Environmental zones: VDA in favor of common national rules on exceptions for Euro 3 coaches
Berlin, 15 March 2010. The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) is calling for common national rules on the exceptions for the entry of coaches meeting the exhaust standard Euro 3 into urban environmental zones. These coaches, most of which are only a few years old and bear a yellow exhaust sticker, should be allowed to enter the environmental zones. "It is unreasonable that coaches meeting the Euro 3 exhaust standard should be excluded from the inner cities,” stressed VDA President Matthias Wissmann. "As the individual towns and cities attach extremely varied conditions to their environmental zones, coach companies are facing considerable restrictions to their business activities and passenger mobility is being curtailed. In practice the municipalities have to decide on their own individual exceptions – in Berlin, for example, where Euro 3 coaches are permitted to enter the environmental zone for a transitional period of two years despite having yellow stickers. A bureaucratic patchwork is looming. The German Government should therefore work towards common national regulations on exceptions for coaches fulfilling Euro 3,” Wissmann added.
Since 1 January 2010 the environmental zones in Berlin and Hanover have been accessible only to motor vehicles with a green environmental sticker. Both cities have exceptions for Euro 3 coaches only for a transitional period. "These regulations show that the municipalities must take account of the special aspects relating to coaches, and that they are not completely convinced by the overall approach,” the VDA president underscored.
However, Wissmann said, there was still a great deal of uncertainty among coach operators. From the beginning of 2011, the environmental zones in Bremen and Leipzig will also be accessible only to vehicles with green stickers, and more municipalities will follow. Wissmann said, "In the medium-sized coach travel companies in particular no one knows how long Euro 3 coaches will continue to be admitted to which areas. And if the rules for the environmental zones are decided by the municipalities, the German Government should ensure planning security.” After all, he said, in its coalition agreement the German Government had already expressed its support for countrywide standardization of the exceptions, adding that, "The Government should back this statement up with action.”
The case of coaches in particular showed that the implementation of the well intended project of environmental zones was causing distortions because bans on coaches bring about only minimal reductions in particulates. Coaches account for less than two per cent of total particulate emissions. Furthermore, according to VDA President Wissmann, "Coaches are real champions when it comes to saving fuel. A fully laden coach consumes less than one liter of diesel to carry one passenger 100 kilometers – and their CO2 values are correspondingly low. We should not exclude this potential for climate protection, but exploit it instead.”
