There is a large number of tunnels in the Alps of Central Europe. They have the advantage of provide shorter routes and faster journey times and avoid narrow, winding roads over mountain passes which may well be affected by winter conditions. This list is intended to give an overview of the main Alpine tunnels.
The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT; German: Gotthard-Basistunnel, Italian: Galleria di base del San Gottardo) is a railway base tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland. It opened on 1 June 2016 with full service to begin in December 2016.With a route length of 57.09 km (35.5 mi) and a total of 151.84 km (94.3 mi) of tunnels, shafts and passages, it is the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel and the first flat, low-level route through the Alps.
The project consists of two single-track tunnels connecting Erstfeld (Uri) with Bodio (Ticino) and passing below Sedrun (Graubünden). It is part of the AlpTransit project, also known as the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA), which includes the Lötschberg Base Tunnel between the cantons of Bern and Valais and the Ceneri Base Tunnel (under construction, scheduled to open late 2020) to the south. It bypasses the Gotthardbahn, a winding mountain route opened in 1882 across the Saint-Gotthard Massif, which is now operating at capacity, and establishes a direct route usable by high-speed rail and heavy freight trains.[11] It is the third tunnel connecting the cantons of Uri and Ticino after the Gotthard Tunnel and the Gotthard Road Tunnel.
The main purpose of the Gotthard Base Tunnel is to increase local transport capacity through the Alpine barrier, especially for freight, notably on the Rotterdam–Basel–Genoa corridor, and more particularly to shift freight volumes from trucks to freight trains. This not only significantly reduces the danger of fatal road crashes involving trucks, but also reduces the environmental damage caused by the ever-increasing amount of freight hauled by heavy trucks. The tunnel will provide a faster connection between the canton of Ticino and the rest of Switzerland, as well as between northern and southern Europe, cutting the Zürich–Lugano–Milan journey time for passenger trains by one hour (and from Lucerne to Bellinzona by 45 minutes).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel :
[ Ссылка ]
Visit my website :
www.tripsculture.com
Follow me or like my Facebook page :
[ Ссылка ]
Instagram :
[ Ссылка ]
Twitter :
[ Ссылка ]
Pinterest :
[ Ссылка ]
![](https://s2.save4k.ru/pic/AGfFyhFJblg/mqdefault.jpg)