Tunnels

Gotthard

It has two tubes and runs flat beneath the Gotthard massif between Erstfeld and Bodio.

💡 Did you know? At its deepest point some 2,300 metres of rock lie above the trains.

Channel Tunnel

Of its roughly 50 kilometres, almost 38 run under the sea, more than in any other tunnel in the world.

💡 Did you know? During construction the British and French crews met beneath the Channel in 1990.

Seikan

It runs beneath the Tsugaru Strait and is about 54 kilometres long.

💡 Did you know? Until 2016 it was the longest railway tunnel in the world.

Lærdal

It opened in 2000 and links Lærdal with Aurland between Oslo and Bergen.

💡 Did you know? Three blue-lit caverns break up the long drive so that nobody gets drowsy.

Simplon

At almost 20 kilometres it held the record until 1982, when the Daishimizu Tunnel opened in Japan.

💡 Did you know? The second bore was only added in 1921.

Mont Blanc

A lorry carrying margarine and flour caught fire; the tunnel then stayed closed for three years.

💡 Did you know? The tunnel, opened in 1965, is almost twelve kilometres long.

Fréjus

Germain Sommeiller used compressed-air drilling machines there on a large scale for the first time.

💡 Did you know? Although it is often called the Mont Cenis Tunnel, it runs beneath the Col du Fréjus.

Thames

Building it between Rotherhithe and Wapping took from 1825 to 1843 and was halted several times by floods.

💡 Did you know? At first it was a pedestrian tunnel with traders and fairs; today trains run through it.

Marc Isambard Brunel

He patented the tunnelling shield in 1818; under the frame the men worked in separate cells, protected from collapsing earth.

💡 Did you know? He named the shipworm, which bores through wood behind a hard shell, as his model.

Tunnel boring machine

Behind the cutter head it immediately installs the concrete segments of the tube; some machines are over 400 metres long.

💡 Did you know? Tunnel boring machines are traditionally given women’s names; at the Gotthard they included Sissi and Heidi.

Shotcrete

Together with rock bolts it forms a thin shell, and the surrounding rock largely carries itself.

💡 Did you know? The method was made known in the 1960s by Ladislaus von Rabcewicz, Leopold Müller and Franz Pacher.

Old Elbe Tunnel

Its two tubes, just over 400 metres long, link the Landungsbrücken with Steinwerder; cars go down in large lift cages.

💡 Did you know? The walls of the tubes are decorated with tiles showing fish, crabs and mussels.

Holland Tunnel

It links Manhattan with Jersey City; large fans change the air in the tubes every 90 seconds.

💡 Did you know? It is named after its chief engineer Clifford Holland, who died before it opened.

Marmaray

The section under the strait consists of concrete elements sunk into the water.

💡 Did you know? During construction archaeologists at Yenikapı found a Byzantine harbour with dozens of shipwrecks.

Kaprun

The train of the glacier railway to the Kitzsteinhorn caught fire inside the tunnel; a faulty fan heater is considered the cause.

💡 Did you know? Only twelve people survived, because they fled downhill, away from the smoke.

Louis Favre

The man from Geneva had promised to finish the 15-kilometre tunnel in eight years and accepted heavy penalties for any delay.

💡 Did you know? Around 200 workers died during construction, many of them from Italy.