Swiss Celebrate Completion of World's Longest Railway Tunnel
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On October 15th, the people of Switzerland celebrated with abandon, as the drill broke through the last piece of rock, finally connecting the two ends of the Gotthard Base Tunnel - The world's longest railway tunnel. The mammoth undertaking that cost about 10 billion USD took 2,600 workers, 12 years to accomplish - And, it's not done yet.
The final touches which include laying rail tracks inside the 35.4-mile, tunnel that has a diameter of 9-meters, is expected to take another seven years. Once complete it, will pave the way for high-speed rail travel between northern and southwestern Europe, with as many as, 300 trains screeching through daily.
This is not the first time the Swiss have cut a railway tunnel through this treacherous region. The Gotthard Rail Tunnel, which opened in 1882 is a nine-mile stretch, that accommodates over 150 freight trains daily. However, this new tunnel is much flatter, which will allow for longer freight trains and hence have the capability to carry twice the cargo. It will also be used for high-speed passenger trains and will cut the commute time from Zurich to Milan by an hour, to 2 hrs 40 mins.
While the engineering feat is certainly commendable, the reason the country undertook such a mammoth, seemingly impossible task is even more admirable. Despite being a tiny land-locked country, with a population of only 7.8 million people, Switzerland has always been in the forefront when it comes to environmental issues. Rail cargo already accounts for 35% of all shipments in the region, as opposed to about 18% for the entire European Union. This new tunnel will increase the cargo capacity even more and help remove heavy trucks off the road. The Swiss believe that other countries will follow their lead in building additional environmentally friendly rail routes.
Sources:time.com mb.com, suntimes.com
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77 Comments
- Vanessaabout 14 yearsIt must have taken a long time !
- Michael the Beastabout 14 yearsWell done workers!
- Beastdude360about 14 yearsWow dude! THAT WAS BEAST!
- mathabout 14 yearsthat is along way!!!!!!!!!!!!
- jjabout 14 yearsdude that is realy cool
- Jennaabout 14 yearslol
- Noahabout 14 yearsWow chris get taller
- jeffabout 14 yearsThat is long tunnel...must get hot in there !
- anime artistabout 14 yearsOMG that is sooooooo cool. Im in 7th grade and i used this for my current events homework. great reasurch who ever did this and thank you. i really found this interesting and cant wait to tell my firends about it. Just amazing. :)
- fred flinstoneabout 14 yearssuper cool doing current eventtt. <-----this alien man looks just like me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)