Italy: Links to Europe disrupted by Alpine tunnel shutdowns

Rome: Italy is facing serious disruptions to transport links with its northern neighbours due to the shutdown of the Mont Blanc tunnel for maintenance and the weather-induced closure of other rail and road crossings under the Alps.

The Mont Blanc tunnel, used by more than 1.7 million vehicles last year, will close on Sept. 4 for 15 weeks, raising concern over its impact on Italy’s economy, including tourism and exports.

The closure will lead to “a situation that I would call tragic for our transport system”, the head of road haulers’ lobby Conftrasporto, Paolo Ugge, told Italian news agency Adnkronos.

“I don’t think it will be easy times for our economy, we will produce goods that risk remaining stuck on forecourts,” he added.

Renovation work on a 1.2-kilometre section of the 11.6km Mont Blanc tunnel is scheduled to resume next year at a projected cost of about 50 million euros ($54.05 million), infrastructure operator Geie said.

The closing of the Mont Blanc tunnel comes after the temporary shutdown on Monday of the Brenner and Frejus tunnels, linking Italy with Austria and France respectively, after thunderstorms caused landslides in the neighbouring countries.

The San Gottardo road tunnel between Italy and Switzerland was closed briefly on Monday due to heavy rainfall, but it reopened on Tuesday. The Frejus tunnel remained closed to trucks and trains and the Brenner to rail traffic.

French train operator SNCF said on Monday that train traffic would be interrupted until further notice between Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Modane but that trains between France and Italy were still running via Nice or Switzerland.

French Transport Minister Clement Beaune said on Monday that “going back to normal (at the Frejus tunnel) will take several days”.

French authorities are fully mobilised to clean up and restore train and road networks, Beaune said on social platform X.