Author Archives: driveeuropenews

Border Agency denies go slow – original Hitlerbahn

Passengers blame the UK Border Agency for delays at the Channel over the weekend. An historic stretch of motorway is upgraded in Poland. Belgian police rake in a fortune after spot checks, Gibraltar queues set a record for this year so far, more protests over rising tolls in Greece and an ominous warning from the Russians as a coach driver is injured in a shooting in Ukraine.

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UK BORDER AGENCY DENIES HALF TERM GO SLOW.

Was fully staffed and prepared, just busy it says.

French passport control at Dunkirk port.

French passport control at Dunkirk port.

The English Channel was perfectly calm and Eurotunnel ran to schedule throughout, but frustrated passengers still faced delays at the weekend. Many directed their anger at the UK Border Agency.

The first inkling came on Friday evening when @UKmotortalk tweeted, ‘Planning to catching a ferry back from UK to Calais? Don’t leave it too late as the UK border control appear to be on a go-slow currently…’

Then on Saturday afternoon, @PaulGeudon from clubmulholland.com, a flexiplus customer booked with Eurotunnel, reported it had taken an hour just to reach passport control.

Most irate were travellers delayed on Saturday evening. One man went so far as to tweet us (since deleted), ‘Blame UK border control – disgusting and deliberate behaviour to create queues.’

Another told us, ‘2 ½ hour delay. Nothing after border control… hmmmmm.’

The delays raised the spectre of Heathrow 2012, or that the Borger Agency was unable to cope with the volume of travellers returning home after half term holidays.

However a spokeswoman for the Border Agency told us today that the agency was prepared for ‘one of its busiest weekends’, fully staffed and was ‘dealing with traffic as it arrived’.

She also denied there were any special exercises going on, or that the procedure for dealing with passengers had changed.

She said any delays were down to the ‘sheer volume of traffic’.

This is not the first time the border agency has been blamed for delays at the Channel. Eurotunnel cited, in part, ‘a bottleneck of traffic at border controls in France’ when responding to a customer who complained about long waits returning from the New Year holidays. UKBA similarly denied there was a problem then.

Late on Saturday night, Eurotunnel was also at pains to point out to us that its service was working to schedule and that the delays were between the check-in booths and passport control.

Meanwhile, the traffic on Continental roads on Saturday was even heavier than expected, on a par with the Saturday after New Year. The official French Bison Fute traffic website had warned of heavy traffic returning from the Alps. In fact traffic was heaviest in the other direction, heading south east from Paris via the A6 and A43, from first thing. Returning traffic wasn’t busy until the afternoon.

An accident northbound on the A6 in the evening also delayed drivers for over an hour after Beaune.

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Poland: not a week goes by

Poland: not a week goes by without some new stretch of road or under, over or bypass opening. Quite interesting is this A4/A18 interchange at Bolaslawiec near the German border in the south west. A4 is Poland’s the main west-east motorway, currently 370 miles Dresden-Wroclaw-Katowice-Krakow and on to the Ukraine border. A18 meanwhile is a 50 mile connecting section between A4 and the German A15, to Cottbus and Berlin. This was Reichsautobahn 9 Berlin-Breslau (Wroclaw) built in 1938. It has now been widened to four lanes, and connected at each end, but the southbound carriageway is still the original road, one of the few stretches surviving. Photo via @GDDKiA

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roundup: BELGIUM. Traffic police in Antwerp issued €17,500 in traffic violations yesterday after spot checking 31 trucks: one in six had tampered with the tachograph while and one in five was overloaded says @Wegpolitie_ANT. GREECE. Eight people, including the Mayor of Megara, face charges after the latest round of toll booth protests, this time west of Athens. Tolls have recently risen by up to 60%. The mayor of Oropos, also near Athens, was recently released without charge after a similar incident. GIBRALTAR QUEUE WATCH. Delays for outgoing traffic hit three hours at 17:00, the worst queues so far this year. UKRAINE. An ominous complaint – to ‘those who are controlling or attempting to control radical forces in Ukraine’ – from the Russian and Belarus governments over the apparent shooting of a coach driver in Rovno Oblast west Ukraine. The Russian man was carrying Belarus passengers to the Carpathians when the vehicle came under fire from ‘militants’. The driver is in a ‘bad condition’ according to a statement.

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Automaidan, the end

Photo feature: one way or another, cars, roads and drivers played a prominent role in Ukraine’s freedom movement, right up until the end.

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Prominent among yesterday’s extraordinary developments was the release of Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister, from prison in Kharkiv, north east Ukraine. Within minutes she declared she would run for President. Her reception from the crowd at Independence Square in central Kiev later was enthusiastic but hardly wild. She is unlikely to be the unifying leader the country needs.

