Author Archives: driveeuropenews

Gibraltar Queue Watch: a new twist

Last updated 18:15 GMT.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: Weather delays of up to four hours Dover-Calais/Dunkirk, P&O, DFDS and MyFerryLink.

Eurotunnel passenger: UK 60mins wait on terminal.

LD Lines Poole-Santander postponed by ‘extreme’ weather in Bay of Biscay, and Sunday’s Santander-Poole. Update tomorrow morning.

Condor Ferries high speed sailings cancelled Monday, services rescheduled 21-23 December due to weather.

Brittany Ferries Portsmouth-Caen, tech issue Mont St Michel, delays, and Portsmouth-Santander, weather.

WEATHER ALERTS: Amber alert ‘coastal event’ Denmark, high winds eastern Germany, ‘coastal event’ Spain, fog Montenegro, ice east Czech Republic.

WEATHER: Settled across much of Europe. Gales in the North. Sunny and dry Iberia.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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GIBRALTAR QUEUE WATCH: A new twist.

Work is on-going on the Spanish side of the border apparently

Work is on-going on the Spanish side of the border, apparently acting on the European Commission border inspection team’s recommendation to better organise vehicle queues. The delays themselves however have worsened. Pic via @Gibraltar_ape

Wednesday was a particularly bad day at the Spanish frontier with delays reaching four hours by the evening.

That’s as long as queues have been since the summer’s string of diplomatic incidents.

For the first time however, there were six lanes of traffic waiting to cross into Spain during the night.

At midnight, and again at 01:00, the estimated queuing time was three hours according to @RGPolice. After the ‘enhanced checks’ finished at 02:30 the waiting cars dispersed almost immediately.

This week the European Commission finally published the letter it sent to the Spanish authorities after the border inspection in September. It emerges that border guards define ‘medium intensity’ checks as thorough searches on eight out of ten vehicles.

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Berlin Wall, Christmas 1961.

Berlin Wall, Christmas 1961. Pic via @TheViewEast

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Eurotunnel: all clear for Christmas – Lyon ‘Operation Escargot’

Last updated 18:00 GMT.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: P&O Dover-Calais, 40min delays C-D 18:40 and D-C 20:05 operational reasons. DFDS Dover-Calais 30mins, port movements.

Condor Ferries high speed sailings cancelled on Monday and services rescheduled 21-23 December due to weather.

WEATHER ALERTS: Amber alert high winds Ireland, ‘coastal events’ Spain, heavy rain/flooding Var, south east France and ice Czech Republic.

WEATHER: Windy in the North and South West. Fog Germany and north Italy. Alpine snow. Sunshine Greece.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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EUROTUNNEL: ALL CLEAR FOR CHRISTMAS.

Eurotunnel Le Shuttle: all clear for Christmas

Eurotunnel Le Shuttle: all clear for Christmas

Eurotunnel services are expected to run smoothly over the holiday period.

Delays due to technical problem in the latter half of this week, particularly overnight, had led to fears the service would be disrupted over the all-important Christmas getaway weekend.

However, a spokesperson for Eurotunnel told @DriveEurope today that the problem has been solved and that trains will run as normal over Christmas and New Year: “one hundred percent”.

A cracked rail saw single track running on Wednesday and Thursday evenings leading to delays, particularly for freight traffic.

The rail was fixed temporarily overnight Wednesday and permanently last night.

At the time of writing passenger trains were back on schedule, and freight services from France. Freight services from the UK are steadily returning to normal.

Postscript 27 December: it didn’t quite work out that way, Eurotunnel was hit by seemingly every kind of delay over the pre-Christmas weekend. To be fair, the cracked rail didn’t recur and things would have been much better without extra traffic from the weather-delayed ferries. But spare a thought for the truckers still facing hours long waits late on Christmas Eve. However, Eurotunnel gets a lot of credit for being the only cross Channel operator running none stop over Christmas and New Year, 24 hours a day.

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Random: The Forth Road Bridge over the Firth of Forth in east central Scotland, connecting Edinburgh and Fife.

Random: The Forth Road Bridge – over the Firth of Forth in east central Scotland connecting Edinburgh and Fife – at full moon on 17 December. Keep up to date with conditions on the bridge via @ForthRoadBridge (h/t @AlisonsDiary).

