Helena Bachmann, Special for USA TODAY 1:42 p.m. EDT May 28, 2016
Miners hug after a giant drilling machine completed the world’s longest tunnel beneath the Swiss Alps Oct.15, 2010.(Photo: Fabrice Coffrini, AFP/Getty Images)
GENEVA — Switzerland will celebrate an engineering marvel 20 years in the works on Wednesday: the debut of the world’s longest and deepest railroad tunnel.
The new tunnel through the Alps is 35.5 miles long, exceeding by 2 miles the current record-holder, Japan’s Seikan Tunnel. Some sections lie a record 1.4 miles beneath the mountain’s peak.
The tunnel will carry 325 passenger and freight trains a day, with each trip taking 20 minutes at speeds up to 150 mph. The goal is to reduce heavy auto traffic that creates pollution.
“We are not showing off,” Transport Minister Doris Leuthard told Swiss Radio International about the $8 million grand opening expected to draw 100,000 people. That’s a modest sum to spend to showcase a mammoth project that cost $10 billion and employed thousands of worke
My family rode through the old Gotthard tunnel in 1972. We’d traveled to Italy from where my dad was stationed in Germany via Austria, but were returning through Switzerland, where snow and ice still blocked the pass in early spring. We rolled the 64 Belair wagon and camping trailer onto the train and rode through in the car. This pic is looking backwards toward the north portal of the original rail tunnel, a little more than 9 miles long, from our car on the train.
The ‘pollution’ problem has little to do with cars - and everything to do with trucks. A lot of those trains will be piggybacks. A lot of others will carry containers. Most Europeans prefer train travel to driving their private cars over long distances. OTOH, the Swiss want all those ‘just passing through’ trucks OFF their highways.
There are actually three parallel bores, and the cross-section of each is a complex of ventilation ducts rather than a simple hole big enough to clear a train. At one time there was a scheme to put a station in the middle of the tunnel to serve a mountain resort - the connecting elevator would have been as tall as any in Manhattan. Cost-benefit calculations rendered that a ‘might-have-been.’
In all, quite an accomplishment. My hat’s off to the Swiss.
And there is a model railroading connection, albiet a tenuous one. I still plan to have a model tunnel boring machine in a fascia window - and now I know where.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - when TBMs were new technology)
Chuck - I´d be a happy man if that statement would reflect the reality. Still, most people use their cars for traveling longer distances. However, there is a slight change in attitude among the younger generation folks.
Interesting fact is, that the first Gotthard tunnel was largely financed by Imperial Germany and the work force was mainly Italian. The new base tunnel was financed by the Swiss government and the work force was largely German.
The new base tunnel will be used by 250 trains each day, thus re-routing the brunt of the traffic. The old Gotthard line will remain in service, but for local traffic alone. The future of the spectacular old line is in limbo, though, as the upkeep is quite costly and no longer justifiable without the international traffic. Attempts to have the old line registered as a UNESCO World Heritage have failed so far.
That would be a loss. It’s quite scenic. You don’t get much of a view in a tunnel. Makes me wonder if special sightseeing service should be offered on select trains in season over the old line, but with the emphasis on speed these days, that may just not be enough traffic to cover the costs. Somehow, the Swiss seem to do it on large segments of their narrowgauge systems, so why not standard gauge?
I am afraid it´s not scenic enough to attract hundreds of thousands tourists from Japan and China, like the Glacier Express and the Bernina Express does.
SBB has a reputation for a sensible attitude towards the Swiss Rail history, so let´s all hope the Swiss Federal government will shell out sufficient moneys to keep the line in service.
With the Loetschberg base tunnel also being in service for a few years now, the same fate is waiting for the old Loetschberg line from Frutigen to Brig. Maybe not as famous as the Gotthard line, at least model railroaders know it from the famous Bietschtal viaduct, available as an HO kit from Faller.
In any case, those planning a trip over either one of those lines should not wait for much longer.
Passing through the tunnel takes about 15 minutes with passenger trains traveling at 140mph, that´s saving “only” 1 hour compared to traveling the old scenic route.
It might be an intetesting fact that the construction of the tunnel stayed within the budget and was completed a year ahead of the schedule!
