Switzerland opens world’s longest overland tunnel

Published 9:00 pm Friday, June 15, 2007

FRUTIGEN, Switzerland – With a ceremony that went off like a Swiss timepiece, officials Friday inaugurated the world’s longest overland tunnel, a 21-mile-long rail link under the Alps meant to ease highway traffic jams in the mountainous country.

The tunnel, which took eight years to build and cost $3.5 billion, will trim the time trains need to cross between Germany and Italy from 31/2 hours to just under two.

The first train through the tunnel was a freight carrying Swiss Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger, arriving at the tunnel’s north entrance.

“We have moved a mountain,” Leuenberger said.

Switzerland is at the center of a north-south European axis where traffic has increased more than tenfold since 1980. The Swiss have tired of traffic jams caused by big rigs and vacationers filling their narrow valleys, and the rail plan has remained popular despite running billions of dollars over budget.

“We did not want to become part of the road corridor for 40-ton trucks streaming north and south, and so decided to opt for rail tunnels,” Leuenberger said.

Later, a second train carried journalists and other passengers southward – a smooth and quiet ride on rubber-cushioned rails that are suitable for high-speed trains from Germany, France and Italy. Freight trains will be able to travel at speeds up to 100 mph and passenger trains at up to 150 mph.

The Loetschberg was designed to be a twin tunnel, with traffic moving in both directions. Due to cost constraints, however, only one side has been completed. It remains unclear if the second tube would be finished as well. In the meantime, trains will alternate traveling in opposite directions through the finished part.