Everything about the Crimean bridge: construction progress, opening dates, traffic patterns. When will the bridge to Crimea be opened for trains? When will the railway road to the Crimea be completed
After the opening of the road part of the Crimean bridge, all the forces of the builders in the Kerch Strait were thrown into the construction of the railway component. The Crimean bridge for the railway will open in December 2019. Thus, on the Crimean bridge, the railway will be launched by the end of 2019 and, according to the schedule, the first trains will pass from the coast of Taman to Crimea
Two tracks with a capacity of up to 47 steam trains per day will run through the strait. Estimated speed of passenger trains is 120 km/h, freight trains – 80 km/h.
When will the Crimean bridge for trains open, latest news
Now specialists are preparing the last supports, the assembly of spans is in full swing. Their total weight is almost 160 thousand tons, which is 1.5 times more than on the road part of the structure.
There are from six to 95 piles under each support, as well as under a road bridge, some of them are driven into the ground vertically, some at an angle. Inclined piles will increase the stability of the bridge in the event of an earthquake.
One railway span weighs 580 tons and consists of 40 elements, which are connected by welding and high-strength bolts. Such spans are placed on supports, the distance between which does not exceed 65 meters. A feature of the railway bridge is a smooth climb to the arch above the fairway.
Each subsequent support is about half a meter higher than the previous one. The railway bridge is gradually “growing”: from 5 meters it begins to rise higher and higher on the island of Tuzla, so that the height of the supports reaches almost 17 meters to the sea section, and further - 35 meters above the fairway of the Kerch-Yenikal Canal, - says the head of the technical service company "SGM-Most" Yuri Beskov. - Such a smooth rise will ensure a comfortable and safe entry of passenger and cargo trains to the arched span, under which ships can freely pass.
In parallel with the work in the Kerch Strait, a railway is being built along both banks. 40 kilometers of new tracks will appear on the Taman Peninsula, and 17.5 kilometers on the Crimean Peninsula.
The railway approaches will be put into operation simultaneously with the railway part of the Crimean bridge, in 2019, the Crimean Bridge information center reports.
What they write on one well-known forum:
If the schedules have been prepared since December 9 this year, this does not mean that the first trains will go through the Kerch Strait already in 2018. The southern range of Russian Railways is being prepared in advance for the passage of trains to the Crimea. As we know, the traffic in the railway south of Russia is very intense.
Passenger rail traffic to Crimea is scheduled for the summer of 2019.
The directions are already clearly marked. Basically, what was expected. I never doubted that "Ekaterinburg - Simferopol" would be returned to the historical route.
With trains from the capitals (state and cultural) to the resort towns of Crimea, everything was also clear: naturally they will be.
With regard to trains to Kerch, I was also not mistaken: there will be no PDS from the terminal in Kerch. They are simply no longer needed. Kerch became a transit city. Quite enough and passing.
At the first stage, Sevastopol receives fast trains from Moscow and St. Petersburg. All three federal cities are connected by rail. This is right. In winter, two pairs will go: Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the summer, they may well add another one or two. Not more.
Simferopol receives all Sevastopol transit and its own: to Ektaterinburg, Murmansk, Chelyabinsk, Izhevsk, Ufa, Saratov, Perm, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow. In Simferopol, there will be no problems at all with the Moscow direction.
Pass by Simferopol "Moscow-Evpatoria" and "SPB-Evpatoria". These must be for summer. They did not go under Ukraine in winter either. There were only trailer cars "Evpatoria - Moscow". So it will continue to be.
The same can be said about Theodosius. In summer there will be direct trains, in winter - trailer cars to those passing through Vladislavovka.
It is not yet clear how Murmansk and Nizhny Novgorod will be allowed on the mainland. Will they go through Moscow? Will Murmansk go through St. Petersburg? They can also launch it by, for greater connection between the regions of the European part of Russia and the Crimea. It would be logical. Purely metropolitan trains already exist. It is also necessary to gather people in the "bending" outback.
