Gotthard Base Tunnel: The Mountain Switzerland Conquered Three Times

On 29 February 1880, deep inside the Swiss Alps, two teams of exhausted miners broke through the last wall of rock between them. The man who had promised to build their tunnel wasn’t there to see it. Louis Favre had collapsed and died inside the mountain seven months earlier. Today, a train passes far beneath his tunnel through the Gotthard Base Tunnel, at 57 kilometres the longest railway tunnel in the world.

This is the story of a mountain that Switzerland has crossed three times, at three different heights: over the top, through the middle and, finally, right at the bottom. Each crossing was faster than the one before. Each cost more money. And each, in its own way, cost lives.

It’s also a story about voters, lorries, a legendary goat and an opening ceremony that half the internet decided was a satanic ritual. Let’s go underground.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel at a glance

Before we dig into the history, here are the basic facts. The Gotthard Base Tunnel runs 57.1 km under the Alps, from Erstfeld in the canton of Uri to Bodio in Ticino. It consists of two single-track tubes, linked every 325 metres by cross-passages that double as escape routes. Its highest point lies at just 549 metres above sea level, so trains run almost on the level, as if the mountain weren’t there at all.

The tunnel opened on 1 June 2016, exactly 134 years after the old Gotthard railway began regular timetabled service on 1 June 1882. Fittingly, the new tunnel is the bottom layer of a very old story.

One mountain, three crossings

The best way to understand the Gotthard Base Tunnel is to see it next to the two crossings that came before it. Tap each route below to compare them.

As you can see, every new crossing went lower. Lower meant shorter, flatter and faster, but it also meant more rock overhead, more heat and far more money.

Over the top: the pass and the Devil's Bridge

For centuries, the only way across was over the top, at 2,106 metres. The route had one terrible obstacle: the Schöllenen gorge, a narrow, roaring canyon on the northern side. Sometime in the 1200s, people managed to bridge it, and the Gotthard became one of the most important trade routes between northern Europe and Italy.

A deal with the devil

Naturally, the Swiss explained such a feat with a legend. According to the story, the people of Uri couldn't build the bridge, so the devil offered to do it. His price was the soul of the first living being to cross. When the bridge was finished, the clever villagers sent a goat across first. The furious devil grabbed a huge boulder to smash the bridge, but an old woman scratched a cross into the stone, and he dropped it. The "Devil's Stone" still lies near Göschenen.

Uri, by the way, is the canton of William Tell. You can read about whether he really existed in our article Was William Tell real?

The Tremola

In 1830, a proper road for carriages finally crossed the pass. On the southern side, its successor, the cobbled Tremola, still winds down towards Airolo in about two dozen hairpins. It's one of the most beautiful roads in the Alps, and a highlight of our guide to scenic drives in Switzerland.

Even so, the pass remained slow and dangerous. Snow closed it for months, and avalanches killed travellers. If Switzerland wanted to profit from trade between north and south, it had to go through the mountain, not over it.

Through the middle: the 1882 tunnel

The man behind the first tunnel was Alfred Escher, Zurich's railway king, banker and politician. He chaired the Gotthard Railway Company and secured money from abroad. Italy and Germany, both eager for a direct rail link, together paid most of the subsidies. In 1872, the Geneva engineer Louis Favre won the contract with a bold promise: he would dig the 15-kilometre tunnel in eight years, or pay heavy penalties.

Hell under the mountain

The work was brutal. Thousands of men, most of them poor Italians, drilled and blasted their way forward with compressed-air drills and dynamite. Inside, the air was hot, damp and full of dust and fumes. Water poured from the rock. Accidents with explosives, falling rock and wagons killed at least 170 workers according to the official list, and about 200 by most estimates. Many more fell ill from a parasitic worm that thrived in the tunnel's conditions.

Shots at Göschenen

In July 1875, workers at Göschenen went on strike over pay and conditions. A local militia was sent in and opened fire. Four workers were killed. It remains one of the darkest moments in Swiss labour history, and it's rarely mentioned in the proud accounts of the tunnel.

Favre's last walk

Favre never saw his tunnel finished. On 19 July 1879, he collapsed during an inspection deep inside the mountain and died. Seven months later, on 29 February 1880, the two teams broke through. Their surveyors had done remarkable work: the two tunnels met almost perfectly.

The railway opened in 1882, and it transformed Switzerland. Escher, however, had resigned in 1878 amid cost overruns. The bank he had founded to finance railways later became Credit Suisse, as our story about Swiss banking secrecy explains.

The road tunnel and the fire

A century later, cars and lorries got their own way through. The Gotthard road tunnel, 16.9 km long, opened on 5 September 1980. Soon, it was one of the busiest freight routes in the Alps.

Then, on 24 October 2001, two lorries collided inside the tunnel. The fire that followed killed 11 people. The disaster shocked Switzerland and strengthened a conviction that had been growing for years: heavy freight belonged on trains, not on mountain roads. In 2016, voters approved a second road tube, due to open around 2030, so that the old one can be renovated.