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FRANCE: an ‘Operation Escargot’ go-slow on the major roads around Lyon is planned for tomorrow, destined to hit drivers heading for the Alps. ‘Les Routiers du Collectif Rhones-Alpes’, the truck association in the south east of France, will start the procession at 7am at the toll of Saint Maurice de Beynost on the A42. They drive out of Lyon to the A432 bypass then head southbound to the A43. The operation ends at 13:00 at the toll St Quentin Fallavier on the A43 eastbound. ‘Escargot’ are an increasingly popular form of protest. Striking driving instructors staged a go-slow around Cannes and Nice this morning while employees from a bankrupt haulier held a go-slow in southern Paris.

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Christmas congestion

Avoid the worst of the holiday jams by taking note of Europe’s traffic blackspots, and the times when they are likely to be busiest.

update Saturday 4 January: traffic was noticeably heavy descending the Dolomites to northern Italy on New Year’s Day but apart from that – and some short rush hour delays as people slowly returned to work – the roads this week have been very quiet. The expected northbound rush through Switzerland Thursday and Friday failed to materialise.

Today has been a different story. The blackspot N90 down from the French Alps – Bourg-Moutiers-Albertville – and the cross border roads Austria and Germany were all very busy from early on. The biggest delays however had passed by lunchtime.

It has been fairly nightmarish in Switzerland though, heavy snow across the Alps combined with heavy traffic meaning stop start for many drivers with lengthy delays to clear the A2, and big queues around major cities. The Gotthard Tunnel saw its first significant delays of the holidays. The situation improved as the afternoon wore on – since when traffic started to build on roads towards the A22 Brenner motorway in northern Italy – then suddenly worsened again with an 8km queue northbound.

The other afternoon blackspot has been the Sosa Valley west of Turin and the roads between the Frejus Tunnel and Briancon direction Grenoble. Drivers could expect 40min delays whichever way they were heading, peaking briefly at a 1h20 delay northbound for Frejus.

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Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

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France.

The French are normally the first to raise the alarm about expected traffic jams but the highest warning over the Christmas period is orange, one up from ‘no problems’.

The busiest days are expected to be this Friday and Saturday (20-21 December), Christmas Eve (Tuesday) and Saturday 28 January as drivers head out. The return busy days are Sunday 29 December and Saturday 4 January.

As ever, Lyon will be the hotspot, either south on the A7 to Avignon or – especially – the A43 west to Chambery and the Alps. The absolute classic French winter traffic jam is the A90 Albertville-Moutiers off the A43/A430 from Chambery, in the heart of the Three Valleys ski region.

Germany.

German roads are expected to be busy right up until 7 January with only Christmas Eve quieter than usual according to motoring organisation ADAC.

The particular hotspots will be Friday evening (20 December) after schools break up, all day the next day, especially around cities, and then immediately after Christmas as the winter holiday rush starts.

The heaviest holiday jams are traditionally in Bavaria, particularly the south on the border with Austria. The A99 ring around Munich is best avoided, as is the A8 to Salzburg and the A93 off there to Innsbruck (see below).

Austria.

It will be interesting to see if drivers use the A12 motorway at Kufstein since the vignette exemption was lifted earlier this month.

This notoriously busy stretch south of the German border, between Munich and Innsbruck to the west, is a popular way to reach the ski resorts in Vorarlberg and Tyrol in western Austria.

If drivers do avoid the A12 they will either divert through local villages, or put even more pressure on the other notorious border crossing, the Fussen-Reutte A7/B179 Fernpass to the west of Innsbruck.

Either way, ASFINAG warns these roads – and the A10 between Salzburg and Biscofshofen – will be at their worst on the weekend of 27-30 December.

Switzerland.

Summer or winter, if it’s holiday time then the big bottleneck is always the Gotthard Tunnel, on the major north-south drag A2 between Basel and Chiasso on the Italian border (not an issue until Saturday 4 January).

At busy times the usual advice is to head from Basel to Zurich on the A3 and then south on the A13 to hitch back up with the A2 at Bellinzona. However, because of all the swish ski resorts in the east of Switzerland the A13 will be busy too. The other hotspot will be the A6/8 Bern-Interlaken.

As a transit country, Switzerland has busy northbound days and busy southbound days. Northbound days are Saturday and Sunday 28-29 December, and Wednesday and Thursday 1-2 January. Southbound traffic will be heavy on Saturday 21 December, Friday and Saturday 27-28 December (and Friday and Saturday 24-25 January).

