Austria’s automobile club ÖAMTC reported acute congestion on 31 January 2026 as schoolchildren in several provinces kicked off their semester break. Traffic crawled along key alpine corridors: a 20-minute backlog formed on the Arlberg Schnellstraße (S16) between Bings and Dalaas, while drivers heading into Tyrol’s Zillertal faced delays of more than an hour. The Fernpass route from the Füssen tunnel to Reutte was also “stop-and-go—with rising tendency,” the club said.
Beyond stopwatch frustration, the ÖAMTC flagged a hard compliance deadline: 31 January is the final valid day for Austria’s 2025 motorway toll sticker (Vignette). From 1 February everyone—including visiting business travellers—must display the 2026 sticker or an activated e-vignette before using the A-road network, or risk fines of up to €300 on the spot. The digital vignette can be purchased immediately via the ASFINAG app, but paper versions remain available at border fuel stations.
![ÖAMTC warns of heavy ski-holiday traffic and reminds drivers that 2025 vignette expires]()
For international motorists who still need to confirm their right of entry before worrying about toll stickers, VisaHQ can take care of the paperwork. The agency’s Austria page (https://www.visahq.com/austria/) consolidates current visa requirements, electronic travel authorisation options, and step-by-step application support, sparing travellers the time and stress of dealing directly with consulates. Getting your visa squared away early frees you to focus on securing an e-vignette—and planning a detour around those notorious alpine queues.
Cross-border commuters driving hire cars should pay particular attention, because rental fleets registered outside Austria often arrive without the new e-vignette pre-assigned to the licence plate. Global-mobility coordinators may wish to add a vignette check to their travel authorisation list alongside winter-tyre requirements and the mandatory carry-along of snow chains for certain passes.
The ÖAMTC also recommends that those heading to Vorarlberg or Tyrol allow extra flexibility in meeting times and consider rail options such as the Nightjet service from Vienna or Munich, which bypasses the worst alpine bottlenecks. Organisations with time-critical cargo should explore routing via Germany’s A96 and B179 to avoid S16 entirely during peak change-over Saturdays.
Beyond stopwatch frustration, the ÖAMTC flagged a hard compliance deadline: 31 January is the final valid day for Austria’s 2025 motorway toll sticker (Vignette). From 1 February everyone—including visiting business travellers—must display the 2026 sticker or an activated e-vignette before using the A-road network, or risk fines of up to €300 on the spot. The digital vignette can be purchased immediately via the ASFINAG app, but paper versions remain available at border fuel stations.
For international motorists who still need to confirm their right of entry before worrying about toll stickers, VisaHQ can take care of the paperwork. The agency’s Austria page (https://www.visahq.com/austria/) consolidates current visa requirements, electronic travel authorisation options, and step-by-step application support, sparing travellers the time and stress of dealing directly with consulates. Getting your visa squared away early frees you to focus on securing an e-vignette—and planning a detour around those notorious alpine queues.
Cross-border commuters driving hire cars should pay particular attention, because rental fleets registered outside Austria often arrive without the new e-vignette pre-assigned to the licence plate. Global-mobility coordinators may wish to add a vignette check to their travel authorisation list alongside winter-tyre requirements and the mandatory carry-along of snow chains for certain passes.
The ÖAMTC also recommends that those heading to Vorarlberg or Tyrol allow extra flexibility in meeting times and consider rail options such as the Nightjet service from Vienna or Munich, which bypasses the worst alpine bottlenecks. Organisations with time-critical cargo should explore routing via Germany’s A96 and B179 to avoid S16 entirely during peak change-over Saturdays.
