Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-08-Speech-3-137"
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"en.20031008.12.3-137"2
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"Mr President, mountain ridges are a hindrance to crossing traffic, and so, tunnels offer the only solution to provide the shortest possible connecting route. It is an expensive solution; construction of such tunnels initially claimed many lives, and it was until recently used only in exceptional circumstances. The nineteenth century saw the start of railway tunnels, to which were added, in the twentieth, tunnels for cars. Meanwhile, engineering is increasingly enabling us to build tunnels under cities, under protected areas of outstanding natural beauty and under sea straits. These days, tunnel piping is inserted even under flat land consisting of soft, waterlogged peaty soil, as is the case in the Netherlands. Not only are tunnels now used on a much broader scale than in the past, but they are also used much more often. As a result, there is a considerably greater risk of explosions, fires and of people being suffocated. Until the recent fires, starting with the one in the Mont Blanc tunnel, far too little attention was paid to these risks. Meanwhile, economic interests mean that two-way lorry traffic across busy roads in one tunnel pipe is still permitted. Where this traffic is halted temporarily, it meets with protests from those living in the vicinity when it is allowed to resume. On the basis of experience gathered to date, I have reached the conclusion that tunnels without separate lanes and without parallel escape tunnels are unsuitable for use by large numbers of cars and by heavy goods traffic.
Roads offer individual drivers too much freedom for dangerous and deviant behaviour. Tunnels offer more options for rail traffic, but here too, escape routes are required. Moreover, it is likely that the two extremely long tunnels that will run under Switzerland, and the Brenner base tunnel, designed to run from Germany to Italy under Austria, will be suitable only for freight traffic.
My colleague, Mr Markov, has already addressed the issues of supervision and cross-border tunnels. Whilst I unreservedly support proposals to improve emergency exits and to make them suitable for wheelchair users, or other measures to step up safety requirements, I do not consider them to be adequate."@en1
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