The tunnel was closed in August last year after a broken wheel caused a freight train to derail, causing extensive damage.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the main rail connection between Switzerland and Italy, reopens on
00:07Monday more than a year after an accident forced its closure.
00:11It happened on August 10 last year when a Swiss Federal Railways freight train derailed
00:16due to a broken wheel.
00:18The derailment caused the train to crash into the gate separating the western and eastern
00:23tunnels causing severe damage.
00:26An investigation after the crash revealed that hairline fractures in a wagon wheel caused
00:30the accident when pieces came away causing the carriage to jump the tracks.
00:35And a clean-up operation was also problematic.
00:57SBB estimated last year that repairing the damage would cost in the region of 135 million
01:05euros, but the company said this week that the final price tag was 159 million.
01:11Taking almost 17 years to complete after decades of planning, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the
01:16longest railway tunnel in the world, stretching 57 kilometers under the Swiss Alps.
01:22It's an essential link between Switzerland's German and Italian-speaking cantons and costs
01:2810 billion euros to construct.