At 57 km long, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which opened in 2016, is the longest railway tunnel in the world. Its highest point is situated at 550 m a.s.l. and its northern entrance is in Erstfeld (UR) while its southern entrance is in Bodio (TI). Thanks to the new tunnel, the route between Altdorf (UR) and Bellinzona (TI) is now 30 km shorter.
Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, from the inaugural speech on the new Gotthard Base Tunnel
Without taking the land surveys into consideration, the construction work took seventeen years and involved up to 2,400 people working simultaneously over three shifts around the clock. Approximately 28.2 million tonnes of rock and earth were excavated during the construction process. The total cost of the tunnel amounted to 12.2 million francs.