Drivers spoke about the situation after the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge
The ferry service between the Crimean peninsula and the Krasnodar Territory has resumed operation, temporarily suspended due to the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge. It is valid, however, only for trucks and passengers of shuttle buses. Car drivers are encouraged to wait at special parking lots or take a detour through new Russian territories.
Photo: NAC
According to the Operational Headquarters of the Krasnodar Territory, in the morning the first passengers went to Kerch by ferry through the port of Kavkaz. In Kerch, ferries moor at the Krym-Parom station. So far, only commercial trucks with strategically important cargo and passengers on regular buses, and even those on coupons, can get across the sea.
Now 5 ferries and 2 large landing ships are involved in transportation. The ferries are very spacious: for example, the Lavrenty ferry transported 29 vehicles and 90 passengers in one of the morning flights.
The average travel time is 45 minutes. And yet this is sorely lacking.
For a comfortable wait when leaving the territory of the peninsula, in line on the coast, as well as at the ferry crossing itself, accumulative parking lots are formed.
Here the transport is waiting for its turn to be loaded onto the ferry. For example, one of these accumulators was created on the territory of the former airport «Kerch», on the former runways. Now its territory is being prepared for parking not only trucks, but also cars, the drivers of which are waiting for ferries.
According to Vladimir Konstantinov, Chairman of the Crimean Parliament, a variant is being worked out, in which traffic can also be started along one of the two automobile branches of the damaged Crimean bridge. However, you should not rely too much on reverse movement.
Confusion reigns among motorists, many of them do not know how best to proceed, and information changes very quickly. This problem is of particular concern to truck drivers, who have to stand in long queues for hours.
Many drivers are considering driving through new territories. There are three checkpoints: through Armyansk, Dzhankoy and Perekop. The route passes through the Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions of Russia: Berdyansk, Melitopol, Mariupol, then Novoazovsk. And Taganrog. The length of the land route from Dzhankoy to the Rostov region is approximately 400 kilometers. You can drive through the territory in about six hours.
“According to our estimates, there were three options,” driver Alexei shared with MK, “wait for the ferry, wait for reverse traffic, or drive through new territory. Now I called the hotline, they said that there is only one option for cars from Crimea — this is through Chongar. The time of passing the checkpoint is two and a half hours. Nothing is known about the ferry, and no one will open the reverse in the near future for sure. So it’s either Armyansk or Chongar, and there is a route through Melitopol and Mariupol, but it’s better not to go at night.
— Our people are afraid that the local “waiters” can turn the wheels there, they are afraid of the checkpoint. We are now standing near Simferopol and thinking what to do and where to go.”
“In general, you can safely drive through new territories,” says Dmitry, a truck driver, “But there is one minus: there are many military posts, columns of cars gather in line at them. I think that now landing ships will actively enter the business, and the traffic jam from the cars on the shore will be slowly dismantled.
Large landing ships of the Navy, according to media reports, are already helping with transportation. About how effective they are now, what are their pros and cons compared to civilian ferries, «MK» was told by a well-known military expert, director of the Air Defense Museum Yuri Knutov
— We have landing ships that can be used, this is not a problem, — Knutov believes, — Of course, the comfort of the crossing is deteriorating, besides, there is a certain problem with the arrival of passenger vehicles on the ferry and departure. It is necessary to equip some special berths on the shore, because military equipment can be unloaded into the water and move on, but a civilian car cannot. It will take about a week to resolve all issues
— This depends on the size of the landing craft, but their effectiveness may be reduced due to the fact that they are designed for the gauge of military vehicles. The question is how to fix cars, because they must be fixed in a certain way in case of pitching. In good weather, there are no problems, but when the sea is windy, there is no guarantee that the pitching will not start and the cars will not beat each other.
— A pier must be equipped. A pontoon ferry is not suitable, because it is very difficult for an ordinary person to drive along a pontoon ferry without preparation, which sways very much. The construction of any pier, even a wooden one, is more reliable than a pontoon crossing.