The Gotthard Base Tunnel is a railway tunnel running 57.09 kilometers under the Swiss Alps, cutting through the Gotthard Massif in the cantons of Uri, Grisons and Ticino. Construction began on 4 November 1999; the tunnel opened in June 2016 and full commercial service began that December, at a final reported cost of CHF 12.2 billion. At its deepest point it runs about 2,450 meters below the surface, roughly 600 meters beneath the older, higher Gotthard rail tunnel that preceded it. Operated by Swiss Federal Railways, it is the world's longest railway tunnel and the world's deepest traffic tunnel, and forms the centerpiece of the Gotthard axis carrying freight and passengers through the Alps on a flat, high-capacity route. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Completion Year SignificanceWorld's longest railway tunnel and the world's deepest traffic tunnel; the flagship structure of the Gotthard axis, the flat, low-gradient rail corridor built to move freight and passengers through the Alps without the steep grades of the historic mountain route. 1 FAQs
Why is the Gotthard Base Tunnel considered a record breaking piece of infrastructure?
It is the world's longest railway tunnel and the world's deepest traffic tunnel.
At 57.09 kilometers, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the world's longest railway tunnel, and at a maximum depth of 2,450 meters it is also the world's deepest traffic tunnel. It runs about 600 meters beneath the older, higher Gotthard rail tunnel it was built to replace, giving trains a flat, low-gradient route through the Alps instead of the steep grades and helical tunnels the historic line needed.
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Exemplifies
Additional Source Gotthard Base Tunnel (Wikipedia)Introduction
Operated By
Source Gotthard Base Tunnel (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Gotthard Base Tunnel (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation)Lead
It opened in June 2016 and full service began the following December.
Description
It is the deepest railway tunnel in the world, with a maximum depth of 2,450 m (8,040 ft)
Infobox
Gotthard-Basistunnel
Purpose section, current route
The new base tunnel establishes a direct route usable by high-speed rail and heavy freight trains.
- In Category: Infrastructure
- Part Of: Rail Transport
Exemplifies: Modal Shift, Introduction
The tunnel is specifically meant to shift freight to trains from trucks, and thereby to reduce environmental damage and deadly road crashes.
In Group: Rail Tunnels, Lead sentence
The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT; German: Gotthard-Basistunnel, Italian: Galleria di base del San Gottardo, Romansh: Tunnel da basa dal Sogn Gottard) is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland.
Operated By: Swiss Federal Railways, Infobox: operator
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