2.25 million automobiles have crossed the Crimean bridge during three summer months. This is almost by 8,5% more than during the same period of the past year, when 2,074 million vehicles used this transport crossing.
A gradual increase in tourist flow is associated with an increase in freight and passenger traffic: almost 200 thousand trucks and 25 thousand regular and tourist buses crossed the Kerch Strait this summer. This was reported by the "Crimean Bridge" information centre.
The results of the transport crossing during the summer months were summed up at a meeting with the head of the Federal Tourism Agency Zarina Doguzova. The head of the agency called the bridge a driver of the tourism development in Crimea.
"First of all, it is car and bike tourism. 60% of vacationers from the beginning of the year came to the peninsula by their own transport to travel around the picturesque places. Interest in the off-season holidays in Crimea is growing. With the bridge it became possible to plan a trip in autumn or winter, regardless of storms in the Kerch Strait", − said Zarina Doguzova.
Residents of different regions of Russia cross the bridge to Crimea going on their vacations. Basically, they are tourists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Voronezh, Samara, Kaluga, as well as residents of the neighbouring resort region − Krasnodar Territory. According to the agency, many people from the Kuban region prefer to spend their weekends on the peninsula.
"This summer the peak of the seasonal flow occurred on August 12: almost 36 thousand vehicles crossed the strait across the bridge within 24 hours. All the bridge piles worked as usual under the conditions of dense round-the-clock traffic. The bridge is ready for even greater working loads. Its promising estimated capacity is 40 thousand vehicles per day", − said Kairat Tursunbekov, head of the "Taman" Uprdor Federal Administration, during the meeting.
In general, from the beginning of the automobile part of the bridge operation (from May 16, 2018), about 7 million vehicles crossed it. This is more than the Kerch Ferry transported since 2015 (5.1 million vehicles). The railway part of the bridge is still under construction. The first trains will go over the bridge, as planned, at the end of this year.
