The Ejpovice Tunnel () is a two-tube railway tunnel in the Czech Republic. It is located on the

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

–

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

railway line at

Ejpovice Ejpovice is a municipality and village in Rokycany District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 800 inhabitants. Ejpovice lies approximately west of Rokycany, east of Plzeň, and south-west of Prague. Demographics Transp ...

and therefore bears its name. Since its commissioning in 2018, it has been the longest railway tunnel in the country. It shortens the journey between the city of

and the town of

Rokycany Rokycany (; ) is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, urban monument zone. Admini ...

from 20 to 11 minutes. The tunnel is designed for , but the maximum speed is currently limited to . The tunnel will remain the longest in the country until the planned Ore Mountains Base Tunnel between the Czech Republic and Germany surpasses it. When building the two tubes, a

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...

from the manufacturer

Herrenknecht Herrenknecht AG is a German company that manufactures tunnel boring machines (TBMs). Headquartered in Allmannsweier, Schwanau, Baden-Württemberg, it is the worldwide market leader for heavy TBMs. Established by Martin Herrenknecht in 1975, the ...

was used, with which up to 182 meters were driven per week. The equivalent of 260 million euros was invested in the construction.

References

Tunnels in the Czech Republic Rokycany District Buildings and structures in the Plzeň Region Transport in the Plzeň Region Tunnels completed in 2018 Railway tunnels in Europe 2018 establishments in the Czech Republic 21st-century architecture in the Czech Republic {{Europe-tunnel-stub