Tunnels, Gotthard reopens but Mont Blanc tunnel closes

The Gottardo reopens, the Monte Bianco closes. This is the summary of what happened on Monday, 2 September on the side of the Alpine tunnels. In the morning (10.30 a.m.), the Swiss Railways (SBB) announced the complete reopening of the Gotthard base tunnel for freight and passenger traffic. Besides being the longest railway tunnel in the world (57 km), the Gotthard is a strategic artery connecting the north and south of Europe. Its function is also essential for Italy, and the reactivation of the base tunnel, which remained closed for more than a year following the derailment of a goods train in August 2023, is certainly a significant event for national exports.

In the afternoon (5 p.m.), the complete closure of the Mont Blanc road tunnel, an equally strategic work for the connections between France and Italy, was triggered in the Aosta Valley. The tunnel will undergo urgent repair work on the vault and will remain closed for 105 consecutive days, until 16 December 2024. Originally, this work had been planned for the autumn of 2023. Then the construction site suffered a one-year postponement decided by the Italian and French intergovernmental commissions. This postponement was necessary to keep a communication route between France and Italy open after the landslide on the A43 in France (in the Maurienne region) on 27 August 2023 and to avoid the simultaneous closure of several tunnels. After one year, however, the Frejus rail tunnel is still blocked and its reopening has already been postponed to the spring of 2025. And so, on the French side, we are once again in full emergency with 2 strategic tunnels closed at the same time: Mont Blanc (road) and the Frejus (rail). In this case, as opposed to Switzerland, a detriment to our exports and transport.

Up to up to 260 goods trains and 70 passenger trains per day pass through the Swiss base tunnel. The Gotthard, a key section of the international Rhine-Alpine corridor (Genoa Rotterdam), connects the Ligurian ports and the entire North-West of Italy with Central and Northern Europe. A significant share of Italian exports (about 18 million tonnes of goods per year) travels through the Gotthard rail tunnel. Freight customers gain between 60 and 75 minutes per journey. Previously, up to 20 per cent of goods trains had to travel on the scenic line. As far as passenger services are concerned, all direct connections to Italy are back in operation: in addition to Milan and Venice, Genoa and Bologna can again be reached from Switzerland without changes.

The tunnel rehabilitation project includes two test phases in 2024 and 2025, which will determine the most effective operational methodology for future work. If the technology used in 2024 proves to be effective, further rehabilitation work will be carried out in 2025. In total, the planned investment for this work is approximately EUR 50 million. Tmb-Geie (the body managing the tunnel) points out that the complexity and nature of the works make it impossible to allow vehicular traffic to pass through, even temporarily, during the entire duration of the construction period.

During the closure, Tmb-Geie has drawn up a map of alternative routes in cooperation with the Prefectures of Valle d'Aosta, Haute Savoie and Piedmont. It is estimated that about 90 per cent of heavy vehicles will use the Frejus road tunnel, while light vehicles will split between the Great St. Bernard, Frejus and Little St. Bernard Pass, which, however, could close in case of snow. According to initial estimates, the closure of the Mont Blanc tunnel will lead to a 16.5% drop in vehicle flows in 2024 compared to 2023. Concern is mounting among companies. Says Andrea Amalberto, president of Confindustria Piemonte: 'The issue is that we do not have a plan B. If the Frejus road tunnel were to have a problem, we would be stuck. The costs will increase, as will the difficulties in transport. France is one of Italy's biggest trading partners for the exchange of goods: we are talking about 45 million tonnes per year'.