SIMFEROPOL, July 3./TASS/. A first train operated by Grand Service Express arrived on Friday from St. Petersburg to the Crimean resort city of Yevpatoria, the press service of the company told TASS.

The St. Petersburg-Yevpatoria train arrived in Crimea at 14:15 on Friday and headed back at 16:25, it said. The railway passenger service was launched to Crimea in December 2019 along two routes - Moscow-Simferopol and St. Petersburg-Simferopol. Double-decker trains travel to Crimea daily from Moscow’s Kazansky Railway. Trains from St. Petersburg also travel on a daily basis. The double-decker Tavria trains have already conveyed more than 250,000 passengers.

From July 15, the N173/174 train will be travelling from Moscow to Yevpatoria every second day. The journey lasts about 35 hours.

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

The bridge consists of parallel automobile and railway sections. The construction of the railway part of the bridge was officially completed on December 18, 2019.