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52-737: The Simplon Tunnel runs into the massif of the Wasenhorn, below the subsidiary summit named Tunnelspitz (2,903 m (9,524 ft)). Just follow to the road towards the Simplon pass, either from Brig on the Swiss side, or from Domodossola on the Italian side. The normal route to the summit of the Wasenhorn starts from the Monte Leone Hut of the Swiss Alpine Club (2,848 m (9,344 ft)), located on

104-471: A 20-minute train journey as an alternative to driving over the Simplon Pass. The service began on 1 December 1959. As roads over the Simplon Pass steadily improved throughout the 1970s and 1980s the tunnel's shuttle schedule was cut back, then ended altogether on 3 January 1993. Almost twelve years later, on 12 December 2004, the car shuttle service began again and now runs about every 90 minutes. In

156-449: A day worked on the site. They were mostly Italians, who suffered under very poor working conditions: 67 workers were killed in accidents; many died later of diseases. During the work, there were strikes, which led to the intervention of vigilantes and the Swiss army . With up to 2,150 m (7,054 ft) of rock over the tunnel, temperatures of up to 42 °C (108 °F) were expected and

208-510: A mountain, mountain range, or peak located in Valais is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a mountain, mountain range, or peak located in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Simplon Tunnel The Simplon Tunnel ( Simplontunnel , Traforo del Sempione or Galleria del Sempione ) is a railway tunnel on

260-415: A new building method was developed. In addition to the single-line main tunnel, a parallel tunnel was built, with the tunnel centres separated by 17 m (56 ft), through which pipes supplied fresh air to the builders in the main tunnel. It was envisaged that the parallel tunnel could be upgraded to a second running tunnel when required. The first Simplon Tunnel (19,803 m (64,970 ft) in length)

312-530: A programme of works to both modernise and improve it. One specific and major alteration performed during this period was the enlargement of the bore to facilitate an equivalent loading gauge of French Lignes à grande vitesses (LGVs) throughout, thus enabling the tunnel to be traversed by wider rail vehicles, including container trucks on piggy-back wagons, as part of the Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine . Various other enhancements were enacted, largely on

364-636: A three-phase power supply of 3,400 volts at 15.8 Hz using two overhead wires with the track acting as the third conductor. BBC had no electric locomotives and initially acquired three locomotives built for the Ferrovia della Valtellina —the owner of the lines from Colico to Chiavenna and Tirano , which had been electrified with this system in 1901 and 1902 —from their owner, the Rete Adriatica (Adriatic Network) railway company. These three locomotives (which became FS Class E.360 ) hauled all traffic through

416-583: A world record at the time. Temperatures up to 56 °C (133 °F) have been measured inside the tunnel. Work on the first tube of the Simplon Tunnel commenced in 1898. The Italian king Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and the president of the Swiss Confederation (presiding the Federal Council of Switzerland for that year) Ludwig Forrer opened the tunnel at Brig on 19 May 1906. The builders of

468-550: The Fréjus Road Tunnel was built along the same path from 1974 to 1980. During the 2000s, the Fréjus Rail Tunnel underwent a series of works to modernise and improve it, including the increase of its bore to accommodate wider rail vehicles, such as container trucks on piggy-back wagons, as part of the Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine . A future high-speed rail tunnel to improve transit capacity between France and Italy, called

520-770: The Gotthard Pass and Western Switzerland supported the Simplon route. In 1871, the first line was completed through the Alps, connecting Italy and France with the Fréjus Rail Tunnel . The Compagnie de la Ligne d'Italie was founded in 1856 to build a connection between Romandy and Italy through the Canton of Valais and the Simplon . On 1 June 1874, it was taken over by the Simplon Company ( French : Compagnie du Simplon , S), which

572-641: The Mont Cenis Pass Railway was briefly operational as a temporary link over the Mont Cenis Pass. It was closed shortly after the opening of the Fréjus Railway. This railway was itself described as an engineering achievement in its own right. The original tunnel portal on the French side at Modane was only used for little over a decade before falling into disuse after having been bypassed during 1881. It

