Mt Blanc Border.

 

Mt Blanc was the tunnel used most by truckers travelling through Europe to Italy and beyond

into Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and The Middle East. The tunnel was between 4,000 and 4,500 feet up the mountain, and you started the climb near Geneva, usually taking a couple of hours or more to get up to the French portal, longer and a bit of a struggle sometimes with heavy loads.

 

With abnormal loads, we were usually held until the early hours of the morning, typically 2am,

and convoyed through the tunnel together. On a journey south, they would close the Italian entrance to all traffic to allow the wide loads through the 11.6km/7.2 mile tunnel, and vice-versa for a northbound movement. The toll was three or four times as much for a wide load. From memory, in the 1980s it was around £80 for a single journey for a conventional load, and around £300 for an abnormal.

 

In the photo, you can see four MCL trucks parked up on the Italian side of the tunnel (Monti Bianco), waiting for Italian Police Escorts to arrive. From left to right these were Dave Anderson (Red Scania), Kevin Seaton (Cream and Maroon Volvo F-12),The Author’s White Volvo F-12, and Andy Andrew’s blue and white Scania.