The Swiss Touring Club says avoid travelling between 10-15:00 on southbound Saturdays, 11-16:00 on northbound Saturdays and 15-18:00 on northbound Sundays.

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Weather: with even Finland expecting a ‘Black Christmas’, those at ground level are unlikely to see much snow. Instead there will be widespread storms, heavy rain and high winds. According to the latest BBC Winter Sports forecast however, ski regions will see snow.

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Read about Winter Tyre requirements around Europe here.

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Rash of Romanian roads – Poland

More sections of Romania’s A1 open – taking drivers to Transalpina if not quite Transfagarasan – while Poland looks forward to the next phase of its roads revival.

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ROMANIAN ROADS: ALMOST GETTING THERE.

New sections of A1 open up Romania’s trophy roads.

May 2013: on a section of A1, between Simeria and Deva, opened in December 2012. After a long day on busy, single lane roads, every moment on fresh, smooth motorway was - no kidding - exquisitely pleasurable.

May 2013: on a section of A1, between Simeria and Deva, opened in December 2012. After a long day on busy, single lane roads, every moment on fresh, smooth motorway was – no kidding – exquisitely pleasurable. Two weeks later and we could have enjoyed a further ten miles, between Orastie and Simeria.

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A rash of openings today see a vital 80 extra miles of motorway between Western Europe and one of the Continent’s best roads.

It might not sound like much but the new sections will ease the journey considerably. Progress across western Romania can be miserable due to heavy traffic on the single lane main roads.

It also means that, of the 1,299 miles from Calais to Transalpina at Sebes, only 114 miles is not on fast road.

The new sections of A1 between Deva and Sibiu include Romania’s first ever motorway tunnel, the 340m Sacel Tunnel (four hundred staff held a barbecue inside on 16 December to celebrate).

The remaining 13 mile gap west of Sibiu – between Cunta (really) and Saliste – has been set back by landslides but should open in September 2014.

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D67C Transalpina starts at Sebes but 17 miles south, past Sugag, is D106E – also called Transalpina – said to be even more challenging. D106E connects to Saliste.

While the entire western stretch of A1 should be finished by summer 2016, with around 70 miles still to build, technical problems mean the part south across the Carpathians will not be complete until 2020 at the earliest.

Eventually A1 will connect the capital Bucharest with the Hungarian border – and western European motorway network – 360 miles in total.

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Update 23.12.13: sad to say, the new stretch of A1 has already seen it’s first crash.

Read more about driving in Romania here. See EVO magazine’s recent drive on Transalpina here. See Romania’s newest high-altitude road, Transbucegi, here.

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Poland: the motorway network has more than doubled since 2007, to 2,759km of fast roads today reports @WhyEmergingEuro

Fast Roads: the Polish motorway network has more than doubled since 2007 reports @WhyEmergingEuro today, but there is much, much more to come. A rep from the roads directorate @GDDKiA told a conference we attended last year that, ‘From 2015 Poland will be a vast building site,’ (best get those plumbing jobs sorted sharpish). By 2016 Poland will have more motorways than the UK. Oh, and the speed limit is 140kmh.

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Euro fuel price survey – Adam+Vale

Last updated 23:00 GMT.

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Channel delays: Eurotunnel passenger: 60min wait at UK terminal. Freight: 2h30 transit from UK and 3hrs from France. Earlier incident now resolved.

High winds affecting many services this evening, likely over 50 knots from 19:00-03:00. Port of Dover is advising customers to check with their operator for the latest information on sailings.

Current delays: P&O Dover-Calais, approximately 60mins. DFDS Dover-Calais, 120min delay from Dover 21:15 and 00:30, from Calais 23:00 + 01:00.

Condor Ferries fast ferry Weymouth-Channel Islands cancelled; extra service tomorrow. Clipper sailing calling at Jersey first. LD Lines St Nazaire-Gijon cancelled today and tomorrow, resumes Friday, and 23:00 Newhaven-Dieppe ‘subject to delay’. DFDS Newcastle-Amsterdam (Ijmuiden) arrival delayed two hours tomorrow, until 11:30.

WEATHER ALERTS: Red alert for high winds Ireland, amber alert for high winds Scotland, Norway and for heavy rain north Portugal.

Weather: Fair in the East and South, some rain through the North and West.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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EUROPEAN FUEL SURVEY.

The highs and lows of fuel prices around Europe, December 2013.

