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The world's longest overland tunnel, which opened today under the Alps, is reducing travel time for freight trains between Germany and Italy and should help drivers too.

Switzerland's 21-mile-long Loetschberg tunnel, which took eight years and $3.5 billion to build, is expected to reduce road congestion for tourists and others by moving heavy trucks off crowded highways and onto trains.

Later this year, on Dec. 9, high-speed passenger trains will start traveling through the tunnel, traveling at up to 150 mph, about 50 mph faster than the freight trains.

The tunnel trims the rail trip between Germany and Italy from 3 1/2 hours to just under two. It will also speed skiers to resorts. The trip from Bern, at the northern end of the tunnel, to Visp, near ski regions such as Switzerland's Zermatt and Italy's Courmayeur on the southern side of the Alps, will be cut in half, from 110 minutes to 55.

Loetschberg is the longest land tunnel, surpassing Japan's 16.4-mile Hakkoda Tunnel. But it is shorter than the 33.5-mile undersea Seikan Tunnel, also in Japan, and the 31-mile Channel Tunnel connecting France and England.

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