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624-634: The Mont d'Ambin Base Tunnel , is being planned as part of the Turin–Lyon high-speed railway project. The mountains of the Alps had posed long difficulties to any movements between Italy and its neighbours. Even with the arrival of new technologies such as the railway, the task of successfully traversing these peaks was viewed by numerous figures as a fool's errand, unfeasible to the point of being impossible. However, there

676-456: The Simplon railway that connects Brig , Switzerland and Domodossola , Italy, through the Alps , providing a shortcut under the Simplon Pass route. It is straight except for short curves at either end. It consists of two single-track tunnels built nearly 15 years apart. The first to be opened is 19,803 m (64,970 ft) long; the second is 19,824 m (65,039 ft) long, making it

728-828: The Turin–Modane railway through Mont Cenis to an end-on connection with the Culoz–Modane railway and linking Bardonecchia in Italy to Modane in France . Its mean altitude is 1,123 metres (3,684 ft) and it passes beneath the Pointe du Fréjus (2,932 metres (9,619 ft)) and the Col du Fréjus (2,542 metres (8,340 ft)). Headed by the Savoyard civil engineer Germain Sommeiller , construction of

780-559: The longest railway tunnel in the world for most of the twentieth century, from 1906 until 1982, when the Daishimizu Tunnel opened. Culminating at a height of only 705 m (2,313 ft) above sea level, the Simplon Tunnel was also the lowest direct Alpine crossing for 110 years, until the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016. The tunnel has a maximum rock overlay of approximately 2,150 m (7,050 ft), also

832-589: The tensioned cable normally used for overhead electrification so that the required 4.90-metre (16 ft 7 ⁄ 8  in) height clearance could be achieved. In the late 1980s, a one kilometre (0.62 mi) long overhead electric rail had been tested at 160 km/h (99 mph). Before this experiment, trains running under overhead electric rails in Switzerland had been limited to 110 km/h (68 mph) and internationally to 80 km/h (50 mph). Restricted rail operations were maintained during

884-583: The 1850s by the Kingdom of Sardinia and named after its king, Victor Emmanuel II . Prior to 1860, Sardinia had included both Savoy and Piedmont. Even as it was being first envisioned, the Fréjus Tunnel, a necessary feature for traversing Mont Cenis , was viewed as being the primary engineering challenge of the Turin–Modane railway by far; the initial length of its gallery was 12.8 kilometres (8.0 mi), which

936-573: The Day by Thomas Pynchon , Reef Traverse, one of the novel's characters, works on the construction of the Simplon Tunnel. In the novel "The Couloir" by Richard Manichello, the Canton Valais is a major geographical setting for action and scenes. especially the Val de Bagnes. Brig and the Simplon Pass & Tunnel play an important role in the main plot, moving characters in and out of Western Swiss locations or over

988-423: The French side of the tunnel. The first package of work focused on civil works, while a follow-up package focused on electrical systems. During the former, the track was replaced and the track bed lowered, sections of masonry were repaired where applicable, new safety recesses created, along with other civil works around the tunnel's exterior, including a reservoir . On 27 August 2023, a major landslide occurred on

1040-481: The Fréjus Tunnel was officially opened to traffic. One foreign newspaper covering the occasion, the Michigan Argus , described the tunnel as being "one of the greatest, if not the greatest, engineering feat of the age". While further major tunnels through the Alps have since been constructed, it has remained active, the Fréjus Rail Tunnel being the oldest of the large tunnels through the Alps. Between 1868 and 1871,

1092-513: The Modane side in December 1857. It had been deemed impossible to increase the rate of excavation via intermediate shafts, thus the tunnel was driven entirely from either end. Serious challenges were encountered, including difficulty with providing sufficient ventilation. New methods of ventilation were successfully introduced, alongside other technological innovations. At the time, it was believed that, if