Prominent among yesterday’s extraordinary developments was the release of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko from prison in Kharkiv, north east Ukraine. Within minutes she declared she would run for President. Her reception later from the crowd at Independence Square in central Kiev was enthusiastic but hardly wild. Too tainted by the corruption of earlier regimes, it seems unlikely she will emerge as the unifying leader the country needs (but watch this space). Photo @kgorchinskaya

On the way into Kiev, Tymoshenko’s car was stopped by Maidan activists angry that the blacked out convoy had attempted to bypass regular traffic. Sitting alongside Tymoshenko was Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a long-time ally, office holder in a previous administration and one of the negotiators with the government during the crisis. He is also tipped for high, possibly the highest, office in the next government. But Yatsenyuk was forced to adopt his most earnest expression and express fulsome apologies to talk his way out of this one.

On the way into Kiev, Tymoshenko’s car was stopped by Maidan activists angry that the blacked out convoy had attempted to bypass regular traffic. Sitting alongside Tymoshenko was Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a long-time ally, office holder in a previous administration, and one of the negotiators with the government during the crisis. He is also tipped for high, possibly the highest, office in the next government. But Yatsenyuk was forced to adopt his most earnest expression and express fulsome apologies to talk his way out of this one.

 

Traffic jams stretched to former President Yanukovych’s lavish residence Mezihyria beside the Dnieper river just outside Kyiv - and served by its own brand new motorway - as the doors were thrown open to the public yesterday morning.

Traffic jams stretched to former President Yanukovych’s lavish residence Mezhyhirya beside the Dnieper outside Kyiv – and served by its own brand new motorway – as the doors were thrown open to the public yesterday morning. This was a well trod path for protestors. From the early days of the demonstrations, convoys of Automaidan – the movement’s ‘mobile army’ – picketed Mezyhyhirya on a regular basis. Before this week’s massacre in Kyiv, its members were the most viciously targeted, including the eight day abduction and torture of leader Dmitry Bulatov. Arguably, the entire freedom movement started with an earlier group called ‘Road Control’, set up to tackle endemic corruption among traffic police. Photo @Ukroblogger

In the haste to leave many files were left behind, some just dumped in the river. Staff from @KyivPost are currently going through what remains but one surviving sheet is this on Tatyana Chornovil. The opposition journalist was chased down by thugs on the M-03 highway early on Christmas morning, beaten, and left for dead. Ironically, she was returning from photographing the lavish residence of a member of Yanukovych’s government.

In the haste to leave – Yanukovych’s location is still unknown – many files were left behind, some just dumped in the river. Staff from @KyivPost are currently going through what remains but one surviving sheet is this on Tatyana Chornovil, the opposition journalist who was chased down on the M-03 highway early on Christmas morning, beaten, and left for dead. Ironically she was returning from photographing the lavish residence of a member of Yanukovych’s government. The label lists the registration plates of the cars she used. Photo via @AB_Chapman.

Yanukovych had his own seventy strong car museum, each exhibit coming with its own information sheet. As well as this range of ZILs was a 1950 Rolls Royce, a Chevrolet Impala and a wide selection of Fiat 500s.

Yanukovych had his own seventy strong car museum, each exhibit coming with its own information sheet. As well as this range of ZILs was a 1950 Rolls Royce, a Chevrolet Impala and a wide selection of Fiat 500s.

In addition, Yanukovych had a blacked out vehicle for every occasion.

In addition, Yanukovych’s son apparently had a blacked out vehicle for every occasion, housed at a separate location and now also abandoned. Photo @mefimus

Yanukovych even had his own petrol station, possibly the most tasteful part of the entire xxx hectare estate which also featured a distressed tableaux of Greek columns and a snake skin sofa in the sauna.

Yanukovych even had his own petrol station, possibly the most tasteful part of the entire 337 acre estate which also featured a distressed tableaux of Greek columns and a snake skin sofa in the sauna. Photo @Andriyak

With politicians and police gone – even the traffic booths were empty – capital Kyiv was ghostly quiet yesterday morning. @KyivPost CEO Jakob Parusinski (@J_Parus) used the opportunity to take this photo, of Volodymyrski descent, the road heading north east from Independence Square in Kyiv down beside the river Dnieper. He called it ‘the difference between coming and going from Euromaidan’. We missed the significance at the time but as US ambassador @GeoffPyatt later pointed out, ‘Coming from Maidan is stained black from ash.’

