 Passing loop | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Official name | German:Simplontunnel,Italian:Galleria del Sempione | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line | Simplon line, (Lötschberg railway line) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Traversing theLepontine Alps betweenSwitzerland andItaly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 46°19′26″N8°00′25″E / 46.324°N 8.007°E /46.324; 8.007 (Simplon Tunnel, northern portal) –46°12′25″N8°12′04″E / 46.207°N 8.201°E /46.207; 8.201 (Simplon Tunnel, southern portal) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| System | Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crosses | Lepontine Alps (Wasenhorn massif) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Start | Brig,canton of Valais, Switzerland 683 m (2,241 ft) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| End | Iselle di Trasquera,Piedmont, Italy 633 m (2,077 ft) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Work begun | 22 November 1898; 126 years ago (22 November 1898) (east tunnel), 1912 (west tunnel) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | 19 May 1906 (east tunnel), 1921 (west tunnel) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Owner | SBB CFF FFS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operator | SBB CFF FFS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traffic | Railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Character | Passenger, Freight, Car Transport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vehicles per day | Passenger: 70, Freight:unknown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 19.803 km (12.305 mi) (east tunnel), 19.823 km (12.317 mi) (west tunnel) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. oftracks | Twosingle-track tubes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Electrified | since 1 June 1906,15 kV 16.7 Hz since 2 March 1930 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating speed | 160 km/h (Passenger trains)120 km/h (Car shuttles) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest elevation | 705 m (2,313 ft) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lowest elevation | 633 m (2,077 ft) (south portal) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grade | 2–7 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheSimplon Tunnel (Simplontunnel,Traforo del Sempione orGalleria del Sempione) is a railway tunnel on theSimplon railway that connectsBrig, Switzerland andDomodossola, Italy, through theAlps, providing a shortcut under theSimplon Pass route. It is straight except for short curves at either end.[1] It consists of two single-track tunnels built nearly 15 years apart. The first to be opened is 19,803 m (64,970 ft) long; the second is 19,824 m (65,039 ft) long, making it thelongest railway tunnel in the world for most of the twentieth century, from 1906 until 1982, when theDaishimizu Tunnel opened.
Culminating at a height of only 705 m (2,313 ft) above sea level, the Simplon Tunnel was also the lowest direct Alpine crossing for 110 years, until the opening of theGotthard Base Tunnel in 2016. The tunnel has a maximum rock overlay of approximately 2,150 m (7,050 ft),[2] also a world record at the time. Temperatures up to 56 °C (133 °F) have been measured inside the tunnel.[3]
Work on the first tube of the Simplon Tunnel commenced in 1898. The Italian kingVictor Emmanuel III of Italy and the president of the Swiss Confederation (presiding theFederal Council of Switzerland for that year)Ludwig Forrer opened the tunnel at Brig on 19 May 1906.[4] The builders of the tunnel wereHermann Häustler andHugo von Kager. Work on the second tube of the tunnel started in 1912 and it was opened in 1921.
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Shortly after the opening of the first railway in Switzerland, each region began to favour a separate north–south link through the Alps towards Italy. Eastern Switzerland supported a line through theSplügen Pass or theLukmanier Pass, Central Switzerland andZürich favoured theGotthard Pass and Western Switzerland supported theSimplon route.
In 1871, the first line was completed through the Alps, connecting Italy and France with theFréjus Rail Tunnel.
TheCompagnie de la Ligne d'Italie was founded in 1856 to build a connection betweenRomandy and Italy through theCanton of Valais and theSimplon. On 1 June 1874, it was taken over by theSimplon Company (French:Compagnie du Simplon, S), which was created to promote the project. This merged in 1881 with the companyWestern Swiss Railways (French:Chemins de Fer de la Suisse Occidentale, SO) to create theWestern Switzerland–Simplon Company (French:Compagnie de la Suisse Occidentale et du Simplon, SOS). The French financiers of the SOS were able to secure finance for the tunnel in 1886. The company considered 31 proposals and selected one that involved the construction of a tunnel from Glis to Gondo, which would have been fully in Switzerland. From Gondo it would have continued on a ramp through the Divedro valley down toDomodossola.
