The world's longest rail tunnel, running for 35 miles under the Swiss Alps, opens on schedule and within budget at £8.5 billion - and it will mean a MILLION fewer trucks on the roads

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The world's longest rail tunnel, running for 35 miles under the Swiss Alps, is today opening on schedule and within budget at £8.5billion - and it will mean a million fewer trucks on the roads.

High-speed trains will whisk passengers and cargo in 17 minutes through a mountain range that divides northern and southern Europe between Erstfeld in the Swiss canton of Uri, to Bodio in the Ticino canton.

As the first train used the tunnel today, experts described the completion of the 17-year construction project as a 'masterpiece of timing, cost and policy'.

Around 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains will traverse the two-tube tunnel daily once final testing ends later this year. 

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Explosive entrance: A fireworks display lit up the grey skies as the first train to travel through the tunnel emerged this afternoon

Spectacular: The world's longest tunnel officially opened on Wednesday, with the trailblazing rail passage under the Swiss Alps aiming to ease transit through the heart of Europe

The western tube of the Gotthard tunnel is pictured near Amsteg, Switzerland on the day of its opening. The project took 17 years to complete and cost £8.5billion

Guests applaud under a screen showing trains entering the new Gotthard Base Tunnel during the opening ceremony this morning

Grand opening: The world's longest rail tunnel, running for 35 miles under the Swiss Alps, has opened on schedule and within budget at £8.5billion. The first train is pictured entering the tunnel this morning

Goods that are currently transported along the same route by a million lorries a year will now go by train. 

The Swiss are throwing a party to mark the event that will draw the leaders of all its neighbouring countries in a show of European solidarity.

'It is just part of the Swiss identity,' Fueglistaler said of the Swiss fondness for major engineering feats. 'For us, conquering the Alps is like the Dutch exploring the oceans.'

The tunnel along Europe's main rail line that connects the ports of Rotterdam in the north to Genoa in the south snakes through the mountains as much as 1.5 miles below daylight and through rock as hot as 46 degrees Celsius (114.8°F).

At this point the rail route goes over the pass in a series of loops and tunnels. The new flat route means even heavy trains will need only one locomotive rather than two or three.

Engineers had to dig and blast through 73 kinds of rock as hard as granite and as soft as sugar. Nine workers died.

Swiss voters - despite opposition at times from the government and parliament - supported the gargantuan rail project in a series of binding referendums in the 1990s.

The construction consists of two single-track tunnels connecting Erstfeld with Bodio and is part of the AlpTransit project

Breakthrough: Workmen watch the tunnel drilling machine 'Gabi' breaking through the last section of the AlpTransit in 2009

Around 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains will traverse the two-tube tunnel daily once final testing ends later this year

The overall project includes the Loetschberg rail tunnel that has already opened, the Cereti tunnel still being built and renovations to make rail tunnels at least 4 metres high at the corners to be able to handle big freight containers. Work is due to finish in 2020

Realising a dream: Experts have described the completion of the 17-year construction project as a 'masterpiece of timing, cost and policy'

High-speed trains will whisk passengers and cargo in 17 minutes through a mountain range that divides northern and southern Europe between Erstfeld in the Swiss canton of Uri, to Bodio in the Ticino canton

Fittingly, the first ones to travel the tunnel at the official opening will be 500 lucky winners plus guests from the 130,000 who entered a ticket lottery for the inaugural trip.

The overall project includes the Loetschberg rail tunnel that has already opened, the Cereti tunnel still being built and renovations to make rail tunnels at least 4 metres high at the corners to be able to handle big freight containers. Work is due to finish in 2020.

The mammoth rail venture is being financed by value-added and fuel taxes, road charges on heavy vehicles and state loans that are due to be repaid within a decade.

The rough design for a rail tunnel under the Gotthard Pass was first sketched by Swiss engineer Carl Eduard Gruner in 1947. But bureaucratic delays, concerns over the cost and other hurdles pushed back the start of construction until 1999. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, along with Swiss officials, are due to be on board for the ceremonial first run.

When the full service opens in December, the tunnel will shave the train journey from Zurich to Milan in northern Italy down to two hours and 40 minutes, roughly an hour less than it currently takes.

Artists perform during a show on the opening day of the Gotthard rail tunnel, the longest rail tunnel in the world, at the fairground Rynaecht at the northern portal in Erstfeld, Switzerland

A spectacular opening ceremony took place at the northern portal in Erstfeld where guests watched trapeze artists and dancers

The new route also aims to make rail freight more efficient - partly by supporting heavier cargo, which should reduce the number of diesel-guzzling lorries on the roads, improving traffic and curbing pollution

Rabbi Marcel Yair Ebel, Chief of the Security Division of the Federal Office of Transport Pieter Zeilstra, Imam Bekim Alimi, Reverend Simona Rauch and Father Martin Werlen take part in the benediction of theGotthard Base Tunnel

International draw: Swiss Federal President Johann Schneider- Ammann, right, speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, on the opening day of the Gotthard rail tunnel

An artist warms up in front of a projection of the North entrance of the new Gotthard Base Tunnel prior to the ceremonial opening of the Tunnel

A bizarre opening ceremony featured men dressed as mountain sheep (pictured) and half-naked trapeze artists wearing wings

The happy winners of tickets for the first train prepare to step on board. The construction of the 57km long tunnel began in 1999

A day to remember: Children use their phones to capture the journey as they travel on the first train through the world's longest rail tunnel

The new route also aims to make rail freight more efficient - partly by supporting heavier cargo, which should reduce the number of diesel-guzzling lorries on the roads, improving traffic and curbing pollution.

The number of daily rail passengers is expected to increase from the current rate of 9,000 people to 15,000 by 2020, according to the Swiss federal railway service.

European Union transport commissioner Violeta Bulc last week described the new tunnel as a 'godsend for Europe' which will serve as a 'a vital link connecting Rotterdam and Antwerp with the ports of the Adriatic'.

The Gotthard project was largely made possible by technical advances in tunnel-boring machines, which replaced the costly and dangerous blast-and-drill method.

The mammoth rail venture is being financed by value-added and fuel taxes, road charges on heavy vehicles and state loans that are due to be repaid within a decade

Excavation involved enormous tunnel boring machines cutting through almost 100 feet of rock every day

Testing of trains is set to being on June 1, with the first passenger-loaded carriages set to start journeys in December this year

The primary machine used to make the Gotthard tunnel was roughly 410-metres long and functioned like a mobile factory.

It cuts through rock and throws the debris backwards while simultaneously placing the pre-formed segments of concrete that form the shape of the tunnel. A separate system grouts the pieces together.

According to the Swiss rail service, it took 43,800 hours of non-stop work by 125 labourers rotating in three shifts to lay the tunnel's slab track.

When it officially opens, the Gotthard will surpass Japan's 33.4-mile Seikan tunnel as the world's longest train tunnel.The 31.4-mile Channel Tunnel that links England and France will be bumped into third place.

Major contractors for the Swiss project included Alpiq, Balfour Beatty , Thales and Heitkamp.