In order to relieve pressure upon the original route, interest grew in the development of a more direct route over the Alps. These notions soon centered around the concept of boring a base tunnel at a significantly lower altitude. During 2006, a two-year route selection process was conducted; in April 2008, it was announced that the southernmost route had been determined to be the optimum of those studied. During the later half of 2009, the final route for the proposed Semmering Base Tunnel was selected; this ran between Gloggnitz and the Mürzzuschlag-Langenwang area.