GENEVA—Just
like Hannibal in ancient times, Swiss
engineers have conquered the Alps.
More than
2,200 years after the commander from the
ancient North African civilization of
Carthage led his army of elephants and
troops over Europe’s highest mountain
chain, Swiss leaders have completed
another gargantuan task: burrowing the
world’s longest railway tunnel under the
Swiss Alps to ease trade and congestion
in European trade and travel.
Switzerland on
Wednesday was inaugurating the Gotthard
Railway Tunnel, a major engineering
achievement deep under snow-capped peaks
carried out over 17 years at a cost of
12.2 billion Swiss francs ($12 billion).
Many tunnels
today crisscross the Swiss Alps, and the
Gotthard Pass already has two: the
first, also a railway tunnel, was built
in 1882.
The second,
the new Gotthard Base Tunnel, is a
record-setter: At 56 km., it eclipses
Japan’s 53.8-kilometre Seikan Tunnel as
the world’s longest and bores deeper
than any other tunnel, running about 2.3
km. underground at its maximum depth.
The
thoroughfare aims to cut travel times,
ease roadway traffic and draw cargo from
pollution-spewing lorries trucking
between Europe’s north and south.
Once it opens
for commercial service in December, the
two-way tunnel will take up to 260
freight trains and 65 passenger trains
per day.
Swiss planners
have dreamt of such a tunnel for
decades.
And it should
have an impact far beyond Switzerland
for decades to come.
Switzerland
has pulled out the stops for Wednesday’s
inauguration; German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, French President Francois
Hollande and Italian Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi are all on hand for a
glitzy celebration featuring musical
bands, dancers, even a tunnel theme
song.
The EU turnout
is no surprise; the project, cutting a
north-south axis through central
Switzerland, has received financial
support and industrial know-how from
around the European Union.
Although
Switzerland isn’t one of the bloc’s 28
members, the EU railway network will get
a major boost from the shortcut through
the Alps, notably for the route from
Germany to Italy.
In a
development that seems quintessentially
Swiss, the project has come in on
schedule.
Guy Parmelin,
the Swiss minister of defence and civil
protection, told national television
that the tunnel gives his country a
chance to display its “know-how” and
show “when Switzerland takes on a
commitment, it keeps it.”