Kerch Strait ferry line


The Kerch Strait ferry line was a ferry connection across the Strait of Kerch that connected the Crimean Peninsula and Krasnodar Krai.
The ferry ran across the narrowest part of the strait between Port Krym by the city of Kerch and Port Kavkaz on the Chushka Spit, on the site of former Kerch railway bridge. It carried passengers, automotive and railroad transport. The ferry was on the European route E97 and connected its parts, А290 and М-17 highways.
After the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, ferry traffic peaked, but as the Crimean Bridge across the strait opened in 2018, it overtook traffic flow from the ferry, rendering its usage for transportation financially unfeasible, so the ferry line stopped operations in late 2019.

History

The ferry line was established in 1953, on the site of the former Kerch railway bridge. From 1993 to 2004 railroad transportation was suspended due to replacement of aged train-ferries.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was administered by Russia and Ukraine through the joint venture “Crimea-Kuban Crossing”. In 1998, this company was reorganized into a Ukrainian state-owned enterprise "Kerch Strait ferry line". On 17 March 2014, during the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the company was nationalised by the Republic of Crimea, and had been since administered by Russia only.
The use of the ferry rose sharply after the annexation, and in June 2015, the ferry operator considered a daily passenger count of 11,000 normal.
The 2018 opening of the road section of the new Crimean Bridge, crossing the strait about 10 km further south, had greatly reduced demand for the ferry, to the point that it stopped transportation operations in Autumn 2019 as financially unfeasible with then-current amounts of passenger and freight traffic.

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