With politicians and police gone – even the traffic booths were empty – capital Kyiv was ghostly quiet yesterday morning. @KyivPost CEO Jakob Parusinski (@J_Parus) used the opportunity to take this photo, of Volodymyrski Descent, the road heading north east from Independence Square down beside the Dnieper. He called it ‘the difference between coming and going from Euromaidan’. We missed the significance at the time but as US ambassador @GeoffPyatt later pointed out, ‘Coming from Maidan is stained black from ash.’

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Curva Nuvolari

Ferrari reopens it renovated museum at Maranello. An on board video of Pride of Calais’s beaching in Turkey. 

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A 1950 Ferrari 166MM Touring Barchetta - on Nuvolari Curve - to mark the renovation and reopening of the Museo Ferrari in Maranello this week. More later.

The first road going Ferrari, a 1950 166MM Touring Barchetta, pictured on Curva Nuvolari, to mark the renovation and this week’s reopening of the Museo Ferrari in Maranello. We’re not sure exactly where Curva Nuvolari is to be honest other than it’s somewhere on the Mille Miglia route, Brescia-Rome-Brescia, as featured in an all-Ferrari tribute re-run last year.

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FERRIES: A hair-raising video of the former P&O Pride of Calais ferry hurtling towards a beach in Turkey to be broken up for scrap circulated last month. Below is the same event but filmed from onboard:

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Half term holiday traffic

The ski routes in France, Germany and Austria are all expected to busy tomorrow as half term holidaymakers change over. Meanwhile, road works could make the Italian A22 Brennero heavy going.

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Update 11:30 – France: the heaviest traffic was supposed to be returning from the Alps direction Paris and it is busy N90 Bourg-Moutiers-Albertville and then A43 to Chambery. Much busier however is the other way, A6 Paris-Lyon (now calming) and A43 Lyon-Chambery.

Switzerland: an accident A1 Zurich-St Gallen into Winterthur has led to long delays so far, and A1 Bern>A2. Otherwise not too bad.

Germany: particularly busy is A3 Cologne-Frankfurt-Nuremberg, eastbound from Cologne and Frankfurt, westbound from Nuremberg. Latterly A9 Munich-Nuremberg is seeing long delays.

Also, A96/A7 Memmingen (see below).

Austria: the A7/B179 Fernpass has been predictably crowded, less so A95 Munich-Garmisch Partenkirchen. Completely wrong were our assertions about A12 Innsbruck<>Munich – busy in both directions but mainly northbound from Austria and southbound from Germany. Rather than take their chances on the main road border crossings, Germans seem to have splurged on the vignette, or they are chancing it.

While it has been busy S16 westbound towards Lake Constance and Bregenz border crossing the traffic has been moving, until it reaches the A7 junction at Memmingen on the A96. Long delays northbound.

Meanwhile, as predicted long delays at road works northbound A22 Bolzano in Italy.

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The A5 Frankfurt-Basel is expected to be busy tomorrow (though apparently not over the Swiss border).

The A5 Frankfurt-Basel is expected to be busy tomorrow (though apparently not over the Swiss border).

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Motoring organisations in France, Germany and Austria are warning of heavy holiday traffic this Saturday. The main culprits are the Dutch who start and finish school holidays this weekend, as do places in central and eastern Germany.

Strangely, the Swiss have not issued major warnings – probably because less than half of their regions are on holiday – though access roads to the ski resorts in Graubünden, the Bernese Oberland, the Valais and central Switzerland will all be busy.

The Rhone Alpes region in south east France is code red (one down from the worst) for traffic returning home says Bison-Fute. Inevitably this means jams on the N90 from Bourg-Moutiers and on the A430/A43 Chambery-Lyon then A6 back to Paris. From experience, the roads are busy from very early on, quieting down after lunch.

Away from the ski routes the roads in Germany are likely to be relatively quiet, but that still means many roads will be clogged with traffic, and both ways. In particular, ADAC identifies A3 Cologne-Nuremberg, A5 Frankfurt-Basel, A7 Wurzburg-Ulm-Fussen (Austria border), A8 Karlsruhe-Stuttgart-Munich-Salzburg (and A93 to Kufstein), A9 Nuremberg-Munich, A99 Munich ring and A95 Munich-Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Also, all cross-border roads between Germany and Austria are bound to have long delays. Unlike France the queues tend to last all day.

Meanwhile, western Austria is best avoided tomorrow. OAMTC particularly highlights B320 Enns Valley road near Liezen, A10 Tauern motorway Salzburg-Bischofshofen, B188 Silvrettastrasse, B179 Fernpassstrasse (cross border with Germany), B169 Zillertal road and S16 Arlberg expressway, Bludenz-Landeck.

