MILAN (AP) – Opening a tunnel connecting Austria below the Alps to Italy on Thursday to Italy 1,400 meters (nearly 4,600 feet) to accelerate passenger train travel between the Metropolitan Centres, marking a major milestone with an ambitious European Union project that drives and shifts along roads.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Austrian Prime Minister Christian Stocker were on hand for the ritual breakthrough of the final meter of the lock, opening the first tunnel under Brenner Pass, the key junction of the one-day EU railway project from Helsinki to Palermo.
“In the end, there are no projects that are too big to work on, and no projects that are too big to bet on,” Meloni told the ceremony.
When completed, the Brenner Base Tunnel, the world’s longest underground railway tunnel, is one of four key infrastructure projects that bring Europe closer by the early 2030s, with the promise of restructuring how Italians travel and ship their goods.
The tunnel reduces travel time between Verona and Munich by more than 0.5-5 hours. Milan and Paris In at least 30% to 4.5 hours, we placed Genoa, the Ligurian port city, within Italian finance and fashion capital commute distances, and a major reworking of the European transport map.
All of them the boldest and most contested projects, recently approved projects The Straits of Messina Bridgeand ultimately links mainland Italy with Sicily. This is a project first assumed by the ancient Romans and long delayed by modern Italians.
The Tunnel and Bridge Project marks the first major upgrade to the Italian railway system since the launch of the Rome and Milan high-speed railway lines in 2008. Travel time between Italian financial and political centers has been significantly reduced, effectively killing the former slow Rome-Milan route. The railway line can be travelled in just 3 hours.
The current project also aims to reduce truck traffic on highways. This is expected to have the biggest impact on Brenner Pass, travelled by more than 2.5 million trucks a year, making it one of Europe’s busiest alpine routes, bringing Italian automotive components and small machinery north. The Brenner Base Tunnel aims to shift to half the heavy road to the railway.
Authorities also touted environmental benefits at the ceremony Thursday.
Reducing road congestion “will improve air quality, reduce noise and reduce C02 emissions,” said Apostoros Zizicostas, director of Europe’s Sustainable Transport and Tourism.
While pursuing these major projects, the Italian railway network has another 40 strategic projects in the work, funded by the European Union’s Pandemic Recovery Fund for 25 billion euros (nearly $30 billion). They include a high speed line between Naples and Bali on the heels of Italian boots.
These are four major infrastructure projects that will bring the Italian and European centers closer together.
Brenner Base Tunnel
The Brenner Base Tunnel, the world’s longest underground railway tunnel, runs for 55km (34 miles) between Austria’s Tarfus and Italy’s Fortessa, with the existing tunnel from Innsbruck to Innsbruck, extending to 64km (nearly 40 miles).
The project is estimated to cost around 8.8 billion euros (approximately $10.5 billion) and is expected to be completed by 2031. It crossed the first train in 2032. The project, launched in 2007, is jointly funded by Italy, Austria and the EU.
Tortona-genoa High Speed Rail Line
Engineers walk through the Turin-Lileen High Speed Rail Tunnel (TAV) in Saint-Martin Laporte, France, France on February 12, 2019 (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)
The link to Milan, a 53-kilometer (33-mile) high-speed rail line connecting the port city of Genoa and Piedmont Tortona, includes a 37-kilometer (23-kilometer) tunnel.
One of them is 27 kilometers (over 16½ miles) long. It aims to increase the transportation of goods from the Ligurian port cities of Genoa, Laspezia and Savona from railways to Northern Europe from next year to 50% by 2050.
Passenger train travel time between Milan and Genoa will be reduced from over an hour and a half to approximately an hour. The cost is 8.5 billion euros ($10 billion) and the tunnel is 90% complete. The project, launched in 2012, was slowed down by the difficult geology of the Apennine range, including the discovery of natural asbestos.
File – Engineers operate a 140-meter lock ating machines called “Federica” at the Turin-Lileen High Speed Rail Tunnel (TAV) in St. Martin Laporte, France, February 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Antonio Kalani, File)
Lyon – Turinline
The 11 billion euro ($13 billion) Lyon-Turin High Speed Rail Tunnel extends over 65 kilometers (40 miles) with a 57½ kilometers (nearly 36 miles) Montsenis Base Tunnel running underground in Saint-Géan-Maurianne, France and Italy.
It is scheduled to be completed around 2033. The project aims to remove more than a million large quantities of goods from roads in the Western Alps between France and Italy. Passenger travel time between Milan, the second largest metropolitan area in Europe and the third largest metropolitan area in Europe, will decrease from 6 to 7.5 hours to 4.5 hours.
The project, which began in 2007, was significantly slowed down due to environmental protests on the Italian side. It is jointly funded by France, Italy and the EU.
The Straits of Messina Bridge
The 13.5 billion euro ($16 billion) Messina Bridge Project Strait will promote travel between mainland Italy and Sicily, and incorporate the upgraded railway connections to Palermo and Catania.
The Single Span Bridge itself has six lanes and two railroad lines, ranging from Messina in Sicily to Villa San Giovanni in Calabria. The government is awaiting final approval by the Audit Court to begin preliminary work. It is expected to be completed by 2032.
