Overview:
- Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT).
- Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT) is a 55km railway tunnel being built under the Alps between Innsbruck in Austria and Fortezza in Italy.
- BBT will replace continental Europe’s oldest rail route, the 140 year old Brenner railway which traverses the mountain range.
- When complete, BBT will connect with the Innsbruk Bypass creating a 64km stretch of railway tunnel which will be the longest underground rail route in the world.
- Through company Galleria di Base del Brennero - Brenner Basistunnel BBT, the government's of Austria and Italy jointly own the project.
- The European Union is contributing to the financing of the tunnel, providing 50% of exploratory tunnel costs (around €303 million) and 40% of the costs of developing the main tunnel tubes (around €880 million).
- Austria and Italy will cover additional costs of the developing the tunnel - around 60% of the total - between them.
- The tunnel will form part of the European Commission's Scandinavian-Mediterranean Core Network Corridor, extending from Finland to Malta, an infrastructure programme designed to improve transport links between the two regions.
- In part the tunnel is being developed is to ease HGV congestion on a bottle-necked roads in Austria by offering an alternative route for freight currently transported on trucks.
- BBT will also provide a more time-efficient route of travel through the Alps than the current railway, expediting the journey time between Innsbruck and Fortezza from 80 minutes to 25.
- The tunnel is scheduled for completion in 2025.
Ben Naylor - Regional editor