With many Germans avoiding the A12 because they have to buy a vignette for the short stretch to the border for the first time this year, it might be worth a punt (though main feeder roads will be busy). Despite the warnings over S16, the Bregenz border crossing at Lake Constance – traditionally a massive traffic blackspot – has been much quieter this winter after a big upgrade.

Finally, the A22 Brennero motorway in Italy is bound to suffer delays tomorrow, especially because of on-going road repairs north of Bolzano after land slips last weekend.

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France crash stats stagnant – Russia road safety

Stagnant crash statistics derail France’s stellar safety gains. Russian roads are safer. Another poignant picture from Kyiv. A flying car and drive-in police station debut in France, driver error blamed for Saimaa tragedy and truckers go to extreme lengths at the Fernetti crossing.

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FRENCH CRASH STATS STAGNANT

Where will the big gains come from this year? Road deaths stay the same but big rise in injuries.

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FRANCE. Despite an onerous and publicly declared target this year the number of road deaths in January was just one down on the same month in 2013.

Meanwhile the number of people injured grew by 10.6%. Those needing hospital stays of over 24 hours jumped by 12.8%.

Securite Routiere says the mild winter weather saw more people take to ‘powered two-wheelers’. Mopeds and motorbikes both saw rises in the number of fatalities, as did trucks, though fewer people died in car crashes.

In line a target to reduce deaths from 3,250 last year to ‘under 2,000 by 2020’, fatalities fell by 11.2% in 2013 amid a crackdown on speeding. Big gains made early in the year however tailed off.

Question remain over how the authorities will respond. Current plans include the rollout of two-way unmarked camera cars on main roads, possibly reducing the national speed limit and a series of road safety films from famous directors (above – see the second episode here).

Conspicuously absent is a strategy to deal with motorbike accidents. Having achieved significant success with cars it remains to be seen whether police will bear down even more heavily on drivers.

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RUSSIA. New figures say 27,025 people were killed on the roads last year, 3.5% less than 2012. The number of accidents rose by 0.2% to 204,068 while the number of injured fell by 0.1% to 258,437. A quarter of deaths are caused by speeding and another quarter by driving into oncoming traffic and not observing rules at crossroads. The biggest gain was child pedestrian fatalities, down 15%.

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Kyiv: buses used to bring in Berkut riot police - and maybe Titushki armed gangs too - parked up yesterday morning.

Kyiv: buses used to bring in Berkut riot police – and maybe Titushki armed gangs too – parked up yesterday morning. Photo via @EuromaidanPR

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roundup: CARS. A flying car is due to take off in Strasbourg in 2015. The Vaylon Pegasis is a buggy/microlight hybrid and will sell for €100,000. See www.vaylon.eu for more. FRANCE. The first drive-in police station is due to open, in Le Cannet near Cannes. Developed from a disabled access project and will operate 24 hours per day. RUSSIA. Summer tyres, speeding and driving in the wrong lane were responsible says investigators for the crash on Saturday, along the Saimaa Canal near Vyborg, when ten people died. It was initially alleged that poor road maintenance, on land leased by Finland, was to blame. ITALY. Turkish truck drivers are installing satellite dishes to help kill time at the Fernetti transit station on the Slovene border. Trucks wait for up to five days to board trains to avoid restricted access via Austria. Meanwhile, the nominated justice minister in the new Renzi government lost his driving licence in 2010 for drink driving (via @NewsFromItaly).

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New cheap ferries to Spain

New ferry routes to Spain significantly improve choice and value (update 22 August: LD Lines has now cancelled its UK-Spain ferries, see more here).

Also, Malmo’s motorists traditionally escape massive traffic fines. Volvo develop a convenient office hours delivery system. Finnish scientists put all that wood to good automotive use while Bosnia and Georgia make small but significant steps to modernity.

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NEW CHEAP FERRIES TO SPAIN

What was once a simple but expensive choice is now an embarrassment of riches (if not luxuries).

Named after

Named after a town in Normandy, Brittany Ferries’ Etretat starts a new route to Spain from 25 March.

Since P&O pulled out in 2010 only Brittany Ferries has operated ferries between the UK and Spain.

The French company runs two slightly upmarket ‘cruiseferry’ routes, between Portsmouth/Plymouth and Santander/Bilbao, up to three times each week. With return fares topping £1,000 during high season however they are too expensive for many travellers.

All of a sudden though there are three new routes across the Bay of Biscay, all aimed at the budget conscious.

On 25 March, Brittany Ferries starts a new no frills weekend service branded ‘économie’. The 26 hour crossing will leave Portsmouth on Saturday morning and return from Santander mid-afternoon on Sunday (during the week économie operates to Le Havre).

