Yvon's Fotothing

Our car on the train in 1974
The 15-kilometer-long St. Gotthard Tunnel opened in 1882 for railway traffic at a cost of 177 workers' lives and replaced the pass road [3]. A 17 km road tunnel opened in 1980, with far fewer resulting deaths (53). A second rail tunnel through the pass, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, is currently under construction. Swiss authorities aim to have fewer than 10 construction-related deaths (the current tally stands at 7). When completed, it will be the longest rail tunnel in the world at 57 km. This tunnel, combined with two shorter tunnels planned near Zürich and Lugano as part of the AlpTransit initiative will reduce the 3 hour 40 min rail journey from Zürich to Milan by one hour, while increasing the size and number of trains that can operate along the route because the line is nearly level, compared with the spirals of the older tunnel.