At a Swiss-Italian conference held in July 1889, it was agreed, however, to build a nearly 20-kilometre long (12 mi) base tunnel through the territory of both states. In order to secure credit for the tunnel, the SOS joined with theJura–Bern–Luzern Railway to create theJura–Simplon Railway (French:Compagnie du Jura–Simplon, SOS).
The participation of the Swiss government led to the signing of a treaty with Italy on 25 November 1895 concerning the construction and operation of a railway through the Simplon from Brig to Domodossola by the Jura–Simplon Railway. The route of the tunnel was determined by military considerations so that the state border between the two countries was in the middle of the tunnel, allowing either country to block the tunnel in the event of war.
On 1 May 1903, the Jura-Simplon Railway was nationalized and integrated into the network of theSwiss Federal Railways (SBB), which completed the construction of the tunnel.
The construction of the tunnel was carried out by the Hamburg engineering company Brandt & Brandau, of Karl Brandau andAlfred Brandt [de]. On average, 3,000 people a day worked on the site. They were mostly Italians, who suffered under very poor working conditions: 67 workers were killed in accidents; many died later of diseases. During the work, there were strikes, which led to the intervention of vigilantes and theSwiss army.
With up to 2,150 m (7,054 ft) of rock over the tunnel, temperatures of up to 42 °C (108 °F) were expected and a new building method was developed. In addition to the single-line main tunnel, a parallel tunnel was built, with the tunnel centres separated by 17 m (56 ft), through which pipes supplied fresh air to the builders in the main tunnel. It was envisaged that the parallel tunnel could be upgraded to a second running tunnel when required. The first Simplon Tunnel (19,803 m (64,970 ft) in length) was built almost straight, with only short curves at the two tunnel portals.
On 24 February 1905, the two halves of the tunnel came together. They were out of alignment by only 202 mm (8 in) horizontally and 87 mm (3.4 in) vertically. Construction time was7+1⁄2 years, rather than5+1⁄2 years, due to problems such as water inflows and strikes.
Operations commenced through the tunnel on 19 May 1906. Because of its length among other things, it has operated withelectric traction rather thansteam from the beginning. The official decision to use electricity was made only half a year before its opening by the then-still-new SBB.Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) were commissioned to carry out the electrification. They decided in 1904 to use thethree-phase system being introduced in Italy, with a three-phase power supply of 3,400 volts at 15.8 Hz[5] using two overhead wires with the track acting as the third conductor. BBC had no electric locomotives and initially acquired three locomotives built for theFerrovia della Valtellina—the owner of the lines fromColico toChiavenna andTirano, which had been electrified with this system in 1901 and 1902[5]—from their owner, theRete Adriatica (Adriatic Network) railway company. These three locomotives (which becameFS Class E.360) hauled all traffic through the tunnel until 1908. On 2 March 1930, the Simplon tunnel was converted to 15 kV, 16.7 Hz AC (single-phase).
Between 1912 and 1921, the 19,823-metre long (65,036 ft) second tube, known as Simplon II, was built. On 7 January 1922 the northern section from the north portal to the 500-metre long (1,640 ft) passing loop in the middle of the tunnel was brought into operation, followed on 16 October 1922 by the southern section from the passing loop to the south portal.
During the Second World War, on both sides of the border, there were preparations for the possible detonation of the tunnels. In Italy, the German army planned, as part of its 1945 withdrawal, to blow up the tunnel, but was thwarted byItalian partisans with the help of two Swiss officials and Austrian deserters.
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There is a car-carrying shuttle betweenBrig andIselle di Trasquera, which provides a 20-minute train journey as an alternative to driving over the Simplon Pass. The service began on 1 December 1959. As roads over the Simplon Pass steadily improved throughout the 1970s and 1980s the tunnel's shuttle schedule was cut back, then ended altogether on 3 January 1993. Almost twelve years later, on 12 December 2004, the car shuttle service began again and now runs about every 90 minutes.
