Gotthard Tunnel breakthrough

The Gotthard Tunnel will soon make travel to ski resorts in Switzerland—and onward to ski resorts in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia—easier. In just a few days, to be precise, and provided everything continues to go according to plan, the breakthrough through the Gotthard massif is expected to take place on October 15, 2010.

The gigantic project is called NEAT and was conceived around 25 years ago. Implementation began about 10 years ago, with the approval of the people. NEAT stands for New Railway Link through the Alps. The background to this huge project is—and remains—the transit traffic through the Alps, which seems to have increased year after year. Thanks to the new Gotthard Tunnel, a large share of truck transport is expected to be transferred to the railways. The time saving is estimated at around one hour, although critics argue that the “truck terminals” alone make up for that time. With or without the time saving, according to dpa, around 1.3 million trucks currently travel through the Alpine passes. The new Gotthard Tunnel is expected to reduce traffic on the existing Alpine route by up to 50%. Around 12.8 billion Swiss francs (8.7 billion euros) are said to have been spent on building NEAT.

For now, enormous boring machines are still tunneling through the Gotthard massif. The tunnel breakthrough is expected on October 15. It will be 57 km long, making it the longest tunnel in the world at present. When the first trains eventually run through it, the roads and passes leading to ski resorts in Switzerland and onward to ski resorts in Italy will be much quieter and therefore safer, and travelers may even reach their destination faster. If the rail track work also proceeds according to plan, Milan will be just 2 hours and 40 minutes from Zurich. Trains speeding through NEAT will be allowed to reach 270 km/h, while freight trains will travel at 160 km/h. The Ceneri Tunnel, which is also under construction and is intended to relieve the route around the Lötschberg, is due for completion in 2019. So, even within this decade, getting to Switzerland for a ski holiday will become a breeze—at least in terms of the journey.