The
Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a
railway tunnel under construction in
Switzerland. With a planned length of 57&_160;km (35.4&_160;mi) and a total of 153.5&_160;km (95.4&_160;mi) of tunnels, shafts and passages planned, it will be the
longest tunnel (of all railway and road tunnels) in the world upon completion, ahead of the current record holder, the
Seikan Tunnel (connecting the
Japanese islands of
Honshu and
Hokkaido). The project is designed to feature two separate tunnels containing
one track each. The tunnel is part of the Swiss
AlpTransit project, also known as
New Railway Link through the Alps NRLA which also includes the
Lötschberg Base Tunnel between the
cantons of
Berne and
Valais. Like the Lötschberg tunnel, it is intended to bypass winding mountain routes and establish a direct route suitable for high speed rail and heavy freight trains. On completion it is expected to decrease the current 3.5 hours travel time from
Zürich to
Milan by one hour. It will also reduce the time between
Zürich and
Lugano to 1 hour 40 minutes. The two portals will be near the villages of
Erstfeld, Canton
Uri and
Bodio, Canton
Ticino.
Completion has been projected for 2015 but due to delays the tunnel may not be completed before 2018.[1] With a breakthrough in one of the tunnels achieved on June 15 2009, an opening date for the tunnels during 2017 seems likely since work currently is progressing at a higher pace than projected.[2] Moreover, according to a TSR programme, Temps Present aired on 25 May 2007, rail links with the Italian network are far from assured, due to congestion from freight trains avoiding the Milanese conurbation to the detriment of passenger trains.
Nearby are two more St. Gotthard Tunnels the 1881 Gotthard Rail Tunnel and the 1980 Gotthard Road Tunnel.
The route over Gotthard Pass or one of its tunnels is one of the most important passages through the Alps on the north-south axis in Europe. Traffic has increased more than tenfold since 1980 and the existing road and rail tunnels are at their limits. In order to provide a faster and flatter passage through the Swiss Alps, the Swiss voters have decided to build this tunnel cutting through the Gotthard massif at nearly ground level, 600&_160;m (1,969&_160;ft) below the existing railway tunnel. On the current track, the Gotthardbahn, only trains up to 1,400&_160;t (1,543&_160;ST; 1,378&_160;LT) [3] when using two locomotives or up to 1,700&_160;t (1,874&_160;ST; 1,673&_160;LT) with an additional bank engine at the end of the train are able to pass through the narrow mountain valleys and through spiral tunnels climbing up to the portals of the old tunnel at a height of 1,100&_160;m (3,609&_160;ft) above sea level. Once the new tunnel is completed, standard freight trains of up to 4,000&_160;t (4,409&_160;ST; 3,937&_160;LT) will be able to pass this natural barrier as easily as if the Alps did not exist. Because of the ever increasing international truck traffic, the Swiss voted on February 20, 1994 for a shift in transportation policy (Traffic Transfer Act, enacted on October 8, 1999). The goal of both the laws (and the goal of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which is one of the means by which the law will achieve its objective), is to transport trucks, trailers and freight containers from southern Germany to northern Italy and vice versa by train to relieve the already overused roads (intermodal freight transport and so called rolling highway where the entire truck is being transported), and to meet the political requirement of shifting as much tonnage as possible from truck transport to train transport, as required by the 'Alpine Protection Act' of 1994.
