The excavation was performed via a labour intensive process by a mostly Italian workforce overseen by the civil engineer Karl Wurmb.

Various road vehicles from buses and lorries to bikes can be carried upon cars designed to facilitate their rapid loading and unloading.

On 12 August 1947, a bomb exploded under a British military train carrying 175 people from London to Villach in close proximity to the tunnel.

[1] Despite this challenge, it was foreseen that such a railway would be especially important for the transportation of goods between the industrialised north of Austria-Hungary and Trieste, which was then host to the empire's principal seaport on the Adriatic Sea.

Pressure for Austria to proceed with such a venture had increased considerably after their Swiss neighbours had fulfilled the remarkable engineering achievement embodied by the completion of the lengthy Gotthard Tunnel on 1 July 1882.

The work was supervised by the noted civil engineer Karl Wurmb (1850-1907), whilst a mostly Italian workforce undertook most of the backbreaking labour involved.

On 5 July 1909, the official opening of the Tauern Railway line and tunnel alike occurred, the ceremony being attended by various dignitaries, including Emperor Francis Joseph.

[4][5] On 12 August 1947, a bomb exploded under a British military train carrying 175 people from London to Villach in close proximity to the tunnel.

[9] The edifice of old tunnel entrance was left intact in its original location, albeit with no operational purpose; it presently stands as a memorial arch.