World's longest and deepest rail tunnel opens in Switzerland

Seven decades after it was first proposed, the world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel was officially inaugurated in Switzerland on Wednesday, 17 years after construction began with a blast in the main shaft.

The almost 57-kilometer twin-bore Gotthard Base Tunnel make way for a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alp.

The utmost goal is a smooth and continuous high-speed rail travel from the Dutch city of Rotterdam, in the north, to Genoa, on Italy’s Tyrrhenian Sea coast, in the south.

The $12.5 billion rail tunnel now ranks as the second world longest rail tunnels behind 33-mile Seikan rail tunnel in Japan. But the new world record might not last long as China announces plans for a 76-mile rail tunnel.

Funds for the project was sourced from packages which includes sales and fuel taxes, road charges on heavy vehicles, and government loan.

Religious leaders pour out to blessed the tunnel; a statue of St. Barbara, the patron saint of miners, stands inside it. Nine workers who died during the building of the tunnel were honored on Tuesday with a bronze plaque.

Five hundred passengers, selected from a lottery that 130,000 people entered, took part in the maiden trip.

Elite European leaders present at the inauguration were the Swiss president, Johann Schneider-Ammann, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President François Hollande of France, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy, Prime Minister Adrian Hasler of Liechtenstein, and Chancellor Christian Kern of Austria.