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Party: On Friday at 11:33 am, the first cargo traffic passed through the Ceneri Base Tunnel from north to south. The new tunnel is now officially open. Vincent Ducrot, CEO of SBB, and Dieter Schwank, CEO of Alpránsito AG, gave the signal for the first freight train to pass. Federal President Simonetta Sommaruga, dressed in Ticino style in red and blue, cut the red ribbon, accompanied by the words “Viva il treno, viva il Ticino, viva la Svizzera!”
They speak: Before the symbolic cutting of the ribbon, two federal councilors gave emotional speeches. “The trip to Lugano took what seemed like an eternity. I was driving over the mountain, Mount Ceneri ”, he recalled Simonetta Sommaruga in your direction. Instead of crossing the mountain, you now go through the mountain. “Anyone driving from Bellinzona to Lugano only needs 15 minutes.” The Ceneri tunnel reinforces public transport – “and reinforces Ticino,” the president continued. The tunnel brings Switzerland closer.
Sommaruga also praised the “forward-thinking” decision taken by the Swiss population, who voted in 1992 at the polls for NEAT. Many countries would envy Switzerland’s “smart relocation policy”.
The tunnel brings Switzerland closer.
Together with Gotthard and Lötschberg, the Ceneri base tunnel is “the heart of the most important railway corridor between the North Sea and the Mediterranean,” continued Sommaruga. One of the many pillars of the railway viaduct in front of the north portal is called “the Ballerina”, said the federal president. This pillar is a bit narrower than the others and rotates easily.
The Neat is “our job of the century and we are proud of it,” says the federal president at the end.
“Today we are experiencing the realization of a vision,” says a moving one later. Ignazio Cassis. Cassis described tunnel builder Alp Transit Gotthard AG as the “glue” that holds Switzerland together. The Ceneri base tunnel connects the kingdom of the president of the city of Lugano Macro Borradori (Lega) with that of Mario Branda (SP), president of the city of Bellinzona. Thanks to the faster connections in mid-December, Cassis prophesied that people could go back and forth between the Locarno Film Festival and the Lugano Summer Jazz.
The meaning of the work: Federal president Sommaruga explained in a pre-released video that the Neat strengthens the relocation policy and the protection of the Alps. Thanks to the tunnel, travelers got from north to south more quickly. And Ticino has an S-Bahn in the Bellinzona-Lugano-Locarno triangle.
Federal Council Ignazio Cassis told SRF that Ticino is increasingly becoming a public transport canton, even with some delay compared to urban areas in German-speaking Switzerland. “That is now the standard with the boys as well. In my time it was mandatory to have a motorcycle and a driving license. But now we are in another world. “
This is now the standard with boys. In my time it was mandatory to have a motorcycle and a driving license. But now we are in a different world.
Neighbors’ reactions: “Sono emozionata”, said Italian Transport Minister Paola de Micheli a few meters from the north portal of Ceneri. Fast train connections in Europe are important. De Micheli also highlighted the advantages for freight traffic that the agreement signed in Locarno in the morning for the extension of the Lötschberg-Simplon line will bring. “Switzerland and Italy not only say they want to work together, they also do it,” concluded de Micheli.
Austrian Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler spoke of a “new era of green travel.” The Austrian government supports this development, even if night trains are very expensive. Gewessler described Vienna as the “center of the night trains”.
Pawel Wojciechowski, coordinator of the Rhine-Alpine freight rail corridor in the EU, described the completion of NEAT as a “real European achievement”. He is pleased that travel between north and south is now faster and that freight transport in Europe is becoming more and more “green”.
The construction: With the Ceneri Tunnel, Switzerland is completing the New Alpine Transversal (Neat). It has a continuous flat track through the Alps. A continuous corridor of four meters between Rotterdam and Genoa is available for the transport of goods by rail.
