Gotthard Base Tunnel © Kecko
Gotthard Base Tunnel © Kecko

Gotthard Base Tunnel opens in Switzerland

As the world’s longest rail tunnel at 57km, the Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) will be opened today (Wednesday 1 June) with a range of political leaders and religious representatives present.

The GBT runs from Erstfeld in the central Swiss canton of Uri, to Bodio in the southern Ticino canton and, at noon, Swiss president Johann Scheider-Ammann will preside over the official opening ceremony held in the town of Pollegio, Ticino. Transport minister Doris Leuthard will also attend alongside high profile guests such as Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, French president Francois Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Security is expected to be extrememly tight with around 2,000 military personnel in attendance.

European commisisoner for transport Violeta Bulc has described the feat of engineering as a “godsend for Europe”.

Engineers excavated more than 28 million tonnes of rock to create the GBT, which is expected to revolutionise freight transport by the removal of an estimated 1,000,000 lorries from the route connecting northern and southern Europe per year. Running up to 2.3km below the Swiss Alps, the GBT is also the world’s deepest tunnel. Now completed, on time and within budget, the project cost around €11bn through the endorsement of Swiss voters in a 1992 referendum. In 1994 a proposal made by environmental groups to exchange all freight from road to rail two years was also supported by the Swiss.

The time it takes to journey from Zurich, Switzerland, to Milan, Italy, will reduce by up to one hour when all services are operational in December of this year. The number of daily rail passengers is expected to increase from 9,000 to 15,000 commuters by 2020, according to estimates made by the Swiss federal railway service.

Japan’s 53.9km Seikan rail tunnel has until now been the world’s longest with the UK and France’s 50.5km Channel Tunnel now third.