Arson, 5,000 protesters close Brenner

Two burned-out electrical cabins on the Italian side. Five thousand residents blocking the Austrian motorway above them. On 30 May, both routes through the Brenner Pass, Europe’s busiest Alpine crossing, stopped at the same time.

Before dawn, arsonists set fire to two electrical substations on the Brenner railway line between Peri and Dolcè, north of Verona. Police later found a lighter and traces of accelerant near the charred equipment. By mid-morning, around 5,000 Tyrolean residents had blocked the motorway for eight hours in a court-approved protest, demanding that truck traffic be cut in half.

The shutdown made visible a problem that has been building for years: EU pricing makes the Brenner too cheap to use. Some 2.42 million heavy trucks crossed the pass in 2025, and 83% of them had no business in the area. The corridor carries roughly 10% of Italy’s total trade. For many hauliers, however, it is simply the cheapest way through the Alps.

€100 versus €435

A truck crossing the Alps through Switzerland pays up to €435 in tolls. At the Brenner, the same journey costs about €100. That gap is wide enough that 21% of heavy trucks detour at least 60 kilometres to reach the cheaper crossing.

Switzerland uses a different model. Its LSVA, a distance-based charge, prices trucks according to distance, weight and emissions. It also has a constitutional cap on truck numbers and spent heavily on rail tunnels. Over 25 years, Swiss Alpine truck crossings fell by a third while Brenner traffic rose by half.

The result is plain enough. Switzerland now moves 72.5% of its Alpine freight by rail. At the Brenner, rail’s share has dropped from 36% to 25% since 2010.

Brussels funds the fix, then fights it

The Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT), a 64-kilometre rail tunnel under the Alps, is 94% excavated. The EU has contributed €2.3 billion (Euronews, European Commission) towards a total cost of roughly €10.5 billion. The opening is planned for 2032.

At the same time, the Commission is arguing before the EU Court of Justice that Austria should not restrict truck traffic on the corridor. Italy brought the case (C-524/24) against Tyrol’s night bans, weekend bans and sectoral freight restrictions, which cover heavily polluting or bulky goods such as timber, scrap and steel. The Commission backed Italy, describing the Austrian measures as disproportionate. A ruling is expected late this year.

For Maltese readers, the mechanism matters. Brussels is paying for the railway alternative while challenging the road restrictions that would make hauliers use it. That is not an abstract contradiction. Malta lives with the cost of transport choices in every imported pallet and every export that must reach a European market through somebody else’s port, road or warehouse.

Switzerland used both tools: infrastructure and pricing. The Gotthard Base Tunnel has been open since 2016, yet Switzerland still has not reached its constitutional target of 650,000 trucks a year. Rail capacity alone does not move freight. Price signals do.

Who pays

Residents of the Wipptal valley live with nearly 7,000 trucks a day and air quality that only just meets current EU limits. It is set to fail the stricter standards the EU is phasing in.

Italian industry reads the same facts differently. Tyrol’s existing restrictions already cost €370 million per year in delays and rerouting, according to Uniontrasporti (First Online, trans.info). In EU terms, this is the familiar fight between free movement and local burden. The benefit is spread across exporters and consumers. The cost is concentrated in one valley.

The arson muddies the politics. Italian investigators are pursuing an eco-anarchist lead, citing similar attacks on rail infrastructure in Florence and on an oil pipeline in Friuli. No group has claimed responsibility. Whoever burned the railway substations attacked the infrastructure the protesters want used more, not less.

Even when the tunnel opens, it may not work as intended. Bavaria has stalled construction of the northern access railway, with freight companies expecting completion no earlier than 2050. Austria has delayed its own southern connection to after 2040. Without rail links on both sides, the €10.5 billion tunnel risks becoming a stranded asset.

The court ruling this autumn will decide who absorbs the cost for now. If Austria loses, Wipptal keeps the 7,000-truck-a-day burden and watches it grow. If Austria wins, Italian exporters keep paying the €370 million annual bill. A €335 toll gap does not disappear. It is paid by someone.