Tickets are not ready to buy just yet – register in advance here – but one way fares for two+car start at £169 (including reclining seats but not cabin).

Facilities are basic but not completely spartan. The cabins are all ensuite but lack carpet, the menu is limited and entertainment is restricted to a film lounge. There are however twelve pet-friendly cabins and two for disabled passengers.

Meanwhile, LDLines started running between Poole, Gijon and Santander last month. Poole-Gijon – the route most convenient for Portugal – takes 25 hours. The outward sailing leaves Tuesday evening and returns Friday lunchtime. The 26 hour Poole-Santander service leaves Saturday afternoon and returns Sunday night. No pets are allowed for the time being.

Both LDLines’ fares start at £399 return for two+car+cabin. That rises to £706 in late July but still compares quite well to a similar trip on Brittany Ferries cruiseferry service at £1008*.

For sailors to Spain, what was once a simple but expensive choice has now become an embarrassment of riches. For active holidaymakers though, surely the most desirable luxury is the one that comes as standard with them all, the enforced rest at the start and end of every trip.

* Test bookings made 22 February 2014 for the third week of July using cheapest cabin accommodation.

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A random picture culled from the @ADAC's twitter feed this week. Wonder what the problem was? Could it have been a flat battery do you think? A roundup of the embattled motoring organisation's woes coming up later.

A random picture culled from @ADAC’s twitter feed this week… Wonder what the problem is? Hope it’s not a flat battery. Could get very, very expensive (see @DriveEurope passim).

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roundup: FINLAND. A new wood-powered wood-built car will appear at the Geneva Motor Show next month, the work of scientist and students at Helsinki University. SWEDEN. Ten percent of cars registered in southern city Mamo are registered to front organisations to avoid paying traffic fines in a long running system called Malvaktar (goalkeepers). Only 50% of parking fines were collected last year. Meanwhile, Volvo is developing a system whereby shopping deliveries can be made to the boot of owner’s cars using a single use digital key. No launch date as yet. GEORGIA. Speed cameras make their debut on all roads in the South Caucasus country later this year as part of a wholesale campaign to improve road safety. BOSNIA is now part of the European meteoalarm extreme weather alert service, see www.meteoalarm.eu

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Dover makeover – trouble Kyiv + Korczowa

A closer look at the recently announced redevelopment for Dover’s docks and seafront. After a period of calm, trouble starts again in Kyiv, and on the Polish border. See any easy drive guide to the Autobahn, the latest on the TIR dispute with Russia, a solution to the hilarious A13/N13 junction in Luxembourg and another go at speed cameras in Cyprus.

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A MUCH NEEDED MAKEOVER FOR DOVER.

Proposed docks redevelopment to kickstart wider regeneration.

Artist's impression looking from the redeveloped Western Docks, Dover.

An artist’s impression looking from the redeveloped Western Docks, Dover.

Never mind the impression it gives to foreign visitors, what about the dispiriting effect the place has on Brits returning home from the holiday hotspots of Europe?

The joke that Dover sustained almost £25 worth of damage in the recent storms is a bit close to home.

The real tragedy is that away from the A20 – flanked by the brutalist County Hotel, with its fading ‘Rooms from £40’ banner, and a massive block of flats which obliterates the sea view – Dover actually has a lot going for it.

Turn left towards the high street and there’s a row of quaint Victorian shops. Along from that block of flats on the seafront is a magnificent and beautifully restored terrace of Georgian villas.

That’s not to mention the castle overlooking the town, the house prices, White Cliffs and the rolling North Downs (happily one thing visitors can never fail to see).

Just up the road is St Margaret’s Bay where Henry Royce, and Noel Coward, did a lot of their pondering.

There’s also a powerful community spirit as evidenced by the 12,000 local people who put their own money behind the still-alive People’s Port proposal.

Meanwhile, Dover Harbour Board (DHB) is doing rather well. The number of trucks was up 13% last year, and passengers up 7%, to 2.2m and 12.75m respectively. That’s almost back to pre-recession levels.DHB now hopes to leverage this upswing with an ambitious plan to redevelop both the Western and Eastern Docks on either side of the town.

The ferry business will stay in the east while all cargo operations will be shifted to the west. The work includes relocating the marina and, behind, new cafes, bars and restaurants to make the most of the new views.

Interestingly, the whole project has been conceived to go with a proposed ‘alternative transport corridor’ to the Midlands and the North (and a new Thames Crossing).

Big challenges remain. Notably absent from this latest announcement was how much it would cost, where the money was coming from and how long it would take to build. Meanwhile, relations between DHB and the People’s Port are not great.

