Austrian border plight
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VEHICLES returning from runs to the Middle East, and forced to return by road following the end of the Ljubljana train, have been facing delays at the Austrian border.
When the train service ended last Saturday, operators • with vehicles on the roads were told to go to the German Federal Railways office at Lj ubljana to collect documents allowing them to pass through borders without the usual permits.
But as vehicles reached the Austrian border town of Spielfeld, queues grew as guards would not let the vehicles — many of them British — through without documents, It was in Vienna that a spokesman for the British Embassy eventually sorted the problem out. He contacted Austrian authorities and said that drivers would have to get in touch with the Austrian transport ministry to obtain a special transit permit. These special permits will allow the vehicle through and will not count against the quota of international haulage permits granted to Britain.
Meanwhile many operators are seething at the cancellation of the Ljubljana train service. "We shouldn't have had to read about this in the media," said one, "we have spent £35,000 modifying trailers for those trains and now they are cancelled."