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1144-672: The Mäderlücke – a pass between the Mäderhorn (2850 m) and the Wasenhorn – and runs along the south-western ridge of the Wasenhorn, featuring climbing sections up to UIAA grade II. By continuing on towards the Aurona pass the Bivacco Farello is reached - a typical Alpine refuge. From the Simplon pass, climbers can reach other nearby mountains: [REDACTED] Media related to Wasenhorn at Wikimedia Commons This article about

1196-525: The Pennine Alps for various intrigues and subplots involving action that traverses Swiss and Italian story settings. 46°19′25″N 8°00′11″E  /  46.32361°N 8.00306°E  / 46.32361; 8.00306 Fr%C3%A9jus Rail Tunnel The Fréjus Rail Tunnel (also called Mont Cenis Tunnel ) is a rail tunnel of 13.7 km (8.5 mi) length in the European Alps , carrying

1248-534: The Rhone valley lines will be increased from 160 to 200 km/h (99 to 124 mph). On 9 June 2011, a 300 m (984 ft) section of the Simplon II tunnel's roof was seriously damaged when a northbound BLS freight train caught fire and stopped 3 km (1.9 mi) into the tunnel. The temperature exceeded 800 °C (1,470 °F) and took more than two weeks to cool back to normal. By agreement all repairs to

1300-677: The SOS joined with the Jura–Bern–Luzern Railway to create the Jura–Simplon Railway (French: Compagnie du Jura–Simplon , SOS). The participation of the Swiss government led to the signing of a treaty with Italy on 25 November 1895 concerning the construction and operation of a railway through the Simplon from Brig to Domodossola by the Jura–Simplon Railway. The route of the tunnel was determined by military considerations so that

1352-500: The construction of a tunnel from Glis to Gondo, which would have been fully in Switzerland. From Gondo it would have continued on a ramp through the Divedro valley down to Domodossola . At a Swiss-Italian conference held in July 1889, it was agreed, however, to build a nearly 20-kilometre long (12 mi) base tunnel through the territory of both states. In order to secure credit for the tunnel,

1404-518: The context of a nationwide rail upgrading project, Rail 2000 , between 1985 and 2004. Further adjustments are proposed. In November 2004, the 7-kilometre long (4.3 mi) new line between Salgesch and Leuk in the Rhone Valley was completed to replace the last single-track bottleneck on the route. Under the ZEB ("Future rail development projects") package, the maximum speed on the long straight sections of

1456-509: The early 1990s, a project to implement the rolling highway system of piggyback operations for transalpine freight on the Lötschberg –Simplon axis was implemented. Such operations were possible under the previous profile of the Simplon Tunnel, but capacity would have been heavily restricted because its height was too low to carry trucks at the permitted maximum corner height of four metres (13 ft 1 + 1 ⁄ 2  in). The clearance in

1508-497: The entire construction period. In order to expand the Lötschberg-Simplon axis into a powerful transit axis, various extensions to the access lines (from Bern and Lausanne in the north and from Novara and Milan in the south) have been made in recent years and decades. The largest projects have dealt with the northern access from Basel-Bern via Lötschberg. Between 1976 and 2007 there were three major transformations. First,

1560-688: The historical difficulties posed by the Mont Cenis pass. Accordingly, an extraordinary amount of defensive fortifications were constructed near to and around Modane. The Fort du Replaton and the Fort du Sapey were built in the late nineteenth century on the heights across the valley of the Arc. During the 1930s, the Alpine Line fortifications Ouvrage Saint-Gobain , Ouvrage Saint-Antoine and additional fortifications at Le Sappey were also constructed. A blockhouse along

1612-415: The introduction of new technologies such as pneumatic drilling machines and dynamite . On 17 September 1871, the Fréjus Tunnel was opened to traffic for the first time, facilitating a new era of interaction between France and Italy. The Fréjus tunnel remains an important link in the connection between Rome and Paris , via Turin and Chambéry . Following the development of car and truck transportation,

