The lost world of the Gotthard

Travelling through the new Gotthard Tunnel will get you to your destination sooner. But you’ll miss out on one of the things that makes taking the train across the Alps so special: the landscape and villages that fly past your window. When the new Gotthard Base Tunnel opens for business on December 11, it will be possible to cross the Alps in only 20 minutes. The journey between Zurich and Milan will be around half an hour shorter. However, passengers whizzing through the world’s longest rail tunnel (57km) will see only darkness when they look out of the window – no longer will they be able to admire the countryside this mountain region straddling cantons Uri and Ticino. swissinfo.ch invites you aboard the old Gotthard mountain railway line to show you everything that will “disappear” with the new rail link.