At least now there’s something concrete for them to argue about, and the prospect of 140 jobs secured and potentially another 600 created. Whether anybody can do anything about the A20 though is another matter.

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Ukraine. What a difference a day makes. On Monday it looked like a solution was in sight but yesterday was the bloodiest day yet. A march to parliament to persuade law makers to revert back to the 2004 ‘Orange Revolution’ Constitution was met with the most sustained crackdown so far. At the time of writing, twenty five protestors and police had been killed, quadruple the entire death toll to date. The most incredible thing is how protestors have been able to stand their ground facing battalions of Berkut riot police and marauding, armed Titushki (paid thugs). Determined definitely, and well organised, but also sustained by support from the rest of the country. Last night there was a reported 200km traffic jam on the road into Kyiv from Odessa. Photo @Dbnmjr

Ukraine. What a difference a day makes. On Monday it looked like a solution was in sight but yesterday was the bloodiest day yet. A march to parliament to persuade law makers to revert back to the 2004 ‘Orange Revolution’ Constitution was met with the most sustained crackdown so far. At the time of writing, twenty five protestors and police had been killed, quadruple the entire death toll to date. The most incredible thing is how, throughout, protestors have stood their ground, faced with battalions of Berkut riot police and marauding, armed Titushki (paid thugs). Determined definitely, and well organised, but also perhaps sustained by support from the rest of the country. Last night there was a reported 200km traffic jam on the road into Kyiv from Odessa as supporters flooded in, though they were met with sand bank road blocks on all the major roads. Photo @Dbnmjr

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GERMANY. See this useful introduction to autobahn driving from Deutsche Welle. BORDER. Maidan freedom activists have reportedly blocked the border between Ukraine and Poland at Korczowa/Krakovets, on the main road between Rzeszow and Lviv. Meanwhile, the border between Ukraine and Belarus is operating normally says a statement from the Belarus State Border Guard. LUXEMBOURG. An end is in sight for the 13 year saga over the connection between the A13 and N13 at Hellange in the south. Work should start in the spring and take two years. There’s currently a gloriously heath robinson arrangement involving a tight kink in the carriageway. The govt has finally forced through a compulsory purchase order for the land. INTERNATIONAL HAULAGE. The IRU says it could withdraw TIR guarantee coverage in the Russian Federation and for Russian TIR Carnet Holders. It has sent a letter to Vladimir Putin directly. The dispute stems from last July when the FCS Federal Customs Service said it was pulling out of the cross border TIR scheme. IRU says costs have multiplied 83 fold since. CYPRUS. Speed cameras are set to make a comeback after the previous system was beset with ‘quality issues’ and dropped. Fatal crashes fell 13.7% last year.

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Cannonball 2000 cancelled – Road tolls trial Belgium

The high-powered and highly controversial Cannonball run is cancelled. Herders experiment with reflective antlers to stem roadkill accidents. Belgium experiments with pay-as-you-go electronic road tolls. Few cars in Naples have roadworthy certificates, suicides surpass crash victims in Poland and Turkey and Bulgaria promise to solve border permit problems once and for all.

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CANNNONBALL 2000 CANCELLED.

Last year’s event hit by police presence and massive speeding fine.

Last year's event. Photo via Police Grand-Ducale, Luxembourg.

Last year’s Cannonball 2000. Photo via Police Grand-Ducale, Luxembourg.

This year’s Cannonball 2000 car run through Europe has been cancelled.

A statement from the organiser Gary Redman today said, ‘Owing to increased work commitments in the UK and overseas, I cannot give Cannonball 2000 the full attention it requires to continue to grow the event.’

It’s a big surprise considering the event has been heavily promoted on Twitter the past few weeks promising, ‘Supercars, super models and super parties!’

The Facebook page was full of regretful comments from previous participants.

Last year’s event caused a huge stir after Cannonballers were shadowed by police for virtually the whole route south from Amsterdam to Marbella.

The force in Vaud, Switzerland, actually issued a statement warning of extra patrols and speed traps.

Most drivers detoured through France but one man was caught speeding twice in Switzerland and fined £8,500. His Ferrari California was to be confiscated too though he was able to prove it didn’t belong to him.

Thirty six cars eventually arrived at the Grand Hotel Kempinski later that night after a full customs check at the Bardonnex border crossing.

The route this year had been changed completely. It started in Prague on 7 June followed by Budapest, Savudrija in Croatia, Florence and Monaco.

The organisers did not respond to a request for comment.

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Finland: members of the Reindeer Herders’ Association are experimenting with reflective sprays to make the animals more visible on the roads of Lapland in the north. Between 3-5,000 are involved in car accidents each year. It the spray proves durable it will be rolled out more widely next autumn. See www.paliskunnat.fi for more.

