Furka Base Tunnel
| Furka Base Tunnel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Northeast Portal in Realp; on the right is the mountain railway station
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| use | Railway tunnel with meter gauge | |||
| traffic connection |
Furka-Oberalp-Bahn (until 2002) Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (since 2003) |
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| place | Furka Pass | |||
| length | 15.381 km | |||
| construction | ||||
| building-costs | CHF 318.5 million | |||
| business | ||||
| release | June 25, 1982 | |||
| location | ||||
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| Coordinates | ||||
| West portal | 670700 / 154243 | |||
| East portal | 681437 / 160813 | |||
Map with all coordinates: The Furka Base Tunnel is a 15.38 km long Swiss railway tunnel that was opened in 1982 and connects Oberwald ( 1368 m above sea level ) in the canton of Valais and Realp ( 1538 m above sea level ) in the canton of Uri . The base tunnel replaces the old Furka mountain route with the Furka summit tunnel , the highest point of which is at an altitude of 2160 m above sea level. M. (Furka stop) is located.
The base tunnel enables the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (MGB) to operate all year round on its entire route network. This was not possible on the mountain route, as operations here ceased in winter and some of the railway systems ( overhead line , Steffenbach bridge ) had to be dismantled or restored after the winter break.
Planning and construction
After a serious accident while clearing snow in June 1963, a winter-safe transport connection to the canton of Uri was requested in Valais. The 1970 estimate for the construction of the Furka Base Tunnel was 74 million francs and formed the basis for the federal decree of June 24, 1971. In it, the federal government guaranteed a cost share of 70 million francs, the remaining 4 million francs had to go through Cantons of Uri, Graubünden and Valais. The project was highly controversial in parliament. Federal Councilor Roger Bonvin , who himself came from Valais, advocated the proposal. His person was later discussed in public in connection with the enormous cost overruns.
The construction suffered many setbacks due to problematic geological conditions, which delayed the work and required a relocation of the portal on the Uri side and thus an extension of the tunnel. In the parliamentary debate in 1976 about an additional loan of CHF 80 million, the project planning and the work of the construction management were also criticized.
The total costs for the base tunnel finally came to CHF 318.5 million, a good four times as much as planned. Roger Bonvin could no longer see the opening. He died on June 5, just three weeks before the tunnel was opened on June 25, 1982.
The tunnel is single-track and has two automatic crossing stations. It crosses under the Pizzo Rotondo , after which one of the passing points is named , in an arc that extends far south .
On the west side near Oberwald, the portal of the base tunnel is a good one kilometer east of the train station. The connection to the existing line is made with a bridge over the Goneri river bed, then over the Rhone , followed by a bypass tunnel (length 673 m) that ends directly at Oberwald train station.
A curiosity was the intention to later create a junction in the middle of the tunnel towards Ticino, the so-called Bedretto window . Politically just as heavily controversial as the entire project, the existing 5.2 km long construction tunnel was never expanded for train operations, mainly for financial reasons.
business
Thanks to the opening, the Glacier Express was able to connect Zermatt and St. Moritz all year round . A pair of trains turned into five Glacier Express trains per day and direction in the summer season. Furthermore, a regional train and a car train run every hour in both directions during the day . A car train runs every 30 minutes from Friday to Monday. Over 75,000 cars, trucks and buses were transported in the first year of operation. In the high winter season, the Furka tunnel reaches its capacity limits.
Since January 1, 2003, the tunnel has been part of the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn network, which was created from the merger of Brig-Visp-Zermatt-Bahn and Furka-Oberalp-Bahn .
Geothermal use
At the west portal in Oberwald, 5400 liters of water at a temperature of 16 ° Celsius flow out of the tunnel every minute, which is used by a so-called cold local heating network . The water is led to Oberwald and uses heat pumps to heat 177 apartments and a sports hall. The total installed output is 960 kW.
Operation of the mountain route
The former Furka mountain route was shut down in autumn 1981, when the opening of the base tunnel was foreseeable, and was only restored in stages by volunteers after 1992. Since 2010, during the summer months, the entire pass route has once again been used by a museum railway on racks with steam operation.
gallery
Portal of the bypass tunnel (length 673 m) at Oberwald train station; the portal of the Furka base tunnel is about 1 km further east. On the right in the picture the beginning of the Furka mountain route.
Memorial plaque for Albert Imsand at the train station in Oberwald
Rescue station Furka Tunnel in Realp with the locomotive of the rescue train
Car train in Realp towards Valais through the Furka Base Tunnel
literature
- Urs Obrecht: The Furka Hole. The story of a tunnel . Hallwag-Verlag, Bern / Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3444102674 .
- Paul Caminada: The Glacier Express . Desertina-Verlag, Disentis 1985, p. 133ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal resolution on the financing of a railway tunnel from Realp to Oberwald of June 24, 1971 , accessed on June 25, 2012
- ↑ National Council debate of June 24, 1971 , accessed on June 25, 2012
- ^ Georges Andrey: Roger Bonvin. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . December 10, 2009 , Retrieved June 25, 2012 .
- ^ Message additional credit dated May 26, 1976 , accessed on June 25, 2012
- ↑ National Council debate of December 7, 1976 , accessed on June 25, 2012
- ↑ NZZ of June 25, 2012: A tunnel as development aid , accessed on June 25, 2012
- ^ Message additional credit, construction of the Oberwald bypass tunnel, pages 1099 and 1100 , accessed on June 25, 2012
- ↑ GEOTHERMIE.CH Furka Railway Tunnel, Wallis , accessed on June 25, 2012
- ↑ Furka Mountain Line Steam Railway (DFB)