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Russia: cheapest petrol and diesel in Europe.

Russia: cheapest petrol and diesel in Europe. Pic via www.gazprom-neft.com. Not sure when it was taken, or even what the prices relate to, but at today’s exchange rate, 29.50RUB is €0.65.

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Unleaded 95 petrol

It’s kind of sick making to know that petrol sells for €0.73/l in Russia. It’s the cheapest in Europe, just 40% of the price in the perennially most expensive country, Norway (€1.806).

Everybody knows fuel is cheap in Eastern Europe but in among the Ukraines (€.085), Moldovas (€1.007) and the Czech Republic (€1.282) comes Andorra at €1.250.

Romania is €1.235 at the moment but there’s a 7-8c rise on the way. Similarly, Luxembourg unleaded sells for €1.286 but VAT is due to increase from 15% to 17% which, on current form, puts it between Serbia (€1.308) and Bulgaria (€1.313).

The next Western European country on the list, perhaps surprisingly, is Austria (€1.360). Spain is not far behind (€1.388) and who new petrol was cheaper in Switzerland (€1.422) than either Slovakia (€1.440) or Slovenia (€1.446)?

The tide has turned in France (€1.479). Not long ago it wasn’t much different to the UK (€1.549).

Portugal is quite interesting. The highest price (€1.589) is 18c/l higher than the lowest. Turkey (€1.723) and Italy (€1.764 – you can buy it cheaper) are developing reputations for expensive fuel but it still comes as quite a shock that a litre of unleaded in Greece costs, on average, €1.648.

Honourable mentions go to Belgium (€1.590) and the Netherlands (€1.753).

Diesel

Did you know a litre of diesel retails for €0.07 in Saudi Arabia? Yes, 7c per litre. At that rate it costs just €7 to fill the 100 litre fuel tank of the Audi Q7 6.0 V12 TDI.

Even in the cheapest European country for diesel, Russia (€0.742), it would cost nearly €75. They don’t sell the V12 Q7 in Norway (€1.713) but if they did a tank of diesel would cost a comical €170.

Unlike the UK (€1.637) it’s common on the Continent for diesel to be cheaper than petrol – in Armenia (€0.864), Macedonia (€1.134), Andorra (€1.148), Lithuania (€1.282) and France (€1.314). It’s significantly cheaper in Luxembourg (€1.198), Germany (€1.352) and the Netherlands (€1.459).

Very broadly though, if petrol is expensive then so is diesel but Switzerland (€1.507) edges up the list, as does Sweden (€1.524).

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source: all prices were correct at time of publication, taken from www.fuel-prices-europe.info, compiled daily from official sources. Note, check the information column. Some prices are average, some are the most expensive.

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Valentino Rossi and his equally legendary helmet designer Aldo Drudi have jazzed up a Vauxhall/Opel Adam for charity. As well as the characteristic neon flourishes on the bodywork and wheels, the interior has been retrimmed in cartoon Dainese motorcycle leather (see home page). All proceeds go to the Meyer ONLUS children’s hospital in Florence. The car is being auctioned on eBay, see http://www.meyer.it/adam46/ Current bid stands at €19,150, due to close on the morning of 24 December.

Valentino Rossi and his almost equally legendary helmet designer Aldo Drudi have jazzed up a Vauxhall/Opel Adam for charity. As well as the characteristic neon flourishes on the bodywork and wheels, the interior has been retrimmed in cartoon Dainese motorcycle leather (see home page). All proceeds go to the Meyer ONLUS children’s hospital in Florence. The car is being auctioned on eBay, see http://www.meyer.it/adam46/ The current highest bid stands at €19,150, due to close on 24 December.

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FRANCE. As expected, the speed limit on the Paris peripherique will be reduced to 70kmh (from 80kmh) as of 1 January 2014. The decision is open to review however and might change. ROMANIA. Paid hitchhiking is to be outlawed, enforced with fines of up to €1,100, because it undermines licenced transport companies. Craig Turp @BucharestLife calls it, ‘an attempt to reclaim Europe’s sought-after ‘most stupid law’ award’ saying there’s little to no public transport out in the sticks. ITALY. Via dei Fori Imperiali, the road between the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia in central Rome will be completely pedestrianized over Christmas and New Year. Bike mad recently elected mayor Ignazio Marino banned private cars from the area in September, but now all powered transport, including buses and taxis, will be barred until 6 January.

