With less than a year to go, the countdown has begun to the official opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel.
Swiss Transport Minister Doris Leuthard launched the countdown during a ceremony in Lucerne.
At 57 kilometres, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will travel through the Alps between the northern portal of Erstfeld and Bodio in the south, will become the longest rail tunnel in the world once complete, stripping the title from Japan’s 53.85 kilometre Seikan Tunnel.
The opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel on June 1, 2016, will be preceded by a week of celebrations, which have been given the tag line ‘Gottardo 2016’.
The tunnel will be completed in October at which point an extension testing programme will begin. More than 3,000 test runs will be conducted throughout the tunnel.
Services are due to commence on December 11, 2016, with the European timetable change.
