Ferry crossings: features, varieties, conditions

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

Ferry crossings provide transportation between land areas separated by a water barrier. This usually happens when it is impossible or impractical to build a bridge for various reasons. The crossing can work not only for the transport of passengers. It can be used to organize the movement of goods, road and even rail transport.

Ferry

Many passengers are poisoned to travel in their cars. You can cross the strait or the sea between islands and even continents by ferry. On the lower decks, cars are securely parked and secured in close rows. Their owners at the same time enjoy the comfort of traveling on the upper tiers.

Ferries are often chosen as an alternative to traveling on the freeway. Especially if you have to cross several borders. In order not to stand in lines at checkpoints, you can sway on the waves and relax on a cozy and comfortable ferry. To make transportation efficient, transport companies use combined ferries. The largest of them are over 200 meters long. Total length of traffic laneson them can exceed 4 kilometers, and they can be located on 10-12 decks. At the same time, the maximum time for a full download is only 1.5 hours.

Ferry Features

In the most simplified form, you can organize transport links between the two shores using an ordinary boat. It can carry passengers or oversized cargo. Several boats connected together by a common deck can support a car. Such floating facilities can be set in motion by the efforts of the rower or the energy of the engine. In this case, it is customary to talk about a self-propelled ferry. Between two points on opposite banks, you can stretch a rope (cable, chain) and install a winch and a block device. The floating craft fixed to the free end of the rope will move along the established route, and can be controlled from land.

Ferry crossings over long distances between the shores are carried out by ships or pontoons. The most popular are combined ships that can take on board cargo, road and rail transport, and passengers. The design of ferries suggests the presence of ramps on them. At loading and unloading points, berths are being built, access roads, platforms, overpasses and other auxiliary structures are being organized for the quick and convenient movement of goods, passengers and vehicles.

Kerch ferry: features of work

This transport route existed in ancient times. Routecrossed the Kerch Strait, belonging to the waters of the Sea of Azov, at its narrowest point. Two coasts between the Crimean Peninsula and the Krasnodar Territory are located only five kilometers from each other. This modern passenger-and-freight ferry overcomes the path in 20-30 minutes.

Transport links are established around the clock. But it happens that the weather makes its own adjustments. In this case, ferry crossings operate according to the real forecast. Ferries do not operate during rough seas. Under normal conditions, the crossing operates up to 30 flights per day.

Efforts to build a bridge across the strait were unsuccessful. Strong storm winds and ice movements make it difficult to implement projects. In Soviet times, not only passengers and cars were transported through the strait. In certain periods, the passage of railway freight and passenger cars by special ships was also established. The strait is shallow, the maximum depth is 18 meters, which does not allow the use of ships with a large draft on the route.

Ferry crossing Crimea - Caucasus

The decision to organize it was made by the leadership of the USSR after the failure of the railway bridge project across the strait. Since 1954, rail ferries have been constantly running along the crossing. Passengers were transported by small boats. From the middle of the 70s of the XX century, they were replaced by passenger and cargo ships of the icebreaking type.

Currently, four ferries run around the clock on the Crimea-Caucasus line. "Protoporos 4" and "Victory" are larger ships and can take onboard 1200-1500 people and 140-200 cars. Ferries "Olimpiada" and "Krym" can accommodate, respectively, 580-700 passengers and up to 145 vehicles.

Regional and intercontinental crossings

The longest ferry routes are in the Pacific region. The greatest length (2620 km) is between Seattle (USA) and Prince Rupert (Canada). The ferry across the ocean is carried out by tugboats. They can pull several barges, each of which can accommodate up to 50 freight cars.

In Europe, the longest route is covered by ferries between the ports of Travemünde (Germany) and Hanko (Finland). Its length is 1018 km. The crossing has been operating since 1975. Even then, ferries with three decks were designed for transportation for a more efficient arrangement of freight cars.