A Swiss Railways passenger train exits the north portal of the original Gotthard Pass tunnel, opened in 1882. (All photos by David Lassen)
A scene about to become much rarer: A freight train heads into the original Gotthard Pass tunnel.
Historian Kilian Elsasser shows us the memorial to workers who died building the Gotthard Pass tunnel.
A view back as our bus climbs the road following the original highway over Gotthard Pass.
The last chapter in this Swiss adventure, which has focused on the new Gotthard Base Tunnel, was a visit to the bore it will replace.
On Friday, about half of our tour group visited Goschenen, at the north portal of the 9.3-mile tunnel that opened in 1882, and learned a bit about the high price the engineering marvel of its day exacted on those who made it possible.
Historian Kilian Elsasser led us on a walking tour of Goschenen, a village that swelled almost overnight from a few hundred people to more than 3,000 with the arrival of the tunnel workers. Few of those workers — who mostly came from Italy — stayed with the work from its beginning in 1872 to its completion in 1882, and many did not survive the effort. There are memorials to the 199 workers who are known to have died during construction in both Goschenen and Airolo, at the south portal. The Goschenen memorial, in a small cemetery a short walk from the railroad station, is topped by a bust of Louis Favre, whose company built the tunnel. He also died during the construction — from injuries suffered during an inspection — but is not included among the 199 deaths.
That death toll, incidentally, is almost certainly low. Those working from either end of the tunnel faced different but significant health risks — silicosis from dust for those working from Goschenen, and a parasite spread in the foul, knee-deep water in which the Airolo laborers worked. The figure does not include those who left after becoming ill and died elsewhere.
The workers earned about four Swiss francs per day — but were charged about 2 1/2 francs by the company for their expenses. In the boom town of Goschenen, rooms were scarce enough that the three shifts of workers also slept in shifts, with three workers rotating through each bed. “At least the bed was always warm,” Elsasser said.
Even with the Gotthard Base Tunnel opening, the old tunnel will remain in use, although how much remains uncertain. Currently, the route sees about 150 freight trains per day in each direction, and is traveled by about 3 million passengers annually. The vast majority of the passenger traffic will shift to the new tunnel (and is projected to grow to 6 million annually), along with almost all of the freight. The exact nature of the passenger service that will remain has yet to be determined. SBB, the Swiss Railways, has announced plans to run a tourist train over the line beginning in April 2017, but beyond that wants to maintain only a minimal presence of local trains. Another company, wants to continue to offer direct service passenger service along the old route, but since the Swiss rail system does not have open access, that will require government approval. A decision is expected next spring.
Earlier in the day, as part of a bus trip following the original highway over Gotthard Pass, we had ridden what must be the most obscure of the pass’ rail operations — within a once-secret Swiss Army base in one of the mountains. Built during World War II and secret until 2001, the base has four large guns — each with a range of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) — designed to defend the pass in either direction, as well as the southern border with Italy (just 6.8 milwa away). Capable of maintaining 500 men for six months without contact with the outside world, the complex maze of tunnels includes — now, for the benefit of visitors — a 15-passenger funicular that makes the equivalent of a 30-story climb from the entry level to the location of the southward-facing guns, using tracks originally built to move small carts of munitions. In its days as an active military base, the troops stationed had no such luxury. They had to climb the adjacent stairs at the beginning and end of each day, and before and after lunch.
The trip across the pass and to Goschenen wrapped up our Swiss Tourism schedule, save for Friday night’s farewell dinner in Andermatt, where we spent the night. Today, the group has scattered. Most are heading home. A few are spending more time in Switzerland, and a handful are off to InnoTrans, the huge biennial railroad show in Berlin. That’s where I’m headed now. I expect to be filing reports to Trains News Wire, and may have a blog post or two, if warranted.
But the Swiss part of the trip is complete, as are these regular blog posts. You can expect to see more from this trip in upcoming issues of Trains.
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