Swiss Scrap Plan For Worlds Tallest Lift in Alps

Swiss plans to link a railway tunnel and an Alpine valley with the world's tallest elevator have been put on ice.

Swiss plans to link a railway tunnel and an Alpine valley with the world's tallest elevator have been put on ice after the government postponed a decision on funding the 50 million Swiss franc ($42.27 million) project.

The so-called "Porta Alpina" was an ambitious attempt to revitalise the economy of remote Alpine villages by allowing train passengers from Zurich and Milan to alight in the middle of the tunnel and take a lift up to the mountain tops.

Lacking significant financial commitments from the federal government, and the Swiss national rail operator SBB/CFF/FFS, the local government in Grisons said the venture was too risky.

"... The continuation of the project as intended, to construct the Porta Alpina in tandem with the Gotthard base tunnel, has become too big a risk," the local government said.

The federal government postponed a funding decision until 2012, leaving the local government to face a bill of 29 million francs to be paid by mid-2009.

The lift would have connected an Alpine valley with a station on the longest rail tunnel in the world. The elevator shaft exists already and was used to transport workers and material back and forth during work on the tunnel.

The tunnel, part of a wider project to upgrade north-south rail links under the Alps, will be 57 km long when it is completed in 2016. It is meant to cut journey times between Zurich and Milan by an hour.

The local Grisons government said that since the underground cavern for the station and the lift-shaft existed, it might be possible to resurrect the Porta Alpina project at a later date.

"A chance for the region and the canton has been lost as has a chance to create a one-off tourist attraction in Switzerland," local politician Stefan Engler said.

"But later ... another generation could resurrect the vision with a new, perhaps more generous concept," said Engler, head of the local transport department.