Finland: members of the Reindeer Herders’ Association are experimenting with reflective sprays to make the animals more visible on the roads of Lapland in the north. Between 3-5,000 are involved in car accidents each year. It the spray proves durable it will be rolled out more widely next autumn. See www.paliskunnat.fi for more.

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BELGIUM: GPS PAY-AS-YOU-GO ROAD TOLLS TRIALS BEGINS

Per km charges could replace road taxes – and will apply to foreign drivers.

Photo: screen grab via @landersnews, www.deredactie.be

Photo: screen grab via @FlandersNews, www.deredactie.be (Belgian news in English)

A controversial large scale, two month trial of a GPS-based road charging system is underway in Belgium.

Over 1,200 motorists are taking part, mainly in the Brussels region but also in other areas of the country.

The charges vary depending on the type of road and the time of day, from 2.5c per kilometre off-peak on a motorway to 9c per km in a city at rush hour.

The charges are logged on a transponder fixed to the windscreen and calculated in real time, much like a taxi meter (Finland is also considering a similar system).

The pay-as-you-go charges are intended to replace road tax.

A petition against the system attracted over 150,000 signatures within three days of the trial being announced earlier this month.

If successful the system could be introduced in all three Belgian regions in two years’ time though that depends on the results of the General Election in May.

A briefing from the VBO employers’ organisation says the system will apply to foreign drivers too though the details are not yet available. A similar system in Portugal has transponder stations at border areas.

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roundup: ITALY. Half the cars in Naples have not been properly MOTd since before 2001 say police following a crackdown. Special software is used to pass vehicles not brought in for inspections. One dead mechanic signed off 1,600 cars. Over a third of cars checked were uninsured. POLAND. More people commit suicide than die in car crashes new figures show – 4,177 v 3,571 in 2012 – in a country already infamous for its road safety record. BORDER DISPUTE. Turkey and Bulgaria will agree a total liberalisation of the transit permit regime by March it was announced today after a six hour meeting in order to prevent a recurrence of the recent mega border queues. GIBRALAR QUEUE WATCH. Delays hit two hours today says @RGPolice. PORSCHE. ‘Geneva Show will have a special exhibition celebrating Le Mans 24 Hour. Wonder if any manufacturers will launch their ’14 LMP1 car there…’ says GTPorsche editor Stewart Gallagher. Who can he mean?

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Dacia factory under threat

The wildly successful Dacia factory is under threat if a new motorway is not built soon. Fuel’s up in Portugal, a hefty fine for Dover overloading, more underage driving, toll road misery Spain, Gibraltar border go-slow, Moscow solves its pothole problem and more revelations from the ADAC.

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Dacia factory under threat if new trans-Carpathian motorway not built soon says Romanian president.

Dacias in Pitesti, central Romania. The factory is actually at Mioveni, ten miles north. Photo @DriveEurope.

Dacias in Pitesti, central Romania. The factory is actually at Mioveni, ten miles north. Photo @DriveEurope.

The Romanian president Traian Basescu is no friend of the prime minister Victor Ponta.

Most recently the president refused to sign into law Ponta’s plan to raise fuel duty, one in a long line of public spats.

Now Basescu is lighting another fire under the government by claiming Romania’s prize industrial asset is at risk if the long-planned motorway across the Carpathian mountains is not built as a priority.

In remarks last week to a local TV station, Basescu said, ‘It is sure Dacia will lose the assembly line in Pitesti because at Tangier, in Morocco, there are already takeover capacities.

‘In Tangier, the cars are placed directly in the ship because the port is at just a few kilometers from the factory, not like in Romania where the Government prioritizes the highway section Bucharest-Alexandria instead of Pitesti-Sibiu.’

Dacia built 430,000 vehicles last year at its factory near Pitesti, just to the south of the Carpathians. The company has been a runaway sales success for parent company Renault and is said to account for around 8% of Romania’s total exports.

The vast majority of Dacia cars are sent abroad, mainly through the Black Sea port of Constanta which is now linked by motorway to Pitesti via Bucharest.

Heading north, to Western Europe, is much more difficult. Sections of motorway to the Hungarian border in the west are well underway with the entire stretch expected to be ready in summer 2016.

The road across the mountains however, between Pitesti and Sibiu, is still on the drawing board with an earliest finish date of 2020. Last year the government controversially decided to prioritise not just the Bucharest-Alexandria road in the south west but also the Brasov-Comarnic motorway in the east.

