World's longest £8bn EU tunnel hit by chaos seven years after it opened
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Whizz through the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel that's only a couple of hours from the UK. With a staggering route length of 57.09km and an underground depth of 2,400 metres, the iconic Gotthard Base Tunnel acts as the main rail connection between Italy and Switzerland, and has become a major goods transport route. The twin-bore tunnel opened up in 2016 as part of Switzerland's mission to 'revolutionise European freight transport'. It took a whopping 20 years to build, with plans floating around since the 1940s, and cost more than $12 billion (£8.2 billion).
About 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains passed through the tunnel each day in a journey taking as little as 17 minutes, with high-speed trains exceeding 155mph. However, all of this came to a crashing halt after a freight train was derailed. The locomotive collided into the gate separating the western and eastern tunnel following a broken wheel back in August 2023. Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) probed the incident, and found hairline fractures in a wagon caused pieces to come away, making the carriage jump the tracks. Fortunately, there were no casualties or injuries.
According to EuroNews, Beat Deuber, Head of Infrastructure Systems for SBB, said it took 'several weeks' just to remove the train from the tunnel and 'clear the accident site', which had wrecked around 8km of track. He added: "Afterwards, all the materials had to be brought into the tunnel. Temperatures in the tunnel were almost 40C. Precautions had to be taken to protect the workers.".
