Press Release: Green light for Brenner Base Tunnel

Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, and European Coordinator Pat Cox attended a ceremony in Innsbruck on 18 April 2011 to launch the works on the Brenner Base Tunnel. The Brenner Base Tunnel is a low-gradient rail tunnel with two parallel tubes between Innsbruck (Austria) and Fortezza (Italy).

The cross-border tunnel will remove a major bottleneck for both freight and passenger transit between Austria and Italy. Vice-President Kallas welcomed the decision taken by Austria and Italy to start the tunnelling works as an important step towards more resource-efficient and sustainable transport in the sensitive alpine region.