Vladimir Putin opened railway traffic on the Crimean bridge

Vladimir Putin traveled by rail from Kerch to Taman. He made part of the way through the Kerch Strait in the driver’s cab, and then moved into one of the cars, where he talked with the workers and engineers involved in the construction of the bridge. Also during the trip, Transport Minister Yevgeny Dietrich reported on further tasks for the development of the Crimean railway network.

Arriving in Taman, the President of Russia took part in the teleconference mode at the ceremony of departure of the first passenger train to arrive on the peninsula along the Crimean bridge: at two in the afternoon, the Tavria branded train departed from the Moscow railway station in St. Petersburg to open regular railway connections to Crimea with other regions of the country.

The Crimean bridge is the longest in Russia and Europe, its length is 19 kilometers. The bridge begins on the Taman Peninsula, passes through a five-kilometer dam and the Tuzla island, crosses the Kerch Strait and goes to the Crimean coast, providing uninterrupted transport links between Crimea and other Russian regions.

The transport passage consists of parallel automobile and railway lines. The automobile part of the bridge was put into operation in May 2018, trucking began in the fall of that year; freight trains are planned to open in the summer of 2020.