SIMFEROPOL, December 23. /TASS/. The Crimean Bridge was built in spite of the Western sanctions and owing to workers and engineers from across Russia. The Crimean direction is among the most popular ones in the country, Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov blogged on his page on the VKontakte social networking service on Monday.

"We can state already that the Crimean direction is among those enjoying high demand. The launch of rail traffic signals the end of the construction of the Crimean Bridge — an ambitious project put into practice owing to the will of our president, owing to work by engineers and workers from all regions of our country, and in defiance of all sanctions, all blockades and provocations, all attempts to ‘restrain’ Russia," Aksyonov wrote.

The five years of the transport blockade have made the Crimean residents and guests of the peninsula miss the romance of long-distance-train travels and breathtaking views from the window.

"Today, a habitual and convenient means of communication has been restored. This will certainly give a new impetus to the development of the peninsula," Aksyonov stressed, thanking all people who helped to translate the project into practice.

Crimean Bridge project

The 19-kilometer Crimean Bridge, the longest one in Russia, links the Taman Peninsula (Krasnodar Region) and the Kerch Peninsula (Crimea). It will provide uninterrupted transport link between Crimea and other regions of Russia.

The bridge consists of parallel automobile and railway sections. The automobile bridge was commissioned in May 2018. Cargo traffic was launched later, in the autumn of the same year. The railway bridge will open to freight traffic in June 2020.

On December 27, 2014, the authorities in Kiev interrupted train traffic between Simferopol and Sevastopol in Crimea and cities in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Poland. Only suburban trains kept running inside the peninsula since.

The railway part of the bridge across the Kerch Strait was officially finalized on December 18, 2019. The first passenger train from St. Petersburg to Sevastopol departed at 14:00 on December 23. The journey will last 43 hours and 25 minutes.

According to forecasts, the number of passengers arriving in Crimea by train will make up about three million next year, and may grow to five million people by 2025.