The $11B Tunnel That Could Save One of Europe’s Busiest Mountain Corridors | WSJ Breaking Ground 

Yeah sure but its not like you can do it everywhere first its expensive and has to be useful and second it can be harmful environmentally if we built unnecessary railway

Austria really is correct on this one. It's not strictly the climate change thing. But all the congestion on one narrow highway. If they can transport this stuff by railway, it would take a lot of pressure off the roads.

​@@awellculturedmanofanime1246no such thing as unnecessary railway. We have roads everywhere. Roads that are better replaced with rail

⁠@@awellculturedmanofanime1246okay but roads and cars are not harmful environmentally? Gotcha.

Concrete and steel = tonnes of co2.

German bureaucracy is a monster...

its the same here in switzerland. we made a simmilar agreement with germany and italy. there were no probpems with italy but many with germany. the germans make agreements and think the infrastructure will build without doing something. they need to understand that they cant make agreements and then dont honor them. its a shame how terrible germany became in the last 10-15 years.

@@karlheinz4059 It's the bureaucracy, totally and utterly overloaded/useless/lazy. The reason, why the economy is tanking!

​@@cyberslim7955No its not. Its German politicians that Hold it up

@@szrew7992 No, has nothing to do with politics, it's the bureaucracy. Germany is officially a third world country because of it's bureaucracy, and only because of it's bureaucracy. I lived abroad over 25 years, now I am back in Germany. OMG! OMG! OMG! Everything is ok, but the bureaucracy is worse than in a third world country! Every country is digitalising, but not Germany. The German bureaucracy is insanely overloaded with laws made by bureaucrats and is completely unwilling to make decisions, because they could legally backfire. Nobody needs to take responsibility for anything anyway, because nobody ever gets fired. If you don't live in Germany and have not lived in other countries before, you have no clue, it is unbelievable. Let me tell you, the Germans live in this bureaucratic stinking mess for so long, they even don't understand how bad it is compare to other countries. So to the outside, it looks like there is a lack of political will, but actually it's the bureaucracy, which is completely unable to push anything through. And this now also shows on the overall economy. So many businesses don't invest in Germany anymore, because of bureaucratic insanity. Search on YT, there are thousands of vids about this.

Yeah both Italy and Austria are doing amazing. Italians for example are building an even bigger tunnel to France as well as Valico tunnel which is similar in length to Koralp and Semmering base tunnels.

"Almost" boring? I would say the vast majority of the work is to bore!

Ever heard of China

In China this tunnel would have been completed in 1/5 the time for ⅓ the cost.

@@TheDubaiNavigator crashed in two year, would have displaced 500K people, wrecked the rivers, caused toxic dumps all over and would have been built not to support the economy but some ego by placing it in the wrong location. Been to China, you seem to think Augustus the Great. Think more Attila the Hun.

actually infrastructure is the strong suit of autocracies. innovation & freedom are products of democracy, which in large parts hinder big projects like these. refer to the lackluster infrastructure of US. even with bipartisan support for build back better, we're yet to see many promised projects to break grounds due to legal hurdles afforded by democracy

Same with our Betuwe-lijn. It’s a freight rail from Rotterdam to germany. Dutch part was finished 16 years ago. Building the german part should have started in 2003, but was postponed until 2016. And now it’s delayed to 2026.

Always has been.

If it is good for the environment, saves costs and furthers trade link, why are the Germans delaying this?

@@prithvirajsrinivasan1077 Germany has troubles to finance infrastructure projects.

@@erik5374 Trouble as in lack of budget?

why? project overruns arent news. all about risk management.

Look at the gotthardbase tunnel, Germany is decades behind doing it's part which was legally written down. Brennerbasetunnel will have the same issue. Suprisingly the italians are more reliable then the germans with planning infrastructure...no offense my italian friends.

​@@Slithermotion Honestly there should be fines for signatories that are missing deadlines. Just like with construction companies

Unlucky that Germans can't plan and constuct anything properly. Look at the airport in Berlin or the Stuttgart project :D:D

Yes, the real issue is not the tunnel - that will get build, slowly, but steadily. The issue are the connecting routes, which have NIMBY issues on both sides. But unfortunately much worse on the Bavarian/German side, so won't get that done in time. Difficult to understand why that is; there's some German mini docus on it on youtube. People just come across as very petty, with nonsense concerns, and politicians rather than support the project undermine it via empty promises to those people, as if somehow the Brenner problems could be fixed in a different way.