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Greece roads restart – Invincible

Last updated 18:45 GMT.

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Channel delays: Eurotunnel freight UK: 30mins pre-check in. DFDS Dover-Calais, 60mins, port movements.

Bad weather affecting some services from tomorrow: Condor Ferries fast ferry Weymouth-Channel Islands cancelled tomorrow. Extra service Thursday. Brittany Ferries Santander-Portsmouth tomorrow by one hour, now departing one hour earlier at 16:30 local time. LD Lines St Nazaire-Gijon cancelled today and tomorrow, resumes Friday.

Weather alerts: Amber alert for fog Montenegro, yellow for fog south Germany, north east Spain and north Italy.

Weather: Dry, sunny South, rain in the North.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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ROADS RESTART GETS GREEK ECONOMY BACK ON TRACK, PART TWO.

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Eight months ago work restarted on Greece’s motorway network after projects were pulled during the financial crisis.

Now a second wave has been approved with a further six thousand jobs created during construction and another 1,700 jobs in operations once the roads are up and running.

Yesterday the European Commission gave the go-ahead to release €776m from EU and national funds.

The Aegean Highway (green) between Athens and Thessaloniki will have a vital gap plugged while the Kentriki Highway (turquoise) between east and west Greece will have a significant central section built.

Most important, the Olympia Highway between major port Patras and Corinith (yellow) will finally be built to connect to the existing motorway to Athens. Patras will also link to another big port at Igoumenitsa via Ionannina on the Ionian Highway.

All the roads should be completed by the end of 2015. Part of the deal included restructuring agreements with the road operators, including raising tolls by up to 60%.

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also in the news – it’s being widely reported this afternoon that former Transport minister Michalis Liapis has been arrested after allegedly driving a car with false number plates – a common method of escaping road taxes  – and without a valid licence or insurance. Update: the case caused quite a stir all week, keeping the cartoonists busy, especially after Liapis flew to Malaysia on Thursday instead of attending court. Meanwhile, a former Golden Dawn parliamentary candidate was also caught driving his ‘luxury SUV’ with fake licence plates on Friday. Postscript: Liapis was given a four year suspended jail term at a hearing on 30 December with the option to clear the sentence by paying a €73,000 fine on top of the €3,000 already levied.

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Driver of the day: pic from the Head Gamekeeper on Glenstriven Estate in Argyll of their clearly aptly named Toyota Hilux Invincible, via @ToyotaGB.

Driver of the day: pic from the Head Gamekeeper on Glenstriven Estate in Argyll of their clearly aptly named Toyota Hilux Invincible, via @ToyotaGB.

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Finland moving to road tolls – Col des Roches – Wings to Syria

Last updated 18:00 GMT.

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Channel delays: P&O cancellations, tech issue: Calais-Dover 16:05 and Dover-Calais 17:25.

Weather alerts: Amber alert for snow central Finland and yellow for fog/ice Germany, north east Spain, north Italy and Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia. See below for Switzerland.

Weather: Sunny across Southern Europe but ‘jet stream brings rain to the north’.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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SWITZERLAND. Heavy fog plaguing the Swiss plateau region from Geneva to Zurich will persist until Thursday. Meanwhile, authorities across the border in France have reduced the speed limit by 20kmh, to 110kmh on autoroutes and 70kmh on main roads.

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Wings on Wheels – a second aid convoy has left Unterturkheim, Stuttgart, destined for Gazientep on the Syrian border in south central Turkey. Two hundred tonnes of supplies worth €2m, including winter clothing, food, medicine and tents, left Friday on the six day 3,300km journey via Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria. This on top of a €4m shipment in September. Mercedes-Benz supplied the eleven strong fleet of brand new 420bhp Actros trucks. Daimler and its employees raised €100,000.

Wings on Wheels – a second aid convoy has left Unterturkheim, Stuttgart, destined for Gazientep on the Syrian border in south central Turkey. Two hundred tonnes of supplies worth €2m, including winter clothing, food, medicine and tents, left Friday on the six day 3,300km journey via Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria. This on top of a €4m shipment in September. Mercedes-Benz supplied the eleven strong fleet of brand new 420bhp Actros trucks. Daimler and its employees raised €100,000.

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FINLAND MOVING TO ROAD TOLLS.

Pay per kilometer charge to replace all vehicle taxes.

