Russian Railways has made the extremely strange decision to organize a replacement bus service from Krasnodar to Tuapse and Sochi during the 3.5-month closure of the railway line. Instead of the normal, regular bus routes throughout the day, passengers are offered only a few consecutive departures in the middle of the night and a similar batch in the evening, reports Travel.ru's own correspondent.
All train service between Krasnodar and Tuapse will be suspended from January 14 to April 27 (due to tunnel repairs between Chinary and Chilipsi stations). Long-distance trains from the center of the country will be rerouted to Sochi via Armavir, without calling in Krasnodar, and commuter trains will be cancelled or will operate on shortened routes.
Four Lastochka trains currently operate daily between Krasnodar and Sochi. These trains are in high demand and often sell out completely (a total of approximately 2,500 seats each way). Hundreds more seats are also sold out daily on passing long-distance trains. Instead, Russian Railways offers only a few buses (half of which depart in the middle of the night) and one passing train, which takes more than half a day, for three and a half months.
Replacement buses from Krasnodar will only run to Tuapse (a 180-kilometer journey, about 60 of which are on a serpentine mountain road). This is a sound decision, but instead of the minimum hourly departures, only six are scheduled—departing from Krasnodar station at 4:19, 4:29, 4:39, 15:54, 16:04, and 16:14. The reason for this wild schedule is the railway's desire to provide a transfer in Tuapse to commuter trains departing toward Sochi at 9:29 and 21:04 (these are the Lastochka trains that usually run from Krasnodar, but will be shortened and depart from Tuapse).
Russian Railways couldn't fathom the fact that there are 14 different Lastochka trains running daily from Tuapse to Sochi, and that any of them, not just the two former Krasnodar trains, would be perfectly suitable for Krasnodar passengers. The idea that it would be at least inconvenient for passengers to wake up at 3:00 AM to board buses at 4:00 AM is even more so.
The reason for these illogical decisions is likely that these two Lastochka trains are operated by FPC (Federal Passenger Company), while most of the others are serviced by another Russian Railways division—the