Tauern Railway Tunnel
South portal near Mallnitz
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Line | Tauern Railway |
| Location | Hohe Tauern, Central Eastern Alps |
| Start | Böckstein, Bad Gastein, Salzburg |
| End | Mallnitz, Carinthia |
| Operation | |
| Work begun | 1901 |
| Opened | 1909 |
| Operator | Austrian Federal Railways |
| Traffic | Train |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 8,371 m (27,464 ft) (1909: 8,550 m (28,050 ft)) |
| No. of tracks | Double track |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) (standard gauge) |
| Highest elevation | 1,226 m (4,022 ft) |
The Tauern Railway Tunnel (German: Tauerntunnel) in Austria is the longest tunnel of the Tauern Railway crossing the main chain of the Alps. Currently, it has a length of 8.371 kilometres (5.201 mi). The highest point of the tunnel, which is also the highest point in all of the railway line, is at 1,226 metres (4,022 ft) above sea level. The tunnel's north entrance is at Böckstein in the valley of Bad Gastein in the state of Salzburg, the south entrance near Mallnitz in Carinthia.
Plans for constructing an interconnection railway line between the terminus of the Austrian Western Railway at the city of Salzburg and Villach leading to the Southern Railway already existed in the 1880s. This line would be especially important for the transportation of goods between the industrialised north of Austria-Hungary and Trieste, then the monarchy's main port on the Adriatic Sea. It was only after the Austrians had watched their neighbours, the Swiss, obtain a remarkable achievement, as they managed to finish their Gotthard Tunnel, as early as 1881.
Planning for the Tauern railway line and tunnel started in the early 1890s. Tunnelling began in July 1901 from the north side, work on the south side started in October of that same year. The work was supervised by Civil Engineer Karl Wurmb (1850-1907), whilst most of the backbreaking labour was performed by an Italian workforce. Despite many difficulties, construction was finished in 1906. The official opening took place on 5 July 1909 in presence of Emperor Francis Joseph, along with the rest of the Tauern Railway line. Although many other parts of the line were single track, the tunnel was equipped with two tracks from the beginning.
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