Finland: the A12 at Tempere in south west Finland earlier today. Picture via

The A12 at Tampere in south west Finland earlier today. Picture via www.liikennevirasto.fi national traffic website. BTW Pyynikki is a 26m high observation tower with views over the city and lakes Nasijarvi to the north and Pyhajarvi to the south, open for tourists.

Finland is moving steadily towards a national pay as you go road user charging system.

A working group sponsored by the Transport ministry and headed by former Nokia boss Jorma Ollila – now chairman of Shell – published its report today (here in English).

It recommends replacing all vehicle taxes, purchase and road taxes, with a pay per mile rate of around 3.3c/km. The charge would vary depending on the vehicle emissions and location, countryside or city. Existing fuel levies would remain.

It’s the latest in a long line of reports recommending road tolls. A survey in September said 57% of Finns would welcome the move. Initial reaction to the report has been favourable.

The system won’t apply to freight or public transport.

Removing purchase taxes would see the price of an average new car fall by €7,000. Current tax on an entry level VW Golf retailing for €19,735 is €3,495.

Overall, the tolls would be tax neutral for the average motorists doing 17,000km each year.

The next step is on-road trials to develop the technology and iron out privacy concerns. The system works via GPS though real time monitoring would apparently not be possible.

Transport minister Merja Kyllonen welcomed the report saying the system would best be introduced ‘in stages with a long transition period’. It’s unlikely to be fully up and running before 2020.

update Saturday 21 December: 55% are opposed to the road charging scheme according to an opinion poll, with only 25% in favour. The principal objection is fairness, particularly for drivers in rural areas.

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More than a million images taken from books in the British Library Collection have been published for free on Flickr Commons. The picture above – ‘The Col de Roches, Jura’ – is taken from p221 of ‘A Ramble round France’ by J. Chesney published in 1885. Col des Roches is a mountain pass (919m, 3,015ft) in the Jura Mountains between Le Locle in west Switzerland and Morteau in east France, just north of Lake Neuchatel. Now replaced by a tunnel on the D461. For more info on the project see www.bl.uk

More than a million images taken from books in the British Library Collection have been published for free on Flickr Commons, all from the 17-19th century. The picture above – ‘The Col de Roches, Jura’ – is taken from p221 of ‘A Ramble round France’ by J. Chesney published in 1885. Col des Roches is a mountain pass (919m, 3,015ft) in the Jura Mountains between Le Locle in west Switzerland and Morteau in east France, just north of Lake Neuchatel. Now replaced by a tunnel on the D461. The images are published with basic page and book references. The British Library will launch an App next year for users to fill in more information. For more see www.bl.uk

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RUSSIA. A shoot out inside an armoured car in St Petersburg last night resulted in the death of two guards. The men were transferring $6m in cash to deposit at the Central Bank. FRANCE. Parking fines could rise significantly reports The Connexion. Responsibility for parking is set to transfer from police to local authorities. The fine is currently €17 nationwide but could rise to €36 in Paris. GERMANY. Angela Merkels’s limo was rammed by an elderly motorist last night while en route from her weekend retreat in Brandenburg to Berlin (to announce her new cabinet). Merkel alternates between armoured versions of the BMW 7-series, Mercedes S-Class and Audi A8 to avoid favouritism in the German ‘limo-wars’. The impact, at the exit for Berlin-Weissensee on the A10, was described as a ‘glancing blow’ but was enough to smash the wing mirrors of both cars. BULGARIA. New roads vignette sticker goes on sale today. Prices – which haven’t changed since 2007 – range from 10LEV (£4.30) for a weekly pass, to 25LEV (£10.80) for a month or 67LEV (£28.90) for one year for cars, category K3. The vignette applies to all motorways and most main roads; avoiding buying it is not really practical. See www.vinetka.com for more, or to buy in advance.

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Traversee de Paris – 919 Hybrid – Madrid demo

Last updated 18:00 GMT.

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Channel delays: none reported currently.

Weather alerts: Amber alert for high winds southern Norway, and yellow warnings for fog north and south Germany, and north Italy.

Weather: Wet and windy in the north, fair for central and southern areas.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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919 Hybrid:

919 Hybrid: Porsche unveiled the name of its new Le Mans challenger, and the driver line up, at its Night of Champions events in Germany last night. The 919 is christened in succession with the all-conquering 917 endurance racer and recently unveiled 918 hypercar. Alongside established stars Mark Webber, Neel Janni, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas will race former Red Bull junior Brendon Hartley and – most interesting – Marc Lieb, the man at the wheel of the 918 when it set its now legendary 6m57 lap of the Nurburgring.

