FEATURE - Tunnel vision: Swiss can't wait to party

By Josie Cox and Sam Cage

ZURICH (Reuters) - Face covered with dust, a tired miner scrambles through a tiny gap linking two parts of what will be the world's longest rail tunnel, clutching a gold coloured statuette of saint Barbara.

He is greeted by a hard-hat wearing crowd of 600 or so -- colleagues, politicians and journalists -- gathered to watch the rubble crumble in a Swiss rail tunnel. The event was broadcast live on television earlier this week.

Even though there is still one section of the tunnel to be dug through -- and that is not scheduled until early 2011 -- the media attention illustrates a particularly Swiss passion.

"I've been at a lot of openings but that one really hit me in the stomach and that is a great victory for the biggest tunnel," said a beaming Moritz Leuenberger, minister for environment, traffic, energy and communication.

"Here is the first world wonder of Switzerland, and the longest wonder of the world," said Leuenberger, congratulating workers including the statue-wielding miner.

Barbara, the saint depicted by the statuette, is known to the Swiss as patron saint of construction workers and miners.

Tunnels and the Swiss really do go deep. Some suggest the fascination comes from an existence surrounded by mountains. Many Swiss companies compete on the global tunnel market. But there are also boasting rights to dig for.

The focus of this week's attention, the Gotthard is a near 18 billion Swiss franc ($16.6 billion) project to reclaim Swiss ownership of the world's longest transport tunnel, at almost 60 km (40 miles). It's a crown Japan grabbed in 1988 with the Seikan Tunnel in the Tsugaru Strait, measuring 54 km (33 miles).