AP Features, June 15th, 2007
Accompanied by brass bands and fireworks, the Swiss inaugurated the world's longest overland tunnel Friday, opening a new era of transportation through the Alps _ the natural barrier in the heart of Europe.
The first train burst through a banner declaring "Loetschberg -Connecting Europe" _ firecrackers popping. More than 1,000 officials and citizens watched in Frutigen at the north entrance of the nearly 21-mile Loetschberg tunnel.
As villagers beneath Frutigen's castle followed the ceremony through binoculars, the steady stream of freight and passenger trains on the old track on the hill above the tunnel underscored the importance the connection will serve to traffic between Italy and Germany.
The tunnel, which took eight years to build and cost around $3.5 billion _ will trim the time trains need to cross between Germany and Italy to under two hours from approximately 3 1/2 hours now.
It will get skiers to Swiss resorts more quickly. The trip from Bern, at the northern end of the tunnel, to Visp, near ski regions like Switzerland's Zermatt and Italy's Courmayeur on the southern side of the Alps, will be halved _ to 55 minutes from 110.
The new track with rails cushioned on rubber will be suitable for the high-speed trains from Germany, France and Italy. Freight trains will be able to travel at speeds up to 100 mph and passenger trains at up to 150 mph.
By running at low elevation, the tunnel is something like a mouse hole at floor level, able to accommodate trains and cargo loads that cannot negotiate the long climb and switchbacks to existing tunnels higher up the mountain.
The Loetschberg is longer than the current overland record-holder _ Japan's 16.4 mile Hakkoda Tunnel _ and will come third overall behind the undersea Seikan Tunnel, also in Japan, and the Channel Tunnel connecting France and England.
Swiss Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger arrived on the first train _ carrying freight from Italy _ and was greeted on arrival by Italian and German officials.
The Loetschberg was dug parallel to an even more ambitious project _ the 36-mile Gotthard Tunnel, which will be the world's longest when it is completed in 2017.
For Swiss taxpayers _ who are footing the bill for the twin, multibillion-dollar construction projects _ the main selling-point is that it will move heavy EU trucks off Switzerland's crowded highways and onto trains.
Switzerland is at the center of a north-south European axis where traffic has increased more than tenfold since 1980. The Swiss have tired of traffic jams caused by big rigs and vacationers filling their narrow valleys.
Passenger trains will start traveling through the tunnel on Dec. 9. From then on, 72 freight trains and 43 passenger trains will pass through the tunnel every day.
Due to cost constraints, only the eastern tube of the Loetschberg has so far been completed. It remains open whether the parallel western tube will be finished as well, but until that might happen, trains will alternate traveling in opposite directions on the finished side.