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1664-519: The line close to the tunnel at Saint-André à La Praz. All traffic through the tunnel, including the major TGV and Frecciarossa services between the Gare de Lyon and Milan Centrale / Porta Garibaldi were suspended. Repairs have been complicated and the line is not expected to re-open until spring 2025. Following the transfer of Savoy from Italy to France, the Fréjus Tunnel became a possible invasion route from Italy to France, particularly as it avoided

1716-427: The mouths of the workings. There were separate pipes for water jets to remove waste from the holes. Each firing required up to eighty holes, taking between six and eight hours to drill. On 26 December 1870, French and Italian workers shook hands as the two teams met halfway: the galleries were aligned to about 40 centimetres (16 in) horizontally and 60 centimetres (24 in) vertically. On 17 September 1871,

1768-437: The rail line to the east of the modern tunnel entrance has become a tourist attraction. The maison penchée ("leaning house") was built in 1939 to guard the tunnel entrance over an ammunition magazine connected to the tunnel by a gallery. During 1944, the retreating Germans deliberately exploded two rail wagons inside the tunnel entrance, causing the magazine to explode and blasting the blockhouse off its foundations, leaving it on

1820-502: The remaining single-track line between Spiez and Brig was dualled. Later, adjustments were made to the tunnel profile for piggyback traffic; in places only widening one track was possible. Finally, the Lötschberg Base Tunnel partially opened in 2007, although the new tunnel still has a 21-kilometre (13 mile) single-track section; this was done in order to save costs for the construction of the longer Gotthard Base Tunnel , which

1872-580: The south side of the mountain, above the Chaltwasser Pass, which connects the Simplon Pass with the Alpe Veglia. To reach the hut from the Swiss side, there is a 2 hours 30 minute walk from the Simplon Hospiz which is at the Simplon pass road. From the hut to the summit takes a further one hour and thirty minutes. An alternative, more technically demanding route to the summit of the Wasenhorn begins at

1924-582: The southern section from the passing loop to the south portal. During the Second World War, on both sides of the border, there were preparations for the possible detonation of the tunnels. In Italy, the German army planned, as part of its 1945 withdrawal, to blow up the tunnel, but was thwarted by Italian partisans with the help of two Swiss officials and Austrian deserters. There is a car-carrying shuttle between Brig and Iselle di Trasquera , which provides

1976-685: The state border between the two countries was in the middle of the tunnel, allowing either country to block the tunnel in the event of war. On 1 May 1903, the Jura-Simplon Railway was nationalized and integrated into the network of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), which completed the construction of the tunnel. The construction of the tunnel was carried out by the Hamburg engineering company Brandt & Brandau, of Karl Brandau and Alfred Brandt  [ de ] . On average, 3,000 people

2028-421: The tunnel commenced during August 1857, at a time when both ends of the future tunnel were in the Kingdom of Sardinia . From the onset, the tunnel was an ambitious engineering challenge, its gallery being twice the length of any tunnel previously constructed. Some figures believed that it would take as many as 40 years to complete; the total construction time was 13 years, the work having been greatly accelerated by

2080-479: The tunnel on 19 May 1906. Because of its length among other things, it has operated with electric traction rather than steam from the beginning. The official decision to use electricity was made only half a year before its opening by the then-still-new SBB. Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) were commissioned to carry out the electrification. They decided in 1904 to use the three-phase system being introduced in Italy, with

2132-422: The tunnel until 1908. On 2 March 1930, the Simplon tunnel was converted to 15 kV, 16.7 Hz AC (single-phase). Between 1912 and 1921, the 19,823-metre long (65,036 ft) second tube, known as Simplon II, was built. On 7 January 1922 the northern section from the north portal to the 500-metre long (1,640 ft) passing loop in the middle of the tunnel was brought into operation, followed on 16 October 1922 by

