Swiss `Sissi' Breaks Through to World's Longest Rail Tunnel

By Paul Verschuur and Carolyn Bandel – Drilling and blasting on the 57-kilometer (35-mile) tunnel linking Erstfeld in German-speaking central Switzerland and Bodio in the Italian-speaking south began in 1996. The tunnel is scheduled for completion in 2017 at an estimated cost of 18.7 billion Swiss francs ($19.7 billion). It will be the world’s longest underground rail link, beating the...