“For passenger cars from Crimea, now the passage is only through Chongar”

A ferry crossing between the Crimean peninsula and the Krasnodar Territory, suspended for a while due to a terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge, has reopened. It is valid, however, only for trucks and passengers of shuttle buses. Drivers of passenger cars are invited to wait at special parking lots, or take a detour through the new territories of Russia.

According to the Operational Headquarters of the Krasnodar Territory, in the morning the first passengers went to Kerch by ferry through the Kavkaz port. 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 Lavrentiy ferry transported 29 vehicles and 90 passengers in one of the morning flights.

The average travel time is 45 minutes. Yet this is sorely lacking.

For comfortable waiting at the exit from the territory of the peninsula, in the queue on the coast, as well as at the ferry crossing itself, accumulative parking lots for cars 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, an option is being worked out in which traffic can be launched along one of the two automobile branches of the damaged Crimean bridge. However, it is not worth hoping for a reverse movement.

Confusion reigns among motorists, many of them do not know how best to proceed, and information changes very quickly. This problem is especially worrisome for 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 area 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 either Armyansk or Chongar, and there the route is through Melitopol and Mariupol, but it’s better not to go at night.

– What is the disadvantage of this route?

– 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 the landing ships will actively enter the business, and the traffic jam from the cars on the shore will be slowly dismantled.

Large amphibious assault 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 unload into the water and move on, but a civilian car cannot. It will take about a week to resolve all issues

– How effective are such ships for transporting cars?

– It 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 are no guarantees that the pitching will not start and the cars will not be beaten against each other.

– Will the pontoon bridge help with the descent of equipment ashore?

– A pier should 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.

Read the material “Be prepared for a shock”: the driver described in detail the land corridor to the Crimea

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29072 dated July 18, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Navy to the rescue