At the bottom: building the Gotthard Base Tunnel

The old railway had one big weakness. To climb to its tunnel, trains had to spiral up steep ramps. Near Wassen, the line loops around so much that passengers see the village church three times, from three different angles. Heavy freight trains needed extra locomotives, and speeds stayed low.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel solved that problem by going straight through the base of the mountain. However, building it was a challenge on a different scale.

Four giant moles

Engineers split the work into five sections, each with its own access point. Four huge tunnel-boring machines, each around 400 metres long with its support train, chewed through the rock. In Sedrun, in the middle of the mountain, crews reached the tunnel level through shafts about 800 metres deep, like a mine.

Heat, water and soft rock

Deep inside, the rock reached 46 °C, so the tunnel had to be cooled. In places, the rock was so soft and squeezing that the machines got stuck. Altogether, crews removed around 28 million tonnes of rock. Nine workers died during construction.

A breakthrough on live TV

On 15 October 2010, the boring machine broke through the last metre of rock between Sedrun and Faido, and Swiss television broadcast it live. Miners cheered and held up a statue of Saint Barbara, their patron saint. After eleven years of main construction, the east tube was finally connected. The west tube followed in March 2011.

Why Swiss voters paid for it

Here's the part that makes the Gotthard Base Tunnel uniquely Swiss. It wasn't simply a government decision. Citizens voted for it, more than once.

In 1992, 64% of voters approved the New Rail Link through the Alps, known as the NRLA. Two years later, voters went further. They narrowly approved the Alpine Initiative, which wrote into the constitution that freight crossing Switzerland should travel by rail, not by road. In 1998, they also approved a way to fund it, including a fee on heavy lorries.

Neighbouring countries weren't always pleased, but the message was clear. The people of Uri and Ticino were tired of endless lorries roaring through their valleys. In effect, the Swiss voted to protect the Alps by digging under them. It's a perfect example of Swiss direct democracy at work.

The world's longest railway tunnels

When it opened, the Gotthard Base Tunnel took the world record from Japan's Seikan Tunnel. Here's how it compares with other famous tunnels.

The opening ceremony and the internet's satanic myth

On 1 June 2016, Switzerland threw a party. Angela Merkel, François Hollande and Matteo Renzi joined Swiss leaders for the opening. The highlight was a show by the German theatre director Volker Hesse, with about 600 people on stage, amateurs and professionals alike.

The show was strange, even by the standards of modern theatre. Dancers in workers' overalls moved through clouds of smoke. Dancers dressed as haystacks twirled across the stage. A figure with the horned head of an ibex towered over the crowd. Within days, online videos claimed it was a satanic ritual staged for a secret elite.

What it really meant

In reality, the explanation is much less sinister. The show told the story of the mountain, its workers and its legends. Its overalls honoured the tunnel builders, while the rough, natural costumes drew on Alpine folk traditions, much like the masked New Year figures in our story about Swiss Christmas traditions. And the horned figure? It was an ibex, the wild goat of the Alps that also appears on the coat of arms of Graubünden.

In other words, it was Alpine folklore turned into avant-garde theatre, with a touch of Swiss humour. If you enjoy those old customs, our guide to Swiss folk music and folklore is a good next stop.

Quiz: true or false?

Think you know your Gotthard myths from the facts? Test yourself with six quick questions.

800 years of crossing the Gotthard

From a bridge built by the "devil" to the world's longest railway tunnel, tap through the key moments below.

Riding the Gotthard today

If you take a train between Zurich and Lugano or Milan, you'll almost certainly pass through the Gotthard Base Tunnel. The ride takes around 20 minutes, mostly in darkness, and it's surprisingly smooth. There's no view, of course, but there's something moving about crossing the Alps in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

For the views, take the old line instead. The Gotthard Panorama Express combines a boat trip on Lake Lucerne with a train ride over the historic route, past the Wassen church and through Favre's tunnel. It runs in the warmer months, and it's one of the most memorable journeys in the country. You'll find more ideas in our list of the best places to visit in Switzerland.

A tunnel that can break

The new tunnel isn't invincible. On 10 August 2023, a freight train derailed inside it after a wheel broke, badly damaging the track. One tube stayed closed for more than a year, and full service only returned in September 2024.

What the Gotthard says about Switzerland

The Gotthard isn't just a mountain for the Swiss. It sits at the heart of the country, both on the map and in its imagination. During World War II, its fortresses formed the core of the National Redoubt, and its bridges and tunnels were wired with explosives, a story we tell in our article on Swiss bridges rigged to blow.

It also explains a lot about Swiss prosperity. A country without a coastline turned its biggest obstacle into Europe's busiest shortcut. That's a theme you'll find throughout our guide to why Switzerland is so rich.

Above all, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is a monument to the people who dug through the mountain. Next time your train slips into the darkness at Erstfeld, spare a thought for the nine workers who died building it. Remember, too, the roughly 200 who died above them in the 1870s, and Louis Favre, who walked into his tunnel one summer day and never walked out.

FAQ: the Gotthard Base Tunnel