World’s longest rail tunnel has a way to go

In its first two months of service, the Gotthard Base Tunnel has sped up travel for thousands of trains and attracted many more passengers, but not everything is on track.  The world’s longest rail tunnel has shaved 30 minutes off the journey along the north-south Gotthard corridor through the Swiss Alps, yet delays eat up some of that saved time. In a statement released on Monday, Swiss Federal Railways said that customer punctuality on the Gotthard line had improved from 79.6 to 86.8% since early December. Meanwhile, connection punctuality in Arth-Goldau has risen from 94.4 to 97.1%, reported the Federal Railways.  “The situation regarding services from Italy remains challenging,” notes the Federal Railways statement. “The EuroCity trains from Milan are often delayed and depart from Chiasso with an average delay of eight minutes. However, the time lost can generally be made up using the journey time reserves factored in between Chiasso and Arth-Goldau.” According ...