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Simplon Tunnel

The Simplon Tunnel (Simplontunnel, Traforo del Sempione or Galleria del Sempione) is a railway tunnel on 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.[1] 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 the longest railway tunnel in the world for most of the twentieth century, from 1906 until 1982, when the Daishimizu Tunnel opened.

Overview

German: Simplontunnel, Italian: Galleria del Sempione

Simplon line, (Lötschberg railway line)

Traversing the Lepontine Alps between Switzerland and Italy

46°19′26″N 8°00′25″E / 46.324°N 8.007°E / 46.324; 8.007 (Simplon Tunnel, northern portal) – 46°12′25″N 8°12′04″E / 46.207°N 8.201°E / 46.207; 8.201 (Simplon Tunnel, southern portal)

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS)

Lepontine Alps (Wasenhorn massif)

Brig, canton of Valais, Switzerland 683 m (2,241 ft)

Iselle di Trasquera, Piedmont, Italy 633 m (2,077 ft)

22 November 1898 (east tunnel), 1912 (west tunnel)

19 May 1906 (east tunnel), 1921 (west tunnel)

SBB CFF FFS

SBB CFF FFS

Railway

Passenger, Freight, Car Transport

Passenger: 70, Freight: unknown

19.803 km (12.305 mi) (east tunnel), 19.823 km (12.317 mi) (west tunnel)

Two single-track tubes

1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge

since 1 June 1906, 15 kV 16.7 Hz since 2 March 1930

160 km/h (Passenger trains) 120 km/h (Car shuttles)

705 m (2,313 ft)

633 m (2,077 ft) (south portal)

2–7 ‰

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),[2] also a world record at the time. Temperatures up to 56 °C (133 °F) have been measured inside the tunnel.[3]


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.[4] The builders of 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.

Length of tunnel I: 19,803 m (12.305 mi)

Length of tunnel II: 19,823 m (12.317 mi)

Elevation at north portal, Brig: 685.80 m (2,250.0 ft)

Elevation at crest of the tunnel: 704.98 m (2,312.9 ft)

Elevation at south portal, Iselle: 633.48 m (2,078.3 ft)

Gradient on north side: 2 ‰

Gradient on south side: 7 ‰ (1 in 143)

[1]

Maximum rock overlay: 2,150 m (7,050 ft) (below the of the Wasenhorn massif)

Tunnelspitz

Start of construction on north side: 22 November 1898

Start of construction of south side: 21 December 1898

Breakthrough: 24 February 1905

Inauguration: 19 May 1906

First electrical operation: 1 June 1906

In popular media[edit]

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 the Day by Thomas Pynchon, Reef Traverse works on the Simplon Tunnel.[9]

Michel Delaloye (Hrsg.): Simplon, histoire, géologie, minéralogie. Ed. Fondation Bernard et Suzanne Tissières, Martigny 2005.  2-9700343-2-8 (in German)

ISBN

: Bau des Simplontunnels. Die Streiks! Unia, Oberwallis 2006 (in German)

Frank Garbely

Thomas Köppel, Stefan Haas (Hrsg.): Simplon – 100 Jahre Simplontunnel. AS-Verlag, Zürich 2006.  3-909111-26-2

ISBN

Wolfgang Mock: Simplon. Tisch 7 Verlagsgesellschaft, Köln 2005.  3-938476-09-5 (in German)

ISBN

M. Rosenmund: Über die Anlage des Simplontunnels und dessen Absteckung, in: Jahresberichte der Geographisch-Ethnographischen Gesellschaft in Zürich, Band Band 5 (1904–1905), S. 71ff. (Digitalisat) (in German)

Hansrudolf Schwabe, Alex Amstein: 3 x 50 Jahre. Schweizer Eisenbahnen in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft. Pharos-Verlag, Basel 1997.  3-7230-0235-8 (in German)

ISBN

Georges Tscherrig: 100 Jahre Simplontunnel. 2. Auflage. Rotten, Visp 2006.  3-907624-68-8 (in German)

ISBN

Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens. Bd 9. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin 1921 Directmedia Publishing, Berlin 2007 (Repr.), S. 68–72.  3-89853-562-2 (in German)

ISBN

Francis Fox, How the Swiss Built the Greatest Tunnel in the World, 1905

German language site: AlpenTunnel.de: Simplon-Tunnel

Winchester, Clarence, ed. (1936), , Railway Wonders of the World, pp. 1428–1435 description of the construction of the tunnel

"The Simplon Tunnel"

46°19′25″N 8°00′11″E / 46.32361°N 8.00306°E / 46.32361; 8.00306