Tolls on state and municipal roads not coming before 2027
According to a report, the Green-Black coalition will no longer implement the planned truck toll for state and municipal roads in the current legislative period. "Due to the extensive preparations required, particularly with regard to the legal basis and technical implementation, it is not feasible to launch the truck toll before 2027," the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Transport told the Schwäbische Zeitung newspaper (Friday). So far, it has only said that a timetable is not yet foreseeable. The next state election in the south-west is expected to be in spring 2026.
In the 2021 coalition agreement, the Greens and CDU had agreed that Transport Minister Winfried Hermann (Greens) should try to get the other federal states on board in the first half of the legislative period. However, he failed to do so. He is therefore now planning a bill. There had been massive criticism of the plan from the CDU and the business community.
The state Ministry of Transport emphasized that the southwest toll had been approved by the cabinet in November. "The internal preparations for a draft law are therefore underway," the "Schwäbische Zeitung" reported further.
According to the report, part of the problem for Transport Minister Hermann is that the federal government does not want to support Baden-Württemberg's plans for a special toll. According to the "Schwäbische Zeitung", the state would be dependent on cooperation with the company Toll Collect. As a service provider, Toll Collect is responsible for collecting and billing the nationwide truck toll, which has been in force on freeways since 2005 and on federal highways since 2018. The company is wholly owned by the federal government.
This is why there have been talks between the transport ministries in Stuttgart and Berlin - apparently with an unpleasant outcome for the state government. "There was an exchange in which the BMDV (Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs) made it clear that it does not support the inclusion of Toll Collect GmbH in the state toll due to the various legal, technical, financial and organizational problems involved," says a letter from Oliver Luksic (FDP), State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport. The addressee of the letter, which is available to the "Schwäbische Zeitung", is Christian Jung, FDP transport expert in the Stuttgart state parliament.
Jung has now concluded that the project has failed. "Green Transport Minister Hermann cannot count on Toll Collect providing him with the billing infrastructure for a state truck toll in the southwest."
The Green-Black coalition's decision to postpone the truck toll on state and municipal roads until 2027 will likely impact municipalities' budgets, as they rely on toll revenues for transportation infrastructure improvement. Moreover, the federal government's reluctance to support Baden-Württemberg's plans for a special toll could hamper the cooperation with Toll Collect, the company responsible for collecting and billing the nationwide truck toll, leading to further delays in the implementation of the toll on state roads.
Source: www.dpa.com
