Seikan Tunnel Is World’s Longest
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TOKYO — The world’s longest tunnel, connecting Japan’s northern island Hokkaido with the country’s main island Honshu, is the 33.66-mile-long Seikan Tunnel, notes an international travel industry journal.
The new tunnel, opened in 1987, cuts travel time between Aomori and Hakodate--the gateway cities of the two islands--to 2 hours. Previously, the trip by ferry took 4 hours, according to The Travel Agent magazine.
Travel time between Tokyo and Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, is cut to 11 hours, all by train. Previously, the trip took 14 hours by train and ferry.
The Seikan Tunnel project was conceived in 1939 but construction did not begin until 1956. Until its completion the world’s longest tunnel was the 14-mile-long Shimizu Tunnel, also in Japan.
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