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Kiev, Sofia, Turin and now Madrid have all been hit by violent demonstrations in the past week. last night 3,000 protestors took to the streets of the Spanish capital in revolt at new

City Break: Kiev, Sofia, Turin and now Madrid have all been hit by violent demonstrations in the past week. Last night 3,000 people took to the streets of the Spanish capital in revolt at new anti-protest laws. Insulting the state, burning the Spanish flag or unauthorised mass gatherings outside parliament can now attract fines of tens or even hundreds of thousands of euros. Twenty three injuries were reported, including innocent bystanders caught by surprise. Be aware. Photo via @severinodigiov2/@newsfromitaly

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Six hundred quirky classics – cars, vans, bikes, buses and tractors, all more than 30 years old - take the streets of Paris next month on what could be the final Traversee de Paris. Back in 2012 mayor Bertrand Delanoe promised to ban all vehicles over 17 years old from inside the A86 ‘super-peripherique’ within two years. Such bans are increasingly common, applying in most German and Italian towns and cities. As far as we know, only Lisbon makes an exception for classics. Paris: participants assemble at Chateau de Vincennes in east Paris on Sunday 12 January before driving across the city, visiting many of the famous landmarks. See www.vincennesenanciennes.com for more.

Six hundred quirky classics – cars, vans, bikes, buses and tractors, all more than 30 years old – take the streets of Paris next month on what could be the final Traversee de Paris. Back in 2012 mayor Bertrand Delanoe promised to ban all vehicles over 17 years old from inside the A86 ‘super-peripherique’ within two years. Such bans are increasingly common, applying in most German and Italian towns and cities. As far as we know, only Lisbon makes an exception for classics. Paris: participants assemble at Chateau de Vincennes in east Paris on Sunday 12 January before driving across the city, visiting many of the famous landmarks. See www.vincennesenanciennes.com for more.

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Amorella aground – Vignette plan approved – Targa unveiled – Customs weird alert

Last updated 19:40 GMT.

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Channel delays: none reported currently.

Weather alerts: Amber alert for high winds southern Ireland (now downgraded, see below). Yellow warnings for fog/ice Germany/Switzerland/Austria.

Weather: Settled for much of Europe but bitterly cold in the East. Sunny and dry Iberia.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Weather warnings issued for drivers in Ireland (winds) and Luxembourg (ice).

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FERRY AGROUND IN THE ALAND ISLANDS.

Viking Lines' M/S Amorella at the Aland Islands, Finland.

Viking Lines’ M/S Amorella in the Aland Islands, Finland. Pic via VikingLines

FINLAND: A ferry ran aground early this afternoon at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia. No injuries are reported.

The Viking Line Amorella hit rocks – “touched lightly” according to a statement from the company – at the Aland Islands near Langnas. There are 1945 passengers on board being served complimentary drinks and food, but no alcohol.

Divers inspected the ship and found no damage, apart from a leaking ballast tank. The company says nobody is at risk.

Amorella will be re-floated this evening and sailed to nearby Mariehamn where passengers will be transferred to other ships to complete their journeys.

Update 15.12.13: Amorella made it into Mariehamn late last night under its own power. The ship ran aground apparently after a power cut. The investigation starting tomorrow centres on why backup generators did not kick in after the blackout according to YLE News.

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Lithuania – absolute weirdest story of the day. Customs officers in Klaipeda decided to investigate further after finding two ageing 4x4’s inside a shipping container. According to the documentation they were en route from the US to Afghanistan. Further investigation revealed a brand new Porsche Cayenne and unspecified Land Rover, both stolen in America. Officials suspect an inside job. One person has been arrested. Picture courtesy

Lithuania – absolute weirdest story of the day. Customs officers in Klaipeda decided to investigate further after finding two ageing 4x4s inside a shipping container. According to the documentation the cars were en route from the US to Afghanistan. Further investigation revealed a brand new Porsche Cayenne and unspecified Land Rover, both reported stolen in America. Officials suspect an inside job. One person has been arrested. Picture courtesy of Lithuania Customs, www.cust.lt Update: around 200 cars stolen in Germany have turned up in Tajikistan, Central Asia, which borders Afghanistan. The cars were tracked down by German and Lithuanian ‘Westwind’ investigators using the vehicles’ GPS sat-nav systems and are all reportedly in use or owned by people connected with the presidency says thelocal.de.