In the early 1990s, a project to implement therolling highway system of piggyback operations for transalpine freight on theLötschberg–Simplon axis was implemented. Such operations were possible under the previous profile of the Simplon Tunnel, but capacity would have been heavily restricted because its height was too low to carry trucks at the permitted maximum corner height offour metres (13 ft1+1⁄2 in). The clearance in the tunnel was therefore increased by lowering the rail trackbed. This work began in 1995 and lasted eight years. At the same time, the tunnel vault was rehabilitated, while the drainage tunnel was rebuilt. A total of 200,000 m3 (260,000 cu yd) of rock was removed with pneumatic breakers.
In addition, a newrailway electrification system was installed usingoverhead electric rail instead of thetensioned cable normally used for overhead electrification so that the required4.90-metre (16 ft7⁄8 in) heightclearance could be achieved. In the late 1980s, a one kilometre (0.62 mi) long overhead electric rail had been tested at 160 km/h (99 mph). Before this experiment, trains running under overhead electric rails in Switzerland had been limited to 110 km/h (68 mph) and internationally to 80 km/h (50 mph).[6]
Restricted rail operations were maintained during the entire construction period.
In order to expand the Lötschberg-Simplon axis into a powerful transit axis, various extensions to the access lines (fromBern andLausanne in the north and fromNovara andMilan in the south) have been made in recent years and decades. The largest projects have dealt with the northern access from Basel-Bern via Lötschberg. Between 1976 and 2007 there were three major transformations. First, the remaining single-track line betweenSpiez and Brig was dualled. Later, adjustments were made to the tunnel profile for piggyback traffic; in places only widening one track was possible. Finally, theLötschberg Base Tunnel partially opened in 2007, although the new tunnel still has a 21-kilometre (13 mile) single-track section; this was done in order to save costs for the construction of the longerGotthard Base Tunnel, which was completed in 2016.
Clearances were also raised for the piggyback traffic on the Italian side as well on the Simplon southern approach. Here, too, for financial reasons, at times only one line was cleared for the rolling highway. South of Domodossola, thesingle line toNovara viaLake Orta was electrified and modernized.
The classic approach to the Simplon from Paris andLausanne—less important for today's transit traffic—was upgraded in the context of a nationwide rail upgrading project,Rail 2000, between 1985 and 2004. Further adjustments are proposed. In November 2004, the 7-kilometre long (4.3 mi) new line betweenSalgesch andLeuk in theRhone Valley was completed to replace the last single-track bottleneck on the route. Under the ZEB ("Future rail development projects") package, the maximum speed on the long straight sections of the Rhone valley lines will be increased from 160 to 200 km/h (99 to 124 mph).
On 9 June 2011, a 300 m (984 ft) section of the Simplon II tunnel's roof was seriously damaged when a northboundBLS freight train caught fire and stopped 3 km (1.9 mi) into the tunnel. The temperature exceeded 800 °C (1,470 °F) and took more than two weeks to cool back to normal. By agreement all repairs to the tunnels are the responsibility of theSBB, which expected to reopen the tunnel in December 2011. The other tunnel remained in service.[7]
Repair work was completed in November 2011.[8]
In the 1957 novelFrom Russia, with Love byIan Fleming, protagonistJames Bond fights his enemy, SMERSH agent Donovan Grant, eventually killing him, while passing through the Simplon Tunnel on theOrient Express.
InAgainst the Day byThomas Pynchon, Reef Traverse, one of the novel's characters, works on the construction of the Simplon Tunnel.[9]
In the novel "The Couloir" by Richard Manichello, the Canton Valais is a major geographical setting for action and scenes. especially the Val de Bagnes. Brig and the Simplon Pass & Tunnel play an important role in the main plot, moving characters in and out of Western Swiss locations or over the Pennine Alps for various intrigues and subplots involving action that traverses Swiss and Italian story settings.
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Longest tunnel 1906–1982 | Succeeded by |
| Gotthard axis | |
|---|---|
| Lötschberg axis | |
46°19′25″N8°00′11″E / 46.32361°N 8.00306°E /46.32361; 8.00306
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
