  the gotthard base tunnel (gbt) is a railway tunnel in the heart of the swiss alps expected to open on june 2, 2016. with a route length of  and a total of  of tunnels, shafts and passages, it is the world's longest rail tunnel, surpassing the seikan tunnel in japan. its main purpose is to increase total transport capacity across the alps, especially for freight, notably between germany and italy, and more particularly to shift freight volumes from road to rail to reduce environmental damage caused by ever-increasing numbers of heavy lorries. a secondary benefit will be to cut the journey time for passenger trains from zÃ¼rich to milan by about an hour and from zÃ¼rich to lugano to 1-hour 40 minutes.{{cite news |last=malins |first=richard |title= crossing the alps |url=http://www.modern-railw
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