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2184-414: The tunnel was therefore increased by lowering the rail trackbed. This work began in 1995 and lasted eight years. At the same time, the tunnel vault was rehabilitated, while the drainage tunnel was rebuilt. A total of 200,000 m (260,000 cu yd) of rock was removed with pneumatic breakers. In addition, a new railway electrification system was installed using overhead electric rail instead of

2236-531: The tunnel were Hermann Häustler and Hugo von Kager . Work on the second tube of the tunnel started in 1912 and it was opened in 1921. Shortly after the opening of the first railway in Switzerland, each region began to favour a separate north–south link through the Alps towards Italy. Eastern Switzerland supported a line through the Splügen Pass or the Lukmanier Pass , Central Switzerland and Zürich favoured

2288-536: The tunnel's construction had to rely upon traditional methods alone, it would have taken 71 years to complete. Three years following the start of the tunnel's construction, unanticipated political interactions led to the transfer of Savoy from Sardinia to France in 1860 under the Treaty of Turin ; the change of borders did not majorly disrupt the rate of work on the tunnel however. The tunnel took 14 years to construct, its rate of progress having been considerable increased via

2340-583: The tunnels are the responsibility of the SBB , which expected to reopen the tunnel in December 2011. The other tunnel remained in service. Repair work was completed in November 2011. In the 1957 novel From Russia, with Love by Ian Fleming , protagonist James Bond fights his enemy, SMERSH agent Donovan Grant, eventually killing him, while passing through the Simplon Tunnel on the Orient Express . In Against

2392-452: The use of new technical innovations such as pneumatic drilling machines powered by compressed air. Ten drills were mounted in a frame to bore shot holes to receive blasting powder charges, with those in outermost positions aligned in a slight divergence from the centreline to increase the effective width. Air at a pressure of 7  atm (710  kPa ) was conducted in iron pipes from hydraulic compressors , powered by local streams at

2444-469: Was a strong political desire amongst officials in both Italy and France to establish a railway between the two which, if completed, would launch a new era of transit and bring new commercial opportunities for both nations. In Italy, the Victor Emmanuel Railway , which included both the Culoz–Modane railway across Savoy and the Turin–Modane railway across Piedmont , was largely constructed in

2496-430: Was built almost straight, with only short curves at the two tunnel portals. On 24 February 1905, the two halves of the tunnel came together. They were out of alignment by only 202 mm (8 in) horizontally and 87 mm (3.4 in) vertically. Construction time was 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 years, rather than 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 years, due to problems such as water inflows and strikes. Operations commenced through

2548-457: Was completed in 2016. Clearances were also raised for the piggyback traffic on the Italian side as well on the Simplon southern approach. Here, too, for financial reasons, at times only one line was cleared for the rolling highway. South of Domodossola, the single line to Novara via Lake Orta was electrified and modernized. The classic approach to the Simplon from Paris and Lausanne —less important for today's transit traffic—was upgraded in

2600-501: Was created to promote the project. This merged in 1881 with the company Western Swiss Railways (French: Chemins de Fer de la Suisse Occidentale , SO) to create the Western Switzerland–Simplon Company (French: Compagnie de la Suisse Occidentale et du Simplon , SOS). The French financiers of the SOS were able to secure finance for the tunnel in 1886. The company considered 31 proposals and selected one that involved

2652-399: Was decided to redirect the tunnel to a new entrance positioned to the east of the original, where the ground was considerably more stable. The surplus portal was left in place as a monument, and has since become a minor tourist attraction. A steam locomotive has been placed in the disused portal, which is presently located adjacent to a road. During the 2000s, the Fréjus Rail Tunnel underwent

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2704-492: Was twice as much as the previously longest tunnel in the world at that time. The Savoyard civil engineer Germain Sommeiller was appointed to head this undertaking. Considerable backing for the endeavor was forthcoming from individual Italians, not only in terms of funding, but also technical expertise, public endorsements, and labourers. During August 1857, drilling work commenced on the Bardonecchia side; activity started on

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