Apennine Base Tunnel
| Great Apennine tunnel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official name | Italian Grande Galleria dell'Appennino | |||
| use | Railway tunnel | |||
| traffic connection | Bologna – Florence railway line | |||
| place | Tuscan-Emilian Apennines | |||
| length | 18.507 km | |||
| Number of tubes | 1 | |||
| construction | ||||
| start of building | 1923 | |||
| business | ||||
| operator | Rete Ferroviaria Italiana | |||
| release | April 21, 1934 | |||
| location | ||||
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| Coordinates | ||||
| North portal | 44 ° 12 ′ 41 ″ N , 11 ° 11 ′ 26 ″ E | |||
| South portal | 44 ° 2 ′ 48 ″ N , 11 ° 9 ′ 10 ″ E | |||
Map with all coordinates: The Apennine Base Tunnel , in Italian Grande Galleria dell'Appennino , is a railway tunnel on the Bologna – Florence line .
Key data
The tunnel is located beneath the Apennines - the main ridge . The 18.49 km long structure was opened together with the railway line on April 21, 1934; the old connection between the two cities was shortened by almost 35 km. The Apennine Base Tunnel was for a long time the longest tunnel and the longest single-tube double-track tunnel in the world, almost 1,300 meters shorter than the twin-tube Simplon tunnel , and is still one of the 20 longest rail tunnels today.
Furnishing
The tunnel was equipped with the Precedenze underground station in the middle . It was originally intended primarily as a way of overhauling slow trains and for this purpose had two 450 m long sidings in two side tunnels. It was connected to the surface by a staircase with a thousand steps. The access point was the district of Cà di Landino in the municipality of Castiglione dei Pepoli , a village that had been built to accommodate the tunnel construction workers. The station was shut down in the 1960s for security reasons and due to a lack of demand .
Operational incidents
During World War II, partisans blew up a military train that was parked on the siding at the Precedenze tunnel station.
On December 23, 1984, 17 people died in the bomb attack in the Apennine base tunnel on Rapido 904, and 267 were also injured.
Web links
- Images and graphics of the tunnel. City of Bologna(Italian).
- Michael J. Irlam: The Great Apennine Tunnel. In: Mike's Railway History. (English).
Individual evidence
- ^ Galleria della Direttissima Vado-Pianoro | March 15, 1944 ( Memento from December 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )