The Longest Tunnel in The World

The Longest Tunnel in The World
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Largest Dams
Published on Feb 20, 2014

The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a railway tunnel in the heart of the Swiss Alps expected to open in 2016. With a route length of 57 km (35.4 mi) and a total of 151.84 km (94.3 mi) of tunnels, shafts and passages, it is the world's longest rail tunnel, surpassing the Seikan Tunnel in Japan.

Its main purpose is to increase total transport capacity across the Alps, especially for freight, notably between Germany and Italy, and more particularly to shift freight volumes from road to rail to reduce environmental damage caused by ever-increasing numbers of heavy lorries. A secondary benefit will be to cut the journey time for passenger trains from Zürich to Milan by about an hour and from Zürich to Lugano to 1-hour 40 minutes.

The project consists of two single-track tunnels. It is part of the AlpTransit project, also known as the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA), which includes the Lötschberg Base Tunnel between the cantons of Bern and Valais and the under construction Ceneri Base Tunnel (scheduled to open late 2019) to the south. It bypasses the Gotthardbahn, a winding mountain route opened in 1882 across the Saint-Gotthard Massif, which is now operating at capacity, and establishes a direct route usable by high-speed rail and heavy freight trains.

The total cost of the project is 9.8 billion Swiss francs, or US$10.3 billion. When completed, the Gotthard Base Tunnel will be one of the longest tunnel construction projects in the world: 20 years of constant construction and preparation.
1,771 Comments
 Auggie Giuseppe
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TheJapanChannelDcom
TheJapanChannelDcom
3 years ago
Was this made for school kids?
The narration seems to assume we are idiots.
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Largest Dams
Largest Dams
4 years ago
The Longest Tunnel in The World
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Hopelessand Forlorn
Hopelessand Forlorn
2 years ago
15:44--So sorry, but GPS satellites are not in geosynchronous orbit.  Makes on wonder what else this documentary got wrong.
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ziah Reid
ziah Reid
3 years ago
7 billion dollars isn't really that outrageously expensive. The Iraq war has cost the US as much as 2 trillion. I'd rather my "government" spend 7 billion dollars on something like this instead of another war with Iraq.
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HotelPapa100
HotelPapa100
2 years ago
The technical feat is enough in and of itself. The ridiculous over dramatization of the narration was absolutely unnecessary.
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Rejean Rivard
Rejean Rivard
1 year ago
Anyone remember when Discover had ONLY good shows on TV, like this?
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unenslaved2012
unenslaved2012
4 years ago
As I watch this I can help but think of the classified underground tunnels
thanks for sharing
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Almenhorst
Almenhorst
2 years ago
always these american skalings... "3 storeys high... 2 footballfields long"
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Gunshy55
Gunshy55
3 years ago
I hope they learn the metric system before they finnish! "Feet, inches, miles, farenhiet" and what is this new measurement called " football fields"?? (What sort of football field)?
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mpking
mpking
3 years ago
Sorry, I am leaving this video. The dramatised commentary is unbearable!
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SteelRodent1456
SteelRodent1456
1 year ago
Commercials every 10 minutes: Best way to ensure no one watches. Each commerial break drops 10-20% of the viewers, effectively making you less money. Mix in the terrible American editing and overdramatization of something trivial, and you end up with a one-hour video with 20 minute content. Isn't it time to move into the 21s century, instead of following an archaic formula? It's no wonder American TV stations have fewer viewers than any other TV stations in the world, in a country with more TVs and potential viewers than anywhere else. You simply have no idea how to make quality content.
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Shelly Ann
Shelly Ann
1 year ago
This tunnel is now finished!
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Frank Homer
Frank Homer
3 years ago
Why do American narrators talk in that stupid voice.
They could make having a coffee sound like a world war.
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