Da Ferrovia Veloz

Czechs planned 'Adriatic tunnel'

Officials in the former communist Czechoslovakia had planned to build an underground rail link under Austria to the Adriatic, a Czech newspaper says.

The 410km-long (255 miles) tunnel would have drastically shortened the journey to the seaside for the landlocked country, Lidove Noviny reports.

The earth from the excavation would be dumped in the sea to form an artificial Czechoslovak island - Adriaport.

(...) The project envisaged that high-speed trains would take both tourists and exports to the Adriatic coast in about two hours.

(...) Apart from the sheer expense, one of the key issues was whether the Austrians would have let a Communist country build a tunnel underneath their feet, our correspondent says.

Só queria que salvassem a Linha do FarOeste...