A new rail tunnel dug in the Alps will connect Innsbruck in Austria with Fortezza in Italy. Excavation work on the Italian side has been completed, while on the Austrian side just over 19 km still have to be dug. The new Brenner Base tunnel will stretch 64 km and will be the longest underground rail tunnel in the world, IPN reports.
The current railway has been on a fixed route since 1860, on a mountain road at an altitude of 1371 meters, with steep gradients of up to 26%. This limits train speed and carrying capacity, requiring at least two locomotives on the Italian side and three on the Austrian side. As a result, the railroad can no longer cope with cross-border freight and passenger transport, Antena 3 CNN reports.
With gradients of just 4% to 7%, the tunnel is 580 meters below the Brenner Pass, so it will reduce the Fortezza – Innsbruck railway line by 20 km. In the planning phase, it is estimated that freight trains will reach speeds of 160 km/h and passenger trains – up to 250 km/h, reducing travel time from 80 to just 25 minutes.
The tunnel is being co-financed with €2.3 billion and aims to relieve congestion on the Munich-Verona route, which is part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor stretching from the Finnish capital Helsinki to the Italian capital Valletta.
