English (UK) 
Deutsch 
June 2, 2016 - Deep beneath the Swiss Alps, the Gotthard Tunnel was officially opened June 1.
As a member of the Transtec Gotthard consortium, Thales has integrated its cutting-edge train control system, ETCS Level 2, into the new tunnel, which connects the Swiss-Italian and Swiss-German regions under the mountains.
The Gotthard Tunnel stretches over 57 km at a depth of 2300 meters (7,545 feet, almost 1.5 miles). Gotthard overtakes the 53.9-kilometer Seikan Tunnel in northern Japan as the longest rail tunnel in the world, relegating the 50.5-kilometer Channel Tunnel between Britain and France into third place.
This new high-speed link will cut travel times from Zurich to Milan to under 3 hours (an hour less than today). It will shift transportation from road to rail, significantly reducing CO2 emissions and is expected to be used by thousands of passengers and freight trains every day – two passenger train and six freight trains every hour.
Thales’s advanced ETCS signalling technology will allow for the circulation of more than 300 trains per day at speeds of up to 250km/h in both directions. This is the result of a global investment of 12 billion Swiss francs, including 1.9 billion for the railway equipment and 196 million for Thales’s contribution.
Thales’s involvement in the Gotthard project includes managing the development, production, installation, integration and homologation of the rail signalling systems within the overall system. It has also carried out all the testing procedures. These systems have been built up under realistic conditions in the company’s Gotthard laboratory in Zurich and are the result of eight years of work by a German-Italian bilingual team!
"Every single milestone within the entire project duration was reached successfully and on time," declared Kurt Sauerwein, Managing Director Thales Rail Signalling Solutions AG. "All of this was only achievable because of a highly motivated team. From the very beginning, we worked transparently and as “One Thales” with our colleagues in Germany (RBC, axle counters), Austria (Elektra interlocking) and Portugal (safe signalling data network). We are very thankful to all the participating project members and the management who made this great success possible!"
"This is an exceptional project, which was the most important missing link of the European corridors, connecting Rotterdam to Genoa,” declared Peter Huber, General Project Manager of the Transtec Gotthard consortium. “In spite of the complexity of the programme, we have successfully delivered the whole railway system for the tunnel including Thales’s signalling system, one year in advance.”