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Originally Posted by SFBruin
I'm still worried about how they are going to get through the Pacheco pass.
Are there land tunnels that long in other parts of the world like Switzerland?
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Switzerland has some really long tunnels. They just recently completed the Gotthard Base Tunnel in late 2016. With a route length of 57.09 km (35.5 mi), it is the world's longest railway and deepest traffic tunnel and the first flat, low-level route through the Alps. The main purpose of the Gotthard Base Tunnel is to increase local transport capacity through the Alpine barrier, especially for freight, notably on the Rotterdam–Basel–Genoa corridor, and more specifically to shift freight volumes from trucks to freight trains. And also, by the way, express passenger trains by cutting one hour of existing travel time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Base_Tunnel
What makes the CHSR different is who will be able to use the new tunnels. You will not see freight trains using them in California if they choose to run light weight HSR trainsets.