World's Longest Tunnel Nears Completion: The Alps Will Link Italy and Austria via 64-Kilometre Route

Construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel — set to become the world's longest railway tunnel at 64 kilometres, including the Innsbruck bypass — is nearing completion in the Alps. The tunnel will connect Fortezza in Italy's South Tyrol with Innsbruck in Austria, with its opening scheduled for 2032.

Trains currently have to cross the Brenner Pass via a steep, winding railway line that is 150 years old and unsuited to heavy, long freight trains. The new tunnel is designed to solve this problem and reshape Europe's transport map entirely.

According to the project's official website, the total construction cost will reach €10.5 billion (roughly 254 billion crowns). The European Union is covering half of the expenses, with Italy and Austria splitting the remainder equally.

The Italian section of the tunnel is being built by Webuild on behalf of BBT SE, a joint Italian-Austrian venture. "We are proud to contribute to the development of sustainable European mobility with such a strategic project," said Webuild CEO Pietro Salini.

Once completed, trains will be able to reach speeds of up to 250 kilometres per hour inside the tunnel, cutting travel time between Fortezza and Innsbruck from 80 minutes to just 25. The project aims to shift a significant share of freight traffic from roads to rail, reducing emissions and noise across the Alpine region.

According to Elisa De Berti, deputy governor of Italy's Veneto region, the project is forming a strategic rail corridor that will link the heart of Europe with the Quadrante Europa logistics hub in Verona — one of the key terminals connecting rail and road transport between Central and Southern Europe.

The current stage marks another milestone following last September, when workers first broke through an exploratory pilot tunnel connecting Italy and Austria underground. The passage is used for geological surveys, maintenance work, and serves as an emergency escape route. At a depth of around 1,400 metres, delegations from both countries symbolically crossed the border through this very passage.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker attended the ceremony marking the occasion, with Stocker calling it a historic day for the whole of Europe.

Crossing the Alps has been one of the continent's greatest transport challenges for centuries: the Romans built roads through the passes, and important trade and military routes crossed here in the Middle Ages. Yet travel remained slow, costly and weather-dependent.

The new route will replace a mountainous stretch with steep climbs that today regularly sees traffic jams of trucks and cars. The tunnel will become part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor, intended to link northern and southern Europe via high-speed rail.

Currently, the world's longest railway tunnel is Switzerland's Gotthard Base Tunnel, which runs 57 kilometres beneath the Alps and has been in operation since 2016. The Brenner tunnel will surpass it by seven kilometres.

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Source: novinky.cz