Brenner railway station and air pollution, as Brenner Pass is the region's only major thoroughfare between Austria and Italy. The Brenner Base Tunnel, scheduled to be completed in 2025, would divert all freight rail traffic between Fortezza/Franzensfeste and Innsbruck via a tunnel underneath Brenner. Local traffic between Fortezza, Brenner and Innsbruck would continue with additional capacity being released on this railway section. The majority of freight traffic, as well as some passenger services, would make use of this tunnel. Journey time between Bozen/Bolzano and Innsbruck would be reduced from 2 hours to 50–55 minutes. Example of reduction of journey times (if passenger services
Brenner Pass of above . As a result, air and noise pollution have generated heavy debate in regional and European politics. , about 1.8 million trucks crossed the Europa Bridge per year. In order to ease the road traffic, there are plans to upgrade the Brenner Railway from Verona to Innsbruck with a series of tunnels, including the Brenner Base Tunnel underneath Brenner. While the official groundbreaking of the tunnel had taken place in 2006 (with survey tunnels drilled in the same year), substantial work did not begin until 2011. Funding issues have delayed the tunnel's scheduled date of completion from 2022