Accordingly, the Gotthard Railway Company was established in 1871 to develop such a route, the company being initially operated under the stewardship of the accomplished Swiss industrialist Alfred Escher. Prior to its formation, surveys had been conducted that determined the optimum locations for either end of the propective tunnel to be at Göschenen and Airolo. Initially, there were difficulties encountered in securing sufficient finance for the project; accordingly the financing was distributed among a wide variety of private and public investors from Switzerland (20M CHF), Italy (45M CHF) and the German Empire (20M CHF). The confidence of both investors and engineers was bolstered by the Fréjus Rail Tunnel, the construction of which had been substantially aided by the introduction of various modern innovations that made the prospects of building long tunnels more practical than they previously had been.