Available for everyone, funded by readers, Regular passenger trains start using the 35-mile Gotthard Base tunnel, which took 17 years to build, The ceremony for the opening of the Gotthard base tunnel in Switzerland on Wednesday includes a blessing, acrobats, music and dance depicting Alpine culture and history, Swiss president says he hopes Gotthard base tunnel below Alps will help ‘join the people and the economies’ of Europe. World's longest rail tunnel begins regular service in Switzerland, World's longest rail tunnel opens with theatrical parade – video, Human cost of the 35-mile Swiss rail tunnel, European leaders open world's longest rail tunnel in Switzerland, World’s longest rail tunnel to open in Switzerland. [6], On 24 October 2001, a collision of two trucks created a fire in the tunnel, killing eleven and injuring many more, the smoke and gases produced by the fires being the main cause of death. Further usage of both tunnels was subject to a popular referendum that was held in February 2016, where it was approved. The tunnel was opened on 5 September 1980. Teams excavated 28.2m tonnes of rock in the process. Prior to the opening of the tunnel, cars were transported through the nearby railway tunnel on car shuttle trains. It has four large ventilation shafts and an additional side gallery between 10 and 18 metres (33 and 59 ft) from the main tunnel, having its own independent ventilation system in order to facilitate the cutting of a second tunnel, should future traffic levels require it. The Gotthard Tunnel is the core and culminating point of the A2 motorway in Switzerland, running south from Basel through the tunnel down to Chiasso on the border with Italy. Heavily used, the tunnel often has traffic jams during peak holiday seasons over Easter and summer, on both the north and south ends. Images highlighting some of the more unusual moments of the opening ceremony for the Gotthard base tunnel in Switzerland. Carbon monoxide can trigger a clinical response at a level as low as 100 parts per million. The twin-bore Gotthard base tunnel now holds the title of being the world's longest and deepest one. A February 1994 Alpine Initiative passed (with 52% of the vote), and Parliament upheld the referendum twice through the 1990s. The Simplon tunnel still holds a primateship because of its high overburden, which reaches up to 2200 m. It remains a single bore tunnel with just one lane operating in each direction. At time of construction, in 1980, it was the longest road tunnel in the world; it is currently the fifth-longest. Road Tunnels in Switzerland (& FL) > 2000 m Tunnels en Suisse – Gallerie in Svizzera – Tunnels aus Schweiz Edited by: Eugenio A. Merzagora 28 th revision - December 2011 ... "The World's longest Tunnel Page" Switzerland celebrated the opening of the world’s longest train tunnel, a 17-year project that cuts through the Alps and cost €11 billion to construct - but all anyone’s talking about is its ridiculous opening ceremony. It is no coincidence that the German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president François Hollande and Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi have found the time to join Swiss president Johann Schneider-Ammann for Wednesday’s maiden voyage through the rail tunnel, which contains a 152km labyrinth of galleries, cross passages and shafts and has taken 17 years to complete. Traveling around Europe by train just got a whole lot faster, thanks to the opening of Switzerland's Gotthard Base Tunnel. In contrast, another tunnel through the Alps, the San Bernardino road tunnel as part of the A13 in the canton of Graubünden further east, is relatively uncongested and shorter. Traffic flows through only one tunnel, which carries traffic both ways, with each direction allocated one lane. Sixty-five per cent of the project’s construction costs were funded by a tax on heavy duty vehicles, of which about 3,600 used the old tunnel on an average day.

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