Brenner Base Tunnel Open Day 2024

The Brenner Base Tunnel is a flat railway tunnel that streches between Fortezza in Italy and Innsbruck in Austria. It has been under contruction since 2007 and upon completion, which is scheduled for 2032, it will be 64 km long, which will make it the longest railway tunnel in the world. At the moment this position is taken by the Gotthard Base tunnel in Switzerland, streching over 57 km through the Alps.

On June 8, 2024 an open visit day to the tunnel was organized, where the information about the progress of the construction was shared along with the guided tours to the construction sites.

I was eager to use the opportunity to visit the tunnel, as I am astonished by the marvel of tunnel engineering.

The entrance to the main tunnels, which is also visible from Fortezza/Franzensfeste train station

The event was free for everyone but it was necessary to register in advance. There were two guided tours offered: one to the site where the tubes for the tunnel are being built and to the yet not completed part of the tunnel. It was also possible to go to the already completed part of the tunnel.

When I registered for the event, the slots for the incomplete parts of the tunnel were unfortunately booked out, but I was able to visit tubes construction site and the completed part of the tunnel.

Both were quite informative, especially the one about the tube construction. It was in German though, so I was unable to get all the information. But the construction site, which is also used as a storage of the excavated material, was impressive enough to understand the scale of the works. The site is located south of Fortezza and it occuppies quite a big territory, which of course is understandable if you imagine the size of the tunnel tubes and 21.5 million cubic metres of substance - an approximate size of the excavation material produced by the construction.

The most exciting part for me was the visit to the actual tunnel of course. Approximately every 15 minutes a shuttle bus took the interested people to the completed part of the tunnel, where one could see it with their own eyes. It was a bit surreal to be there imagining that in a few years it would be only possible to be inside it while on a train.

The inside of the left part of the main tunnel

All in all, the event was well organised. There were stands where one could ask questions about different aspects of tunnel construction, e.g. about the geology, the excavation process etc. It was also possible to have lunch (you had to pay for it though). I was also pleasantly surprised to see how many people were on site of the event, it is nice to see that people are interested in what is going on around them. The only thing that was missing is a place where one could wash their hands, but well, one cannot have everything, can they?