20 key facts about the world's longest, deepest rail tunnel

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Bringing to fruition a plan hatched in 1992, goods currently carried on the route by a million lorries a year will go by train instead.

Today, the world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel officially opens in Switzerland, after 20 years of work.

Why can't we have nice things? A few years ago, the Republican budget-slashing NJ Governor and ex-presidential candidate Chris Christie killed a much less ambitious trans-Hudson tunnel that is now so desperately needed to replace the existing 100-year old Amtrack tunnel, that it is considered a national emergency.

Our fastest trains are not even considered high-speed under international standards.

The proposed L.A. to San Francisco route is short on both ends and so under-financed that it'll takes decades to build, if ever. And we also don't have the skilled labor and productive capacity to build our own trains, or even rails anymore.

In NYC, the 2nd Avenue Subway will complete phase 1 of 4 this December...over three-quarters of a century after being proposed.

What's wrong with us?

Read the rest of the story HERE:

At www.globalconstructionreview.com

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Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:
http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of (more...)