Brenner tunnel: the bore opens in 2034. The German line that reaches it, in 2043
27 October 2026, 16:15
On 20 October the company building the Brenner Base Tunnel, owned in equal shares by Italy and Austria, announced that the tunnel will open in 2034, two years later than announced so far, and will cost €11.7 billion instead of €10.5 billion. The tunnel runs under the Alps between Fortezza, in the province of Bolzano, and Innsbruck, and is meant to shift onto trains the goods that now cross the border by lorry. The delay, the company explains, stems from the design of the systems that make the railway work, which had stayed frozen in 2008 and must be redone to today's safety rules.
On 26 October Il Fatto Quotidiano lined up the promises. Work began in 2007, and since then the announced opening has moved from 2016 to 2026, then to 2032. The cost started at about €4 billion and has nearly tripled. The cost estimates, like the dates, move in one direction only.
The tunnel, however, makes sense only if, once out of the mountains, the train finds new track all the way to Munich. That is where the bigger problem lies. According to the German and Austrian press cited by Il Fatto and to International Railway Journal, for the new line between Munich and the Austrian border construction would start in 2034 and service would begin in 2043, dates that are not binding even for the German government itself. In Germany, in short, building would begin in the year the tunnel opens. For almost ten years, trains would leave a brand-new tunnel only to join the same old track.
The states pay the money, and the companies digging and equipping the tunnel receive it. The European Union pays at most half of the works, and Italy and Austria split the rest in equal shares: Italy's share is therefore at least a quarter of the project, about €2.9 billion, almost €50 for every Italian, who through taxes also pays for the new estimate. On the day the trains will run, nobody commits. The increase, by contrast, is already in the bill.
So the question for the Ministry of Infrastructure, which oversees the project for Italy: how much of the extra cost will Italy pay, and what has it obtained from the German government so that the line from Munich is ready together with the tunnel?
The Brenner tunnel has been dug since 2007. The German line that should reach it, if the dates hold, will start being built when the tunnel is finished.
This article was prompted by a news item published in Il Fatto Quotidiano on 26 October 2026.