The extreme 'record' of the world's longest train tunnel

At 56km long and taking 17 years to build, the train tunnel under the Alps connects the city of Erstfeld and Bodio of Switzerland, which was unveiled a few days ago as the world's most ambitious tunnel project.

Gotthard Base Tunnel is also considered to be the deepest tunnel in the world and is the first road to run through the Alps. The idea of ​​building this tunnel dates back to 1968 but the construction process only really started in 1996.

A total of 31.1 million tons of granite, rubble and other materials were transported during construction. 80% of excavation work is done by machines, the rest is by people in the most difficult locations.

The main purpose of the tunnel is to transport passengers and goods through the Alps.

A huge ventilation system installed for a tunnel up to 229m deep in the ground helps to cool the air from a temperature of 45 ^° C. At peak time there are more than 2,400 workers working together. Nine workers were killed in the process of building this $ 12 billion rail tunnel.

The main purpose of the tunnel is to transport passengers and goods through the Alps. The tunnel, also known as the Gotthard Railway - is an important transport corridor linking northern and southern Europe. Since 1980, the density of transportation through this corridor has increased dozens of times.

From now until the end of the year, the Gotthard Base Tunnel train tunnel is limited only. It will then operate at full capacity with a capacity of 325 trains per day. This cargo will have 260 freight trains moving at speeds of 160km / h and 25 passenger trains running at 200km / h. This speed will gradually increase over time and will reach 250km / h in the next few years.

Some impressive images of the world's longest train tunnel: