We had more wine than usual last night because we’re taking a rest day today and stayed chatting after dinner. As a result, I had a headache when I woke up after too little sleep; therefore, a leisurely breakfast was called for.
Some people chose to head to a retail park in Brenner, some caught the train to Innsbruck, and some went for a walk. We chose to go back to Steinach to the visitor centre for the Brenner Base Tunnel that is currently being built. As the visitor centre is near the Bergeralm Ski Lift, John also offered to return people’s one-way ski passes from the Nosslachhutte walk to get the deposits refunded.
Having fed the passes back into the machine and collected the refunds, we walked past Gunther (the giant cutting head from the original tunnel boring machine) to the visitor centre. Thankfully, much of the information was available in English, and we found it very interesting.
When it’s finished (currently expected 2032), the Brenner Base Tunnel and Inn Valley Tunnel will make up the longest underground rail connection in the world (65 kilometres). It runs, almost level, between Innsbruck (Austria) and Fortezza (Italy) through the base of the Brenner mountain massif.
Currently it takes 80 minutes to go by train, but the new Brenner Tunnel will only take 25 minutes. Freight will be transported by rail through the tunnel to avoid the slow moving lorries clogging up the roads over the Brenner Pass.
It was amazing seeing how it’s being excavated, partly being bored and partly being blasted, depending on the type of rock. On one day, the Gunther boring machine achieved a world record when it excavated 61 metres (with the rubble taken out by conveyer belt), compared with the previous average of 11 metres a day.
There was also a lot of information on the safety features of the tunnel and how it can be evacuated if, for example, there’s a fire, using emergency stops, exhaust extraction and cross tunnels. It was also interesting to hear how the spoil is being managed, by recycling a third for concrete but also using disposal sites; for example, filling an uninhabited valley near Steinach, which later will be landscaped. The environmental impact has been carefully considered.
After I’d had a go on the train simulator in the visitor centre (and driven from Brenner to Steinach 😜), we headed to the patisserie in Steinach for coffee and cake before catching the bus back to Almi’s. At the bus stop, we met Joy and Minx who had been to Innsbruck, and also Peter, a ski tour guide who is running a course with Sean next week.
Back in Almi’s, John did some washing and I caught up on writing my blogs. Then we headed to the spa where we spent an hour cycling between the sauna, standing outside in the cold snowy weather and relaxing with a drink on recliners.
The snow has been falling on and off all day but not much seems to be sticking. Now, we’re about to go down and find out what the plans are for tomorrow, our last snowshoeing day. Then it’s dinner time… the days are flying by!
Ramblings 
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