When was the simplon tunnel opened

Politics 1 May Agreement with Europe View event. Society Approval from western Switzerland View event. Construction Tunnel vision View event.

Society 20 April Pressure from the environmental movement View event. Construction 3 October Work begins View event. Society 12 December Spatial planning View event. Politics 19 February Green light for the network option View event. Politics 28 May Transport policy as financial policy View event. Society 12 September Links to other countries View event.

Politics Rotterdam—Genoa View event. Politics 28 November Yes to public transport funding View event. Politics 17 December Supervision View event. Politics 13 June Adjustments go unnoticed View event. Construction 4 July Construction begins View event. Society 7 October The big shift View event. Politics 20 May The end of the tonne limit View event. Construction 26 November Geology and surveying View event. Society 24 October A fire brings big changes View event.

Construction 15 April The costs View event. Construction Control in the tunnel View event. Construction 1 June Construction of the Ceneri tunnel View event. Construction 5 September Breakthrough in the Gotthard View event. Politics 19 March The 5. Planning From drawing to 3D model View event. Society Using the tunnels to get away View event.

Society 22 August A million visitors View event. Construction 31 May The four-metre corridor View event. Construction 30 October Rock meets concrete View event. Construction 30 September Tests on the Gotthard View event. Society Tunnels of the world View event.

Society 31 May High-profile guests at the opening ceremony View event. Society 10 December Costs and benefits View event. Society 43, trains View event. Passing loop en. Passenger, Freight, Car Transport en. Lepontine Alps en. Iselle di Trasquera, Piedmont, Italy en. Simplon line, en. Traversing the Lepontine Alps between Switzerland and Italy en. Simplon Tunnel en. Two single-track tubes en. Brig, canton of Valais, Switzerland en.

Meanwhile the anniversary celebration reminds us — and is this not salutary? The first thing that happened yesterday after the French and Italian engineers had met and toasted each other under Mont Blanc was that the two governments opened a Customs and frontier post at the Italian end of the tunnel.

But this seems to be a gesture aimed at complying with all the bureaucratic forms rather than an earnest of interference to come. Customs and immigration checks between members of the European Economic Community are already slight compared with the kind of thing you find at Dover.

There seems no reason to doubt that when the tunnel opens to traffic some eighteen months hence it will do a great deal to let cars and lorries travel between the two countries freely and in all weathers. The tunnel will not only cut miles off the road journey from Paris to Rome, it will make the journey possible during the months when the Alpine passes are snowed up and motorists must now take the circuitous and crowded road along the Mediterranean coast.

It is remarkable how recently the Alps made a near-impassable barrier in winter — almost within living memory. Less than ninety years ago the poet Rimbaud had to take refuge in one of the famous mountain hospices whose fame survives in countless jokes about St Bernard dogs rescuing travellers in the snow.

The St Gotthard railway tunnel was then being built. If we have any sense it ought not to be long before a Channel tunnel makes the present arrangements at Dover look as antediluvian as the hospices on the Alpine passes. The Simplon Tunnel opens — archive, February Opening of the Simplon tunnel.

Spring