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World's Longest, Deepest Rail Tunnel Opens In Switzerland (latimes.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the engineering-feats dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Los Angeles Times: 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, the Swiss have completed another gargantuan task: burrowing the world's longest railway tunnel under the Swiss Alps to improve European trade and travel. European dignitaries on Wednesday inaugurated the 35.4-mile Gotthard Railway Tunnel, a major engineering achievement deep under the Alps' snow-capped peaks. It took 17 years to build at a cost of 12.2 billion Swiss francs ($12 billion) -- but workers kept to a key Swiss tradition and brought the massive project in on time and on budget. It also bores deeper than any other tunnel, running about 1.4 miles underground at its maximum depth. The thoroughfare aims to cut travel times, ease roadway traffic and reduce the air pollution spewed from trucks traveling between Europe's north and south. Set to open for commercial service in December, the two-way tunnel can handle up to 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains per day.

4 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Can we use this to transport... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Can we use this to transport Jews to concentration camps and niggers to receive concrete boots for a journey into the Mediterranean?

  2. aren't there airports in switzerland? by known_coward_69 · · Score: -1, Troll

    why spend all that money for a tunnel when you can simply fly over the mountains?

  3. Re: This is so non-American... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    In the US, we would have built it to handle cars and trains. We also would have completed it ahead of schedule.

  4. Re: "Longest, deepest" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You want to stop Trump? Stop f*cking talking about him.

    Why the hell would I want to stop Trump when the alternative is a lying sociopath who'd try to use the power of the state to trample all over our rights and freedoms while turning the US into the next Venezuela, Greece, or Detroit.

    I KNOW that's what Crooked Hillary! would try to do.

    And given the way Crooked Hillary!'s apologists all over the fucking place are doing their damndest to let her get away with admitted felonies, I don't doubt that were she to get into power, she'd do just that.

    Bunch of fucking Chavistas.