The cars of the Crimean railway will also appear on the Trans-Siberian. The farthest, to Asia, to the east will be "Simferopol - Novosibirsk". I would like to go to Irkutsk. But the new terminal of the airport "Simferopol" is already dictating its own competitive conditions.
So far, silence at the expense of regional trains: between the cities of Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory. Some express trains were planned.
By the spring of 2019, it will become clear exactly what, where exactly, and how, will walk.
The rolling stock of the Crimean railway has not yet been updated. Will they have time to deliver new cars by the summer of 2019? If they don’t make it in time, it’s okay - they will give it out for rent from Russian Railways. There are no problems with wagons.
Yes, and the Tver Carriage Building bakes new cars like pies. They may well have time to make several new two-story trains.
P.S. We also decided not to visit Dzhankoy. Two years ago he offered this: by diesel locomotive to (from) Simferopol.
This makes me happy.
99.9% of train passengers do not need to travel to Dzhankoy. Who needs Dzhankoy - for those to equip a convenient platform closer to the city. All passenger trains here -
There is no need to waste time changing the locomotive and direction of movement.
Of course, it is quite possible that all trains will not go this way. Some will be brought to the Dzhankoy railway station. To not be completely empty.
The contractor of Russian Railways told when trains will open on the new Crimean bridge. To date, a preliminary plan has been drawn up for the movement of trains of various types for the next two years - until 2020.
In test mode, railway traffic will be launched by the end of this year. The final project will be handed over by Russian Railways to the customer FKU Rostransmodernizatsiya by the end of next year.
The railway part of the Crimean bridge is almost ready
June 4 marked the completion of the first level of construction work on the railway part of the Crimean bridge: all foundation piles were loaded. The second part of the project as a whole is 80% ready, and 307 supports will be ready by the end of this month. Also this autumn, the tracks on the Taman Peninsula for the railway approach to the bridge will be ready, and on the peninsula, a double-track railway approach of 18 km is being prepared for it. The workers are laying the rails in an innovative way: the connection will be seamless, and the trains will run less noisily than they do now, and at the same time without vibration. That is why the bridges among themselves are already called the velvet railway.
At the next stage of construction, workers will erect superstructures and connect them with beams. More than 100,000 tons have already been erected, but another 160,000 tons need to be assembled. And here, too, an innovative method is used - anti-seismic fasteners. As soon as work with the spans is completed, the railway will be covered with a 38-kilometer rail and sleeper grid. And, finally, the time will come for the final stage: in the second half of 2019, the approaches from the Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory with the railway part of the bridge will begin to operate.
The railway will be made in such a way that it will meet the requirements for category II tracks. A section of 40 km will withstand trains up to more than 7 tons. Such trains can move at a speed of no more than 120 km/h.
It is reported that in 2020 it will be possible to achieve a record capacity of the railway section. Up to 47 trains of various types will move in two directions during the day. In the meantime, 15 passenger, 4 commuter and 10 freight trains will run for the first time. By the end of the year, up to 15 million passengers and up to 16 million tons of cargo will be transported.
The railway part of the bridge to the Crimea will not be commissioned at a "shock pace" - it will be ready for opening at the previously scheduled time - in December 2019. Such terms were named in an interview with Izvestia by Minister of Transport Yevgeny Dietrich. According to him, there is no need to speed up the construction, because. in addition to the bridge itself, it is necessary to extend a railway line to the bridge in the Krasnodar Territory, and after the bridge, connect it to the railway system of Crimea. Tour operators also do not expect a serious contribution from “railway” tourism: the Russian Railways monopolist is not interested in cooperation with the travel market, and tourists prefer other “delivery methods”. Although the opening of the bridge will undoubtedly be beneficial for loading the ground vehicles. As well as for unloading the "automobile saturation" of the Crimea, which has become a problem this season.
As the head of the Ministry of Transport Yevgeny Dietrich explained, the construction of the railway part is more complicated, so there is no need to speed up the construction. In addition, 18 km of railways need to be built in Crimea alone to connect the bridge and the railway system of the peninsula. At the same time, according to the head of the Ministry of Transport, first of all, the tourist potential of the bridge will be appreciated by residents of Rostov and Krasnodar, for whom it is planned to launch high-speed trains to Crimea. In addition, the commissioning of the railway will make it possible to relieve traffic jams in the Crimea.
