Yahoo – AFP,
December 11, 2016
Geneva (AFP) - Regular rail services through the world's longest tunnel began on Sunday, carrying passengers deep under the Swiss Alps from Zurich to Lugano.
Geneva (AFP) - Regular rail services through the world's longest tunnel began on Sunday, carrying passengers deep under the Swiss Alps from Zurich to Lugano.
The famed
Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) had a ceremonial opening in June, attracting
European leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President
Francois Hollande for its maiden ride.
The Swiss
national rail service (SBB) had announced that Sunday would mark the start of
normal commercial traffic through the 57-kilometre (35-mile) GBT, which took 17
years to build, at a cost of over 12 billion Swiss francs ($11.8 billion, 11.2
billion euros).
The Swiss
news agency ATS reported that the first regular passenger train to use the GBT
pulled out of Zurich at 6:09 am (0509 GMT) and arrived in Lugano at 8:17 am,
with the tunnel passage shaving a full 30 minutes off the previous travel time
for the same route.
"It's
Christmas," SBB chief Andreas Meyer was quoted as saying by ATS after the
journey was over.
The ambitious GBT project has won praise across Europe for its pioneering efforts to improve connectivity from Rotterdam to the Adriatic.
The
Gotthard rail tunnel (AFP Photo/Simon MALFATTO, Philippe
MOUCHE, Frédéric
GARET)
|
The ambitious GBT project has won praise across Europe for its pioneering efforts to improve connectivity from Rotterdam to the Adriatic.
The Swiss
funded tunnel was largely made possible by technical advances in tunnel-boring
machines, which replaced the costly and dangerous blast-and-drill method.
The GBT has
surpassed Japan's 53.9-kilometre Seikan tunnel as the world's longest train
tunnel.
The
50.5-kilometre Channel Tunnel connecting Britain and France has been bumped
into third place.
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