First 9 km of Lyon-Turin rail tunnel completed

The construction of the rail tunnel between Lyon, France and Turin, Italy has passed an important symbolic milestone following the completion of the first 9 km of its base tunnel beneath the Alps.

The entire line will extend for 270 km between the two cities. The core of the project is the cross-border section between Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in France and Susa valley in Italy known as SMP4; a 57.5 km (35.7 mile) long tunnel running under the Alps. The tunnel, when completed, is set to be one of the world's longest rail tunnels.

In a ceremony attended by various business leaders and other officials, including Philippe Chantraine, representative of DG Move, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, and French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) Federica completed the first leg of the tunnelling project, to the applause of those gathered as the cutter's head appeared through the rock face.

The Federica, built by the French company NFM Technologies, will now be dismantled and replaced by a new machine. 

Speaking during the ceremony, Mr Djebbari "reaffirmed the major interest and determination of France" to carry this project out.

"Switzerland is often cited as a great example with a modal shift (from road to rail) of 70%," he continued. The minister added that France cannot be satisfied with its figure of 8%, especially with "more than 3 million trucks" crossing the Alps between Italy and France.

Mr Djebbari also said that the project could expect an increase in funding from the European Commission, from its current rate of 40% to 50 or 55%.

Hubert du Mesnil, president of the French-Italian owner TELT, the company fronting the project said: "The next step is to continue digging the tunnel, now that the operation is definitely launched."

The project has been the subject of considerable opposition on environmental, economic and health grounds. However, the European Commission has said it is important to creating "more favourable conditions for the return of large-scale commercial use of cargo trains" in a region with several important economic areas including Lombardy in Italy and the Rhone-Alpes.

The tunnel is a strategic part of a much larger "Mediterranean Corridor"; a network of high-speed railways that links Algeciras, a port in southern Spain, to the Hungarian capital Budapest, via several important cities and ports including Madrid, Seville, Barcelona, Milan, Venice and Ljubljana. With 18% of EU's population, the Corridor regions generate 17% of the EU's GDP.

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