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VIGNETTE CLEARS ANOTHER HURDLE.

German coalition government approved in overwhelming party vote.

Another word is about to be added to the German drivers' phrasebook.

Vignette Shop: another word is about to be added to the German drivers’ essential phrasebook.

Three quarters of SDP Party members have endorsed the deal with Angela Merkel to form the next German Coalition government.

The overwhelming result includes approving the plan to charge foreign motorists using the country’s roads.

Hopes now rest on the vignette falling foul of EU anti-discrimination laws. However, provisional approval in September by the EU’s transport commissioner – and a similar plan starting next April in the UK for foreign truck drivers – means this is unlikely.

Apart from whether the vignette will apply just to autobahns or the entire German road network, the final detail to be settled is the cost. But based on the finely-honed typical German premium pricing strategy of charging a bit more than the customer is willing to pay, a bargain is not to be expected.

update 15.12.13: Alexander Dobrindt, architect and champion of the ‘foreigner toll’, has been appointed Transport minister in the Coalition government announced this evening. His was previously Secretary General of the ruling CSU Party in Bavaria (the sister party to Angela Merkel’s CDU). A divisive figure, Dobrindt is a long time ally of Bavarian president Horst Seehofer and was responsible for developing the ‘foreigner toll’. He aggressively campaigned for the policy which gained an 88% approval rating in Bavaria, and became the CSU’s deal breaker in Coalition negotiations. Sections of the German press are now referring to Dobrindt as ‘Maut-Held’ – toll hero.

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The upcoming Porsche 911 Targa takes trck roofs to new heights.

Air cooled: the upcoming Porsche 911 Targa takes the trick retractable roof to new heights. Days after a patent application published in the US showed the new mechanism in sketch form, photos leaked to www.automoto.fr show the finished article in all its glory. Basically, the entire rear deck and bubble rear screen lift up and back to stow the central roof section behind the rear seats. We have to wait until the Detroit Show in January apparently to see precisely how it works, and what the gubbins do the 911’s famous centre of gravity, but so far – unusually for something new and technical on the 911 – it’s been well received. Editor of www.GTPurelyPorsche.com magazine, Stuart Gallagher told @DriveEurope last night, ‘Looks interesting, could be a better proposition than the cabriolet.’

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POLAND. A traffic camera above a junction in Rumia – on r6 between Gdynia and Wejherowo – detected 16,300 offences in 42 days. None of the motorists will be prosecuted however because the camera was part of a research project on behalf of the GDDKiA roads directorate. ELECTRIC CARS. Two more free, high-speed Tesla Superchargers have opened in Germany bringing the total now to four – all in the west and south – plus the first in Switzerland, on the A1/E25 at Lully on Lake Neuchatel in the west of the country.

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French accident stats recover

Last updated 18:00 GMT.

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Click for news on the transport strike in Italy.

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Channel delays: Condor Ferries high speed services delayed by 30mins.

Weather alerts: Yellow fog alert eastern France, northern Italy, Germany, north east Spain.

Weather: Heavy snow and gales across the north. Fine and dry across the south.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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French accident stats recover.

French police stake out a well known accident hotspot.

French police stake out a well known accident hotspot.

After months of declining falls, the number of fatal accidents in France dropped by a healthy 15% in November.

We reported last month how a big cut of 29.5% in May had fallen to 10.4% in June, 3.3% in August and actually risen by 2.7% in October.

However, overall the gains have still been significant. So far this year there have been 2,943 road deaths compared to 3,334 in the same period last year, a fall of 11.7%.

Nevertheless questions are being asked about a policy almost totally focused on speeding drivers.

A meeting of the Le Conseil national de la sécurité routière (National Council for Road Safety – CNSR) last month agreed to develop a comprehensive road safety strategy with a more ‘holistic’ view of road safety as they work towards the stated target of cutting road deaths to under 2,000 by 2020.

Other initiatives on the table so far include compulsory alcolock breathalyser immobilisers for problem drinkers, accessing accident data already stored in cars’ onboard computer systems, and establishing February 22 as a National Day for road accident victims.

They also recommend allowing motorbikes to use the space between the two leftmost lanes on congested urban freeways.

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