Economia italiana alle stelle???? Non credo viviamo nello stesso paese

Intercontinental means between continents

@@gre894 sorry So between continental which word is used?

@@MainulWasTaken Intracontinental or I guess in this case, intereuropean/intra-EU would be an applicable term.

The intellectual horizon of many Americans only extends from Los Angeles to New York. They don't realize that they are almost alone in the world with their completely destructive system (feet, miles, inces, lbs, etc.).

@@ThomasK3004: Inbred arrogance; like a European country with that same system and who wouldn't bother to change to right-side driving like many other countries did

NATO dictates what Europe can or cant do. remember you are Vassals to Washington.

The funny thing is, the Metric system is official in US. "Congress has established a national policy to make the metric system the preferred system of measurement for trade and commerce in the United States." See: www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metrication-law

@@covfefe1787 NATO uses metric.

Yeah Germany is also making the swiss Gotthard base tunnel a bit of a thud. The passenger rail connections are laughable too.

One of the main function of federal systems is for the states to blame everything controversial to the federal government eventhough they have nothing to do with it.

@@cmmartti that’s a bad analogy, your body is under completely centralized control, if it was a country it’d be a dictatorship. In this case it’s more like your kid punched someone and you need to take some responsibility

They've signed a treaty making european law supersede austrian law. It is illegal. Full stop.

@@cmmartti Austrian here. "If it so chooses" translates into "complex & lenghty negotiations needed". It wasn't mentioned in the clip, but the population along the transport corridor - which spans from Kitzbühel via Innsbruck to Matrei am Brenner (several 100k people) isn't happy with the insane amount of traffic going on in their backyard (often times, quite literally so). Any regional politician who might choose to ignore those complaints wouldn't survive politically.

And it's good that there are trafic restrictions

Except Germany - they get their well done when they finally finish their part of the project. Because the corridors rely on Germany also expanding their parts of the corridor.

Yeah, it takes me 3 hours from Italy to Munich by car, while it takes 6 hours by train, costs more, and you have to take 2 changes (hoping for no delays). I see no reasons to use the train.

We need a HS line between Verona and Munich.

@@Ale-bj7ndwohin in Italien von München aus dauert es denn 3 Stunden mit dem Auto, aber 6 mit dem Zug. Fahre die Strecke oft und verstehe deine Aussage nicht ganz

@@stascht7116 Ich spreche nicht sehr gut Deutsch. Kannst di in English repeat it?

@@stascht7116 Wait, I think I have understood. Check Ortisei (Grödental)

Costruite con i soldi dei contribuenti e date in concessione a privati con sede in paradisi fiscali nella stessa unione. Eh si; proprio due grandi esempi. Io la EU non la voglio.

🇪🇺

The Simplon/Sempione railway from Milan to Brig is double track but I agree that the infrastructure needs to be renovated.

But this is in a built up urban area where costs for labour, land and sound/dust/environmental mitigations for people who live and work in the area are $$$

I wonder how much more expensive it would be if San Francisco were in a seismically-active zone?

It's not about the Gotthard tunnel, we didn't click for "tunnels under the Alps"

Maybe NYC should outsource?

it's really not surprising, on the alps you are not digging underground but from the side and you have tons of space for construction sites and machinery, dumping dirt, housing workers. no human infrastructure inside the mountain either, no vibration problems, just geological issues if the job was not planned properly.

Subway extensions in Europe aren't cheaper. Subway stations are pretty expensive, but there won't be any stations in this tunnel.

The thing is, nobody owns anything a mile below the mountains. You just make a test drill and once you are satisfied with your findings, you are good to go. Nobody then cares. Digging in a city is different. There is so much infrastructure, basements, foundations, wires, debris etc. Not much space for logistics etc… That makes it exoensive

@@Malte_OJ You have a lot to learn about Europe. Presupuesto ampliacion linea 11 Metro de Madrid 10 km desde Conde Casal hasta Mar de Cristal con 5 paradas = 650 milliones Euro. Prolongement metro 14 jusqu'a l'aeroport d'Orly 207 million Euros/km. Costo previsto linea 5 Metro Milano compreso stazione e treni 105 millioni E/km.

… as seen a few years ago in Genoa.

@@hape3862 and in many other parts of the world like China or the United States for example, where other bridges have collapsed!

