The signalling will be installed in the Ceneri Base Tunnel, 25km south of the Gotthard Tunnel. The new tunnel is the final section of the trans-alpine rail corridor that will link Zurich and Milan with a journey time of less than three hours.
AlpTransit Gotthard’s award of the €57m (£32m) contract to Thales follows the completion of similar work for the Gotthard Tunnel. Thales will again be providing its ETCS Level 2 train control technology, and will have overall responsibility for project management and integration of train command and control systems. The technology will allow for more than 300 trains a day to travel at speeds of up to 250km/h, reducing the journey time between Locarno and Lugano from today's 55 minutes to 22 minutes.
Like Gotthard, Ceneri comprises two single-track tubes separated by a space of 40m. The tunnel is scheduled to open in 2020.
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