Long tunnel

For centuries, Europeans wanting to get from north to south have been faced with the enormous obstacle of the Alps. The most direct route from Germany to Italy is via Switzerland – through the Gotthard. But the existing road and rail tunnels are simply no longer able to cope with the volume of traffic – and so a huge, multi billion-franc project to build new rail tunnels through the Alps is underway. Swiss Radio International’s Imogen Foulkes (Folkes) reports from the Gotthard.