@@intersezioni Non mi piace quando le persone si gonfiano. Questo mi stimola a farli sfogare un po'. Soprattutto quando un genovese, tra tutti, parla della fantastica costruzione di ponti italiani. 🤔

@@hape3862 Il ponte era fantastico ma se non lo curi nel tempo diventa ovviamente una merda

Wrong. The infrastructure in Germany is already in place. It already provides the necessary capacities to feed the BBT.

@@flierfy It's too slow. Munich to Innsbruck takes too much time. There should be High-speed railways. So people could take the train from germany to italy instead of planes.

And for the Gotthard base tunnel they know the route but it will open at earliest in the 40s. Even Italy is much further with building out the infrastructure from Switzerland to Genova.

@@flierfy Italy also has railways to the BBT, yet they’re still building the high speed rail line to it on an arguably tougher terrain with higher population density

@@nomad6-1 The BBT gets built first and foremost to simplify operation and may even provide additional capacities. Speeding up passenger traffic is a completely different kettle and a by-product of this project. Shortening travel times north of Innsbruck, though, is rather low on the priority list, and quite rightly so. Germany is the DACH-country which has sped up rail travel the most and will continue to do so, just not necessarily there where the Austrians wants it.

Even better, they are not paid by EU but only by Switzerland itself :-)

@@patrickbaer7156 I don't understand to this day why we don't charge a toll fee for the tunnel! Probably some green bigger picture reason, for example avoiding more flights.

It won't cost only 11bn :-)

They're Americans, they can only justify spending government money if it's for war.

There are several dive sites, but for each one you have to dig a huge hole several hundred meters deep to reach the base tunnel. The access high in the mountains with the corresponding environmental, logistical and economic disadvantages makes the cost-benefit calculation unfavorable very quickly.

As much as I support your input, Germany has partly started, but due to the collapse of the building site near Rastatt due to the soft sandy foundation in the upper rhine plain, it got delayed several years - not mentioning the super slow tracks between Freiburg and Basel….

Right? Badly researched.

No expensive London terminus!

Try getting these monstrosities around streets with with curbes that are almost U-turns and have a lane width of 3m (=10feet)...😅

Money saving. Freight trains are cheaper than trucks

Not by default. Anyway tunnels and viaducts are seismic resistant

It is a railway tunnel only. A road tunnel 30 kilometres long would have to be restricted to all electric vehicles only, which is not presently economic. The problem with tunnels for vehicles with internal combustion engines is ventilation to avoid users being poisoned by exhaust fumes.

Well, it did. They are finished and the shafts are already mostly backfilled

And why exactly? Why build tunnels everywhere when a large majority of alignments are at grade

It's a rail tunnel

2032 is when the base tunnel is suppose to open

The video exaggerates the importance of military aspects in the planning. The economic reasons were far more important.

Such a tunnel is pretty useless for military logistics. You can just bomb the entrances and it's done. Maybe it could provide shelter from bombing or nuclear fallout.

Good point.@@MrSaemichlaus

They do

how would they go to Ireland? Build a tunnel around our under the UK?

​​@@becconvideonot by making use of the HS2.

​@@becconvideoferry routes are included in TEN-T policy as well

Turkey is in the EU Custom Union and works with the EU on major projects. It is building high-speed rail too.

theres a little thing called the black sea. TEN-T also includes water and port infrastructure

@@ebbeb9827 wow genius . Armenia is landlocked . Good idea

​@alperenbaser7952 yeah but Georgia is also a european ally so they can help and will most likely benefit themselves 🫰

@@awellculturedmanofanime1246 right . A country occupied by Russia gonna join the Western alliance just like Ukraine

The restrictions were introduced to protect residents from noise at night.

Ahh of course, thanks! @@reneschwab170

Haha. Indeed. Horrible

Look again, most of them are spelled the native way until you get to eastern europe (looking at you Warsaw)

Even in the west, most of them aren’t: Lisbon, Turin, Milan, Brussels. And the other ones in the West probably appear as though they’re written in native spelling since their native name coincides with the English one, but not bc someone made an effort to translate them. Just weird

Rome and Copenhagen are not in English.

Congrats babe, doesn’t change what I said about the rest tho 😂 like make it uniform. That’s all I’m saying

they reuse it somewhere. i don't know what type of rock it is but they either reuse it in something like concrete or they use it as some kind of filler. for example in strengthening shorelines.

Partially to make concrete cast used for the vault. The rest disposed of in unused quarries.

Some of it is used to partially fill a valley in Austria