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[CNJRoss]

Good Magazine:
 

World’s Longest Railroad Tunnel Set to Open in Switzerland Next Year

 

The Gotthard Base Tunnel in the Swiss Alps is poised to be the world’s longest railroad tunnel. At 57 kilometers (35 miles) long, the tunnel will open in December of 2016 and transport more than 200 trains a day, each at an average speed of 250 kilometers per hour (that’s 155 mph). 

 

The tunnel was conceptualized to alleviate the burden of freight traffic on Switzerland’s alpine ecosystem.  .  .  .

 

SNIP

 

Check out this 360-degree view.

 

More here w/video.

[KevinKorell]

NBC News, 5/22/16

Switzerland's Gotthard Train Tunnel Will Be World's Longest, Deepest

The world gets a little smaller next month with the unveiling of the longest and deepest railway tunnel ever constructed — a feat of engineering under the Alps that will slash journey times across Europe.

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[KevinKorell]

ZURICH — Switzerland's Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will result in the longest rail tunnel in the world and required nearly 20 years of construction, opened on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The 35-mile tunnel should eventually help slash travel time between Zurich and Milan, and shuttle twice the roughly 9,000 people currently traveling between northern and southern Europe across the trans-Alpine route within the next decade, according to the report.

Credit Suisse Group AG estimates the new tunnel cost $12.3 billion to complete. While funding was raised through Swiss taxes and duties, its construction relied on workers from a mix of other countries including Italy and Germany, according to the Journal.

For the full story, click here.

Keywords

ABB   AlpTransit Gotthard   Gotthard Base Tunnel   rail tunnel   Switzerland   

 

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[CNJRoss]

CNN, 6/1/16:

World's longest tunnel opens deep beneath Swiss Alps

 

(CNN)Seventeen years after construction crews started boring beneath the Swiss Alps, the world's longest, deepest tunnel officially opened Wednesday.

 

Fittingly for a project billed as Switzerland's "construction of the century," the Gotthard Base Tunnel was inaugurated amid colorful, sometimes surreal scenes, with visiting dignitaries treated to costumed dancers, fireworks and plenty of yodeling and alphorns.

 

SNIP

 

Shortcut through the Alps

 

Reaching a depth of 2,300 meters (7,545 feet, almost 1.5 miles) the tunnel will slice an hour off the travel time between Zurich, Switzerland, and Milan, Italy.

 

More here.

[CNJRoss]

The Globe and Mail, 6/1:
 

Gotthard or go home: How a Swiss supertunnel can tie Europe together

 

The already ambitious European train system took a great leap forward on Wednesday with the official opening of the Gotthard base tunnel under the Swiss Alps. The engineering tour-de-force, at 57.5 kilometres in length, is both the longest and deepest tunnel in the world and marks the start of a logistical and trade revolution between northern and southern Europe.

 

The new tunnel, which took $12-billion (U.S.) and 17 years to build, is the key component in the creation of a high-speed corridor that will whiz freight and passengers from as far north as Rotterdam, Europe’s busiest port, all the way south through Switzerland and into northern Italy’s industrial heartland.

 

SNIP

 

But it is the supertunnel’s extra freight capacity that will make the difference. Capacity will rise to 260 freight trains a day (and 65 passenger trains) up from 180 trains in the existing, 15-km Gotthard tunnel. The 44 per cent increase means as much as 377,000 tons a day of goods and material will be able trundle between northern and southern Europe.

 

More here.