The world's longest, deepest train tunnel officially opened for business in Switzerland today, welding together two towns on either side of the Swiss Alps with a double-barrelled 35-mile link that promises to revolutionize passenger and freight rail across Europe.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel, as it is officially known, is more than two miles longer than the former record-holder, Japan's Seikan Tunnel. At its deepest point beneath the Alps, the Gotthard Tunnel lies almost one and a half miles beneath the surface.

Once the tunnel is operating at full capacity later this year, around 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains are expected to pass through the tunnel every day.

The tunnel's benefits will stretch over to the streets, as well. Thanks to the tunnel's freight-carrying capacity of more than 400,000 tons per day, nearly a million fewer trucks will be needed every year to haul cargo around the Continent. It will also knock roughly an hour off the rail journey from Zurich to Milan, as passenger trains will able to blast through the 35-mile tunnel in as little as 17 minutes.