Date of opening of railway communication with Crimea

The railway part of the bridge to Crimea is not going to be made at a "shocking pace" - it will be ready for opening at the previously scheduled time - in December 2019.

This date was designated by the Minister of Transport Evgeny Dietrich. He believes that it is not necessary to accelerate construction, because in addition to the bridge itself, it is necessary to build several kilometers of railways to connect the bridge and the railway system of the peninsula.

Tourist operators do not expect a serious contribution from railway tourism: the Russian Railways monopoly is not interested in cooperation with the tourist market, and travelers choose alternative routes. However, all experts note that the opening of the bridge will be useful for loading the “ground” as well as for unloading the “car saturation” of the peninsula, which got into traffic jams this season.

Tour operators talk about the advantages of opening a railway message. For example, Alexei Zalivin, representative of the tour operator Biblio Globus in Crimea, emphasizes that potentially railway transportation for Crimea is even more interesting than for Sochi. Air travel during the season is very expensive, and the emergence of an alternative mode of transportation can create competition. In addition, the railway will unload roads, as the biggest problem of Crimea in 2018 is continuous traffic jams.

According to some tour operators, interaction with Russian Railways will be difficult due to the monoplier - Russian Railways tour, and charter trains are very rare. By increasing the tourist flow in general, the opening of railway transportation will play a global role. According to experts, air transportation to the peninsula this season increases only by 2-3%, and these figures are not compared with the giant flow across the bridge. Therefore, after the opening of the railway, it will be possible to see a massive growth of those wishing to travel to the Crimea by train.