Swiss declare Alps tamed as Gotthard rail tunnel opens

One of the great engineering projects of recent history was achieved today when Swiss authorities announced the completion of the Gotthard Tunnel, some 17 years after construction began. Stretching 57km at a cost of some $23.2bn, the tunnel forms one of the main north-south European rail lines, effectively linking the Dutch gateway of Rotterdam with its Italian counterpart of Genoa on the Mediterranean. Final testing is expected to completed this year, after which daily rail freight traffic is expected to reach a staggering 260 trains a day, according to this report from Euractiv.