By the way, tour operators also mentioned this factor. “In general, as practice shows, and we worked with trains and took charters, the demand is higher for air transportation. The railway is more suitable for individual tourists, as it “historically happened,” Alexey Zalivin, representative of the Biblio Globus tour operator in Crimea, explained to the correspondent of the TURPROM infogroup.
At the same time, as the expert emphasized, potentially railway transportation is even more interesting for Crimea than for Sochi. “Air tickets to Crimea during the season are very expensive, prices reach ₽20,000, and the appearance of a railway will create some competition, and prices can be expected to decrease. As a result, tour operators as a whole will benefit, regardless of how they transport tourists,” Alexey Zalivin emphasized.
However, the expert does not even see this as a big plus in the availability of rail transportation. “What distinguishes Crimea this year is that after the opening of the Crimean bridge, the entire peninsula was stuck in traffic jams. And the problem is not only in the unfinished highway "Tavrida" - the problem was to drive in and out of any resort - Yalta, Alushta, Sudak. Parking, hotel entrances - everything is one big problem. Since we sell full tour packages that include transfers, we faced this problem very sharply, transportation began to take a lot of time, tourists complained, and nothing could be done about it. The railway will unload the roads, which will be of great benefit,” Alexey Zalivin is sure.
At the same time, experts emphasize that the railway itself is not interested in cooperation with the tourist market. “For tour operators, interaction with Russian Railways is traditionally difficult, they have their own monopoly - RZD-tour, so charter trains are extremely rare and with the opening of the bridge there will hardly be anyone who wants to put them,” said Sergey Romashkin, CEO of the Dolphin tour operator. However, the expert emphasized that in terms of the growth of the tourist flow in general, the opening of the railway connection will play a global role. “We see that air transportation to Crimea this season is not growing, only by literally 2-3%, which cannot be compared with the giant flow across the bridge. Accordingly, with the opening of the railway, we will see a massive increase in those wishing to travel to Crimea by train. Recall that in Ukrainian times the ratio of tourists arriving by train and by plane was 1 to 5, that is, up to 80% of tourists arrived by train,” said Sergey Romashkin. In figures, according to the expert, this amounted to 1.5 million tourists by rail and 400-500 thousand “by air”, respectively. “Travel by rail is still more economical. In addition, the geography of trips is wider, planes fly to Crimea from only 60 cities, railway coverage will be wide,” Sergei Romashkin explained.
As a result, of the three delivery channels - air, road and rail, train trips, according to the expert's forecasts, will be the most popular for about a year or two. “It's good for tourists. For tour operators, the situation is already such that we see a significant excess of land-based bookings over booking tour packages, this trend is likely to continue - Crimea will move into the sphere of predominantly land-based bookings from tourists. It is most likely that hardly anyone will have the strength and means to organize charters - both by air and by rail - in the market," Sergei Romashkin summed up.
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The project for the construction of the Crimean bridge provides that its automotive component will be put into operation in December 2018. The launch of traffic on the railway part of the bridge is scheduled for December 2019.
The start of the bridge should open a new page in the life of the Crimean railway, which is currently undergoing a period of large-scale modernization.
Kyiv left Crimea, taking wagons and locomotives
The railway came to the Crimea in 1874, when the movement of trains from Melitopol to Simferopol was opened.
All the main branches that connected the peninsula with other regions of the country went through Ukraine. This most logical option turned into a problem after the Crimean spring and the return of the peninsula to Russia, when official Kyiv headed for a transport blockade of Crimea.
To begin with, the Ukrainian authorities tried to take out all movable property. Analysts at the Kyiv Center for Transport Strategies reported in March 2014 that the new Ukrainian authorities tried to take out everything newer, including ChS7 passenger locomotives, track cars and new series cars.
