Tunneling of The Brenner north portal starts now. The unique rail link will connect the Brenner Base Tunnel to the Central Station in Innsbruck.

The excavation works began in the western main tunnel tube and will move to the south. Two 140-m long excavations towards the south, starting from the Sill Gorge construction site will be driven for the route.The attending authorities gave a blessing to the exact place where the expected northern portal of the Brenner Base Tunnel will be.

Once the BBT becomes operational, freight trains will transit as well, the northern portal will mainly be used by passenger trains because cargo trains can do the Innsbruck by-pass. After passing through the portals in Tyrol and Alto Adige, railway traffic between Innsbruck and Fortezza will run through the two single-track tubes of the BBT for 55 km.

The Deputy Governor of Tyrol Josef Geisler, the mayor of Innsbruck Georg Willi, the abbot of the Wilten monastery, Giuseppe Romeo, representing the Italian railway company RFI, Christian Wieser and Gerfried Neurauter representing the Austrian railroads (ÖBB), as well as BBT SE CEOs Martin Gradnitzer and Gilberto Cardola attended the ceremonial event. By the end of 2024, many other projects will be built in the Sill Gorge to connect the Brenner Base Tunnel to the Innsbruck Central Station. The estimated 600-meter-long extent will require approximately EUR 64 million. Opposed to the other construction sites in Austria, whose works are mostly underground, the works in this construction site are performed above ground.

“If we look at mobility and traffic conditions in Tyrol and beyond, it is high time to build sustainable infrastructures. Everybody talks about climate change, but we are actually taking action. Together we are building the Brenner Base Tunnel, Europe’s biggest mobility project,” Josef Geisler, deputy Governor of Tyrol, said at the ceremony.