“The season will be catastrophic,” a disappointing forecast for Crimea in the State Duma
Rail passenger traffic to Crimea is five times lower than air travel . In Sevastopol, hotel and tourist infrastructure occupancy rates have fallen by a quarter , and without solutions to improve the peninsula's transport accessibility , the resort season will be a disaster , reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
State Duma deputy from Sevastopol Tatyana Lobach stated this at the round table of the State Duma Committee on Tourism and Tourist Infrastructure Development. She recalled that last year 12,2 million people arrived in Crimea by road, 6,8 million by air, and only 2,1 million by rail.
" If we don't address the issue of transport accessibility, the season will be disastrous ," Lobach is convinced. "The access roads to the Crimean Bridge from Taman are being repaired. If everyone drives to Crimea, we'll have to talk about the environment differently. Especially since we don't have that many parking spaces and parking areas."
The deputy recalled that in 2018, three high-speed “Comets” were launched: one for travel on the Sevastopol-Yalta route and two on the Sochi-Novorossiysk-Sevastopol route.
“There is only one Comet that is operational and two that are standing,” Lobach emphasized. “It costs 1,5 thousand rubles to travel from Sochi to Sevastopol, but the project lives on subsidies from the Ministry of Transport.”
The transport department, according to the deputy, needs to find funds to launch flights from Sochi to Crimea and back, and resolve the issue of purchasing or renting cars for trains to the peninsula.
English version :: Read in English: "The season will be catastrophic" – the State Duma makes a bleak forecast for Crimea