The first of many different projects for the development of rail-ferry communication across the Kerch Strait seems to be implemented as early as this summer. The Anship shipping company is preparing to start rail and ferry transportation between the ports of Crimea and the Caucasus using the Annenkov ferry.
This ferry was created as a result of the reconstruction of the Sormovsky-type motor ship at the Yuzhny shipyard in Sevastopol. On the ship, the superstructure was cut off and moved to the bow, railway tracks were laid along the deck and many other works were performed, as a result of which the ferry was able to carry up to 24 railway cars. Vessel length 104.89 m, width 16 m, depth 6.25 m, draft 3.2 m.
This is the same ferry as the motor ship “Petrovsk”, operating after reconstruction in the Caspian Sea between the ports of Makhachkala, Turkmenbashi and Aktau.
According to Nikolai Kovirnichenko, Director of the Kerch Ferry Shipping Company, work is currently being completed on the creation of docking devices in the ports of Crimea (Ukraine) and Caucasus (Russia), and the construction of two ramps at the Kherson Shipbuilding Plant, which will be installed in both ports .
To perform work related to the loading and unloading of ferries, TIS-Krym DP (founder of Techinvestservice LLC, Kiev) was established in the Crimean port, and AnrosKrym OJSC (founder of Anship LLC, Moscow) in the Kavkaz port. LLC “Anship” is the initiator and coordinator of the project. The shipowner is Ugtrans Terminal Co Ltd.
It is assumed that Russian oil, light oil products in the direction of the Feodosia seaport and liquefied gas for Kerch will be the main cargo at the new railway-ferry crossing. But it is also planned to transport metal, coal and other Russian export cargoes. The business plan provides for the operation of the ferry in the mode of 42 flights per month.
It can be recalled that one of the recent attempts to organize a rail-ferry service across the Kerch Strait using the Yury Dolgoruky ferry, which was brought over from the Far East, was not successful. The large draft of the ship did not allow him to find work in the strait. Now for this ferry, standing in the Kerch fishing port, other work is being sought on the Black Sea routes.