The series showcases the largest logistics hubs that influence the global economy and our private lives. Day by day, CNN cameras observe how individual branches of transport function, what the work of people employed in the industry looks like, and how the export and import of goods operate.
In the next episode of the series, CNN will visit the main railway station in Zurich. Alfred Escher (1819-1892) is considered one of the creators of modern Switzerland. It was he who decided that the only way for the country to avoid economic and cultural isolation was to create an extensive railway network with a route leading through the Alps. Modern Switzerland has a very dense railway network, and its central location provides travelers with fast transport to Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, or Austria. Zurich has one of the busiest stations in the world – it is the largest structure of its kind in Switzerland, which was opened in 1847. Thanks to three levels, trains arrive and depart from here practically every minute, and the station handles 350,000 passengers and 1,500 trains daily. In the program The Gateway, CNN viewers will have the opportunity to look at the work of the people who make this historic transport hub function like a Swiss watch.
The episode titled The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) will be broadcast on Tuesday, November 22, 2011. The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a new railway tunnel under the Swiss Alps, which is scheduled to be commissioned in 2016. Thanks to its 57-kilometer route, it will surpass the Seikan underwater tunnel in Japan and become the longest railway tunnel in the world. Thanks to the GBT, the journey from Zurich to Milan will take only one hour. The tunnel is intended to improve transport through the Alps (in particular freight transport between Germany and Italy) and shift freight traffic from roads to rails to reduce environmental pollution caused by the increasing number of cars. The plan assumes the construction of two single-track tunnels and is part of the Alp Transit project, also known as the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA). Its construction began in 1996. Drilling work was completed on October 15, 2010, and the completion ceremony was broadcast live by Swiss television.
How do international ports, airports, gas stations, and complex intersections work? How much time passes from the moment a Kenyan gardener cuts roses until they reach our local flower shops? How are 12 tons of cocoa beans from West Africa transported to port warehouses in Hamburg to then reach European chocolate producers? The Gateway will solve all these logistical mysteries in subsequent episodes.