The Frejus tunnel, which connects France and Italy and was closed due to a landslide in August 2023, seems to be making a return in March. While there has been no official announcement of the reopening, a post on Italy’s national rail operator FS’s news site said enough.
The link through the Frejus Rail Tunnel has been shut down for over a year after a landslide at the end of August 2023 paralysed the connection. The incident upended the main border crossing between Italy and France.
In October of 2024, it became clear that works to secure the cliff above the Frejus railway damaged by a landslide in August 2023 would last until December. Only after that, the French infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau could begin railway restoration operations.
Major complications
That was not an easy task, it turned out. Major complications – “unstable and deep cavities discovered in the central area of the slope required additional work” – meant that the full reopening was pushed back to the first quarter of 2025.
It was a post on the Italian rail operator FS’s webpage that revealed the expected reopening of the tunnel, writes RailTech.com. The high-speed line between Paris and Milan is making a return, which means that the Frejus tunnel will also have to be in use. There has been no official announcement of the reopening as of yet, so an exact date is still unknown.