But today, more than 60 years after he gave it a name, and nearly two decades after construction was begun, the Gotthard Base tunnel (GBT) will finally be completed.

At 57km (35 miles), it will be the longest railway tunnel in the world and will cut the journey time from Zurich to Milan by 60 minutes to two-and-a-half hours. With high-speed trains running at near ground level through the towering Gotthard massif, both passengers and freight will - just as Gruner predicted - be carried through the mountains in under two hours.

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This afternoon, in the presence of the Swiss transport minister, Moritz Leuenberger, and the virtual presence of his EU counterparts, watching the ceremony via a video-link to Luxembourg, a giant drilling machine called Sissi will bore through the final centimetres of rock to connect both ends of the tunnel.