World’s longest train tunnel opening in Switzerland
Almost 70 years after it was conceived, and 17 years after construction started, the world’s largest train tunnel is to open tomorrow in Switzerland. Dug under the Alps, the 35-mile Gotthard Base Tunnel is expected to streamline and increase rail traffic between northern and southern Europe.
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- In this Oct. 8, 2015, file photo, a test train drives close to the northern gate near Erstfeld, Switzerland. (Urs Flueeler/Keystone via AP, file)
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- In this Nov. 4, 1999, file photo, smoke billows after the first blasting operation for the NEAT Gotthard Base Tunnel in Silenen, Switzerland. (Sigi Tischler/Keystone via AP, file)
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- This file photo taken on May 6, 2009, shows a chinese journalist taking a picture of the 57-kilometre (35-mile) railway tunnel when it was under construction in the Alps in Sedrun. Switzerland is preparing to celebrate the inauguration of the new Saint-Gothard (Gotthard) rail tunnel, the world’s longest, which will streamline and increase traffic between northern and southern Europe. (SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images)
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- In this Oct. 31, 2013, file photo, construction workers are busy in the NEAT Gotthard Base Tunnel between Biasca and Amsteg, Switzerland. (Karl Mathis/Keystone via AP, file)
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- In this June 16, 2009, file photo, miners watch the tunnel drilling machine “Gabi” breaking through the last section of the AlpTransit “New Railway Link through the Alps” (NRLA) tunnel between Erstfeld and Amsteg, Switzerland. (Sigi Tischler/Keystone via AP, file)
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- This file photo taken on September 2, 2011, shows a worker exiting the Saint-Gothard base access tunnel during the launching of the installation of railway equipment in Erstfeld, central Switzerland.(FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)
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- An Italian train makes its way at the north entrance of the new Gotthard Base Tunnel the world’s longest train tunnel on the eve of its opening ceremony on May 31, 2016 in Erstfeld. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A train makes its way at the north entrance of the new Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world’s longest train tunnel, on the eve of its opening ceremony on May 31, 2016 in Erstfeld. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A man runs past a board in Attinghausen near Erstfeld celebrating the world’s longest train tunnel on Tuesday, the eve of the tunnel’s opening ceremony. The 57-kilometre (35.4-mile) tunnel, which runs under the Alps, was first conceived in sketch-form in 1947 but its construction only began 17 years ago. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)
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