charging system.

Concerns over state surveillance and swingeing rush hour road tolls could soon take a backseat to outrage over fat cat road owners.

Readers might have thought we were outrageously sucking up to Stena Line on Thursday in making such a big deal about its 100% reliability record on the Harwich-Hook of Holland route.

The thing is, in the transport industry it’s unheard of, and genuinely worth laying on a bit thick.

Watching the snow storm make its way around north and central Europe on Friday was fascinating. One of the immediate ways it manifested itself was in snarled up roads.

Countries that beat themselves up about their inability to cope with wintry weather – UK we mean you – should take time to reflect on the state that Germany got itself into on Friday afternoon (and Finland and Russia before that).

In truth, no country – not those with winter tyre rules, nor those where driving on slippery surfaces is reputedly part of the national DNA – can cope with first snow.

The week ahead: Spanish hauliers are uneasy about plans to shift them onto the motorways despite hefty discounts on the tolls. The top drawer Retro Mobile classic car show and sale kicks off in Paris on Wednesday.

.

Strict rules on winter tyres in wintry conditions were not enough to save German drivers from superlong queues today as a weather storm toured northern Europe.

Also, Brittany Ferries doubles the number of no-frills sailings between the UK, France and Spain. A shocking amount of roadkill ends up on Belgian roads each year. Germany suspends its minimum wage for foreign truckers rule.

.

SNOWMAGGEDON ON TOUR

Mobile snow storm sees drivers trapped for hours in northern Germany despite mandatory winter tyres.

The A7 northbound between Kassel and Gottingen, Germany, this afternoon. Photo via @Meteo_Europe

A flash mob of wintry weather toured the Continent today leaving traffic chaos in its wake, especially in Germany.

A combination of freezing rain, sleet and wet snow struck the Netherlands overnight before moving south and east through the day.

Drivers in Lille northern France were hit briefly mid-morning. The storm then made its way over the Ardennes in eastern Belgium to Luxembourg and Saarbrucken in the afternoon.

As dark fell the region around Karlsruhe, Heilbronn and Stuttgart saw heavy snow as did roads between Lausanne and Geneva in Switzerland and Bourg-en-Bresse in France. The A40 was particularly badly hit.

By far the worst affected region however was northern Germany, between Dortmund, Kassel and Osnabruck.

Despite M+S marked ‘winter tyres’ being mandatory in wintry conditions drivers were left stranded for hours on the A2 and A7.

Packed traffic saw snowploughs unable to reach the trouble spots according to local reports.

A succession of incidents on the A2 towards Hannover saw queues reach 35 miles in the evening before gradually clearing overnight. Amazingly, it appears there were no injuries. 

Germany joins the list of supposedly winter-prepared countries that nevertheless suffered major disruption as first snow hit this winter. Moscow saw its biggest jams of all time on Christmas Day while Finland suffered an ‘accident epidemic’ in November as ice and snow swept in from the east.

.

Loving the Dutch name for snowplough/gritter truck: Strooiwagen. According to national road directorate Rijswaterstraat, trucks dumped a barely believable 5.6 million kilograms (5,600 tonnes??) of salt on the roads this afternoon in 673 trips driving more than 30,000km. Photo @Rijkswaterstraat

.

roundup: CROSSING THE CHANNEL. Brittany Ferries has chartered another ship for its no-frills ‘economie’ sailings between the UK, France and – at weekends – Spain. The service, launched last March, was almost immediately booked up for the entire summer. One way fares start from £79 to France and £209 to Spain, the latter especially much less than Brittany Ferries’ regular ‘cruise ferries’. The new ship is the former DFDS Sirena Seaways and comes on stream in May. Brittany Ferries is now the only operator to sail between the UK and Spain. BELGIUM. Eight million animals die on the roads each year according to a survey by environmentalists (or 27m depending on which counting method is used..) reports FlandersNews.be. With no figures from other countries available it’s impossible to say if this number is as large as it seems. Researchers blame the dense Belgian road network. GERMANY. The new rules which mean foreign truckers must be paid at least the minimum wage while on German territory – even if they don’t stop, or work for a German firm – has been suspended. ‘The government now wants to await a decision by Brussels on the matter,’ said German transport minister Andrea Nahles after a meeting with her Polish counterpart Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz in Berlin today according to local thinktank CEP. The suspension only applies to transit journeys says thelocal.de.

.

Stena Line is reluctant* to explain its amazing reliability record between Harwich and Hook of Holland. 

Plus, a new motorway connection between Rouen and Le Havre opens today, and good news on the A89/A20 link at Brive-la-Gaillarde.

.

STENA LINE COY ON AMAZING RELIABILITY RECORD

No cancellations on Harwich-Hook of Holland route in 2014 and very few delays.

Stena Hollandica, one of two ‘superferries’ serving Harwich-Hook of Holland. Photo @StenaLineUK.

It’s not that amazing that Stena Line saw a 5.7% rise in the number of passengers on its Harwich-Hook of Holland route last year (thus beating the market average of 3.7%).

The company admitted in November it benefited from the closure of the DFDS Harwich-Esbjerg route, the last ferry service between the UK and Scandinavia.

What is amazing is the operator’s 100% reliability record revealed today.

Despite running across the North Sea day in day out there were no cancellations on the route throughout the entire year. We can vouch for that. Our daily briefs check UK-Continent ferry services eight times each day. Even delays were very rare.

Considering delays and cancellations are common on most other ferry services – to be fair North Sea and Western Channel services tend to be more reliable than the high frequency short crossings – we asked Stena for the secret of its success.

All the company would say is, ‘Reliability means a lot to us so we work hard to make it happen.’

Beyond this it is worth noting the two purpose-built ferries which serve the route are among the world’s longest at 240m and are both less than five years old.

Stena, the largest ferry operator in Europe, also seems to specialise in rough seas. Its other routes run between the UK, Ireland and France and, particularly, around the Baltic.

The Harwich-Hook service departs twice a day in each direction, one during the day and one overnight. The crossing takes seven hours.

The last time we used it in September 2012 we paid €165 for a one-way day time sailing after turning up without a reservation. We cannot comment on the quality of the cabins – compulsory overnight, starting at £30 – but the public areas were very comfortable, with dark wood flooring and black leather lounging sofas.

Stena Line is currently offering £50 off any flexi or premium flexi return vehicle fare between Harwich and Hook in 2015 if booked before 31 January.

.

The motorway link between Le Havre and Rouen north of the Seine is now complete. The new stretch of the A150, opening today, now runs all the way from Rouen to the A29 Le Havre-Amiens at Yvetot. It’s slightly longer than the existing 90km fast Le Havre-Rouen connection via the A131 and Tancarville Bridge but, as it avoids the bridge bottleneck, should be quicker overall. The standout feature is the 500m viaduct across the Valley of the Austreberthe, a tributary of the Seine. The 20km section costs €3.10 for cars, considered exorbitant by locals, and more than the €2.50 Tancarville toll… meanwhile, work on the connection between the A89 and A20 near Brive-la-Gaillarde in south central France should finish in April (it wasn’t expected to open until the summer). Drivers will then have seamless motorway travel between Lyon and Bordeaux.

.