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roundup: DOVER. A driver has been fined £300 on-the-spot and the vehicle prohibited after being found 28% overweight says @KentPoliceRoads. PORTUGAL. Petrol has edged up two cents per litre this morning to €1.55. Diesel is unchanged at €1.35. MOSCOW. Potholes have been reduced tenfold in the past three years says Mayor Sobyanin (since he was in power) with 27 million square meters of road replaced in 2013. ADAC. The order of the top cars, not just the votes, were manipulated in the annual ‘Yellow Angel’ car of the year award says the motoring organisation in its latest confessional. The second placed Audi A6, for instance, was bumped down two places in 2012. CYPRUS. Further to the run away Norwegian kid last week, a Cypriot man has been arrested for letting his 8 year old daughter drive his car. GIBRALTAR. Queue watch. Go slow today rather than all out delays: @RGPolice reports in the half hour to 16:00, twelve cars crossed into Spain. SPAIN. Drivers using toll roads have dropped by a third since 2006 even as the network has expanded from 1,723km to 2,568km says the Ministry of Development. The govt could bail out troubled operators in exchange for an 80% shareholding.

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Kyiv, end in sight? Some streets have been cleared or partially cleared, including Hrushevskoho Street, scene of the most bitter confrontation recently (above). Protestors have left the city hall building and 234 have been released by the authorities under an amnesty. Meanwhile however, an Automaidan activist in Zaporizhzhya in south east Ukraine was killed at the weekend after an unknown assailant fired into the petrol tank. Most of all, protestors are keen to refute accusations that their movement is made up of (right wing) extremists. Photo via @EuromaidanPR

Kyiv, end in sight? Some streets have been cleared or partially cleared, including Hrushevskoho Street, scene of the most bitter confrontation recently (above). Protestors have left the city hall building and 234 have been released by the authorities under an amnesty. Meanwhile however, an Automaidan activist in Zaporizhzhya in south east Ukraine was killed at the weekend after an unknown assailant fired into the petrol tank. Most of all, protestors are keen to refute accusations that their movement is made up of (right wing) extremists. Photo via @EuromaidanPR

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Fascinating autobahn: the record breaking A9

A fascinating stretch of autobahn: the record breaking – and surviving – A9 Dessau-Bitterfeld.

Marking seventy five years since Caracciola set land speed records.

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High speed:

February 1939: Rudolf Caracciola and Mercedes W 154.

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By 1939 land speed record attempts had outgrown their early venues, like the stretch of concrete road near Gyor in Hungary, the Avus racetrack in Berlin (now A115) and even the famous Darmstadt-Frankfurt Reichsautobahn (now A5).

The last records before the war were set on a stretch of what is now the 529km A9, Berlin-Leipzig-Munich.

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Because the dead straight ten kilometre section between Dessau and Bitterfeld was also intended as an auxiliary aircraft runway it was 25m wide and the bridges were all pillarless steel arches. That also made it ideal for high speed driving.

On 9 February 1939, Grand Prix legend Rudolf Caracciola set four new Class D records – for cars of between two and three litres – using two versions of the Mercedes W 154 Grand Prix car.

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The standing start version of the Mercedes W 154

The standing start version of the Mercedes W 154

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The standing start car had individual fairings for the wheels and an open cockpit while the flying start car was completely encased, even the underside, in a streamlined body.

Powered by a three litre supercharged V12 – producing 468hp at 7,800rpm – the 980kg W 154 achieved 175.1kmh over a kilometre, and 204.6kmh over a mile, from a standing start. From a flying start, W 154 hit 398.2kmh over a kilometre and 399.6kmh for the mile.

Mercedes was planning to use this road to set an overall land speed record with its upcoming, 8.24m long three-axle T 80 driven by Hans Stuck (and a 3,500hp, 44.5 litre aircraft engine) but the war intervened.

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The Dessau-Bitterfeld stretch was never used as a runway but after the war – when the A9 was one of only four access roads between West and East Germany – it was used as part of a race track.

Up until 1956 the Rennstrecke Dessau hosted regular motorbike and car races. After that increasing traffic made it impractical to shut off for a sporting event.

Stuck never got to drive the T 80 but he did race here in the early 1950s.

The A9 was extensively overhauled after reunification – as German Unity Transport Project No. 12 – but the profile of the section Dessau-Bitterfeld is exactly as it was built, save for a semi-permanent concrete central reservation. Even the bridges remain.

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The pillarless steel arch bridge on A9 between Zschepkau and Thalheim.

The pillarless steel arch bridge on A9 between Zschepkau and Thalheim. Photo via Wikipedia.

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Also see: The Last Hitlerbahn – the only surviving, unmodernised stretch of original autobahn in Germany.

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