World's longest rail tunnel opens as Swiss declare Alps 'conquered'

John Dunne @jhdunne1 June 2016

Switzerland today declared the Alps “conquered” as the world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel officially opened.

The 35-mile twin-tube Gotthard base tunnel will provide a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alps between northern and southern Europe.

It means goods currently carried on the route by a million lorries a year will go by train instead.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi were today attending the grand opening of the tunnel, which took 17 years to complete.

Federal transport office director Peter Fueglistaler called it “a masterpiece of timing, cost and policy”

“It is just part of the Swiss identity. For us, conquering the Alps is like the Dutch exploring the oceans,” he said.

It runs 1.4 miles under the mountain at its deepest point and through rock as hot as 46C.

Dramatic setting: the Swiss said the tunnel showed they had 'conquered the alps' 
Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

The tunnel overtakes Japan’s 33.5 mile Seikan rail tunnel as the longest in the world and pushes the 31 mile Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France into third place.

The project, which cost more than £8.3 billion to build, creates a mainline rail connection between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Genoa in Italy.

Full service is set to start in December 
Laurent Gillieron/EPA

When full services begin in December, the journey time for travellers between Zurich and Milan will be reduced by an hour to two hours and 40 minutes.

It came as much of France’s rail network today ground to a halt as workers took part in strikes in protest against changes to labour rules.

According to the SNCF national rail authority, about 40 per cent of France’s high-speed trains and more than half of regional trains have been cancelled.

Eurostar trains to London were expected to run normally, but more than half of services to Spain and Italy were affected.

Commuter trains serving Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport were also being impacted by the strike.

Three of the four unions representing workers at SNCF called for the strike.

Unions are threatening to stay off the job through the start of the European Championship football tournament next week.

Nationwide labour action this week is tapping public anger at a bill allowing employers more freedom to lay off staff and extend working hours.

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