The Brenner Base Tunnel will cross the Alps to connect Innsbruck in Austria with Fortezza in Italy.
In Europe, you can get almost anywhere on a train. The railways connect London in the UK with Amsterdam in The Netherlands, and you can travel from Zurich in Switzerland all the way to Budapest in Hungary. But, one area that has always proven a sticking point is when travelers want to get from Austria over the alps and into Italy. Now, a new tunnel promises to change that.
It’s called the Brenner Base Tunnel and, when it opens, it’ll become the longest underground rail connection in the world. Impressive stuff.
The tunnel will take travelers from Innsbruck in Austria across the alps and into Fortezza in Italy. When connected to the underground rail systems in Innsbruck, the total length of this underground railway will be 64km (40 miles)
To build this monster rail link, engineers began excavating beneath the mountains of Austria in 2015. They are working to construct three tunnels as part of the system, the first is a service tunnel that will also be used to assess the ground conditions.