Brenner Base Tunnel Pollution from this traffic is a major concern. The hope is to relieve this situation by greatly improving the railway connection between North Tyrol and South Tyrol with the new tunnel, which will allow trains to cross the Alps much faster. Currently, speeds in the Brenner region barely exceed due to the steepness of the existing tracks, which cross the pass at an elevation of 1,371 metres above sea level. The travel time from Innsbruck to Bolzano will be reduced from 2 hours to 50 minutes. The project is funded by Austria and Italy, and a contribution by the European
Brenner Pass in 268 AD, but they were stopped in November of that year at the Battle of Lake Benacus. The Romans kept control over the mountain pass until their end of the empire, in the 5th century. During the High Middle Ages, Brenner Pass was a part of the important "Via Imperii", an imperial road linking the Kingdom of Germany north of the Alps with the Italian March of Verona. In the carolingian "Divisio Regnorum" of 806 the Brenner region is called "per alpes Noricas", the transit through the Noric Alps. Since the 12th century, Brenner Pass was controlled by the