The Gudok newspaper, citing its sources, reported that former head of the Simferopol locomotive depot Viktor Mandyk on the eve of the referendum, he overtook the newest locomotives 2TE116 and ChS7 to Melitopol, quit and left for Dnepropetrovsk. As a result, in the spring of 2014, the Crimean railway workers had to use ChS2 locomotives manufactured in the early 1960s to ensure passenger traffic.
The heavy legacy of the Ukrainian period
In Ukraine, for more than three years, they like to talk about “colossal losses incurred as a result of the annexation of Crimea.” In fact, the situation is reversed - the entire period of independent Ukraine, the infrastructure of the peninsula, created in the Soviet period, was destroyed with the complete indifference of the Kyiv authorities.
The Crimean railway is no exception. The Russian specialists got the farm in a terrible state.
In October 2014, specialists from Russian Railways and Goszheldornadzor, who assessed the Crimean railway, concluded that the infrastructure of the KZD, namely the superstructure of the tracks and turnouts, was in an unusable condition. On many sections of the railway, experts from the supervisory agency recommended reducing the speed of trains to 40, 25 and even 10 kilometers per hour. Only with such a high-speed mode was it possible to ensure safe movement.
It was necessary to almost completely change the rolling stock, modernize existing branches and build new ones.
Transport blockade
From that moment on, messages “There are no more railways in Crimea!” appeared in the Ukrainian media on a regular basis. or "The transport blockade made the Crimean railway stations empty."
The cessation of the movement of passenger and freight trains through Ukraine, of course, had a negative impact on the life of the Crimean railways.
But, on the other hand, there is no evil without good. The reduction in traffic made it possible, in more free conditions, to prepare for a new stage in the life of the Crimean railway. The stage, which will begin in December 2019.
Back in 2014, the Moscow-Simferopol passenger train was launched, which went to the peninsula through a ferry crossing. This practice is not new - part of the trains from the eastern regions of the RSFSR in the Soviet years moved to the Crimea through a ferry crossing. However, now, after several months of work on such a scheme, it was decided to abandon this practice. It turned out to be faster and easier to carry tourists on a single ticket on buses from the railway stations of Anapa and Krasnodar than using a ferry to transport passenger trains.
big construction
Therefore, the restoration of the movement of freight and passenger trains to Crimea will occur after the launch of the Crimean railway bridge.
In addition to the work that is being done in the Crimea, as well as the construction of the bridge itself, no less significant tasks are being solved by railway builders in Taman.
From the Vyshestebliyevskaya station, a 42-kilometer section is under construction, which will lead directly to the bridge. The Kerch section from the Bagerovo station to the bridge will be 17.8 km.
The laying of a section on the Taman Peninsula was envisaged during the construction of the port of Taman and included the construction of a new Portovaya station 8 km from the transport crossing. Near the village of Taman, the Taman-passenger station is planned. On the Kerch section passing through Cementnaya Slobidka, a branch to the Kerch-Yuzhnaya station and the creation of a new park are provided. It is also planned to build four overpasses, two bridges and a tunnel on this section.
24 hours from Moscow to Simferopol
Until recently, skeptics expressed doubts - are the intentions of the Russian authorities realistic? But the pace of construction of the Crimean bridge, the successful implementation of the most complicated operation for the transportation and installation of railway and automobile arches, testify: when people work, and do not argue, almost everything is doable.
Summer 2017 General Director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Crimean Railway" Alexey Gladilin said that for the trains that will go to the Crimea after the opening of the bridge, it is planned to purchase 800 cars, most of them are double-decker sleeping cars in a compartment design.
Speaking in Alushta at the IV Crimean Transport Forum, Gladilin said: “It is planned to purchase 15 pairs of passenger trains. Moreover, they will be distributed as follows: two trains each to Sevastopol, Evpatoria and Feodosia, the rest - to Simferopol. Approximate time of train movement between Simferopol and Moscow will be from 24 to 28 hours.
In the future, the railway route to the Crimea is planned to be made high-speed, reducing the travel time from the capital to Simferopol to 18 hours.
The launch of passenger trains to the Crimea is only the first stage of the new life of the railways of the peninsula. But, probably, it will make sense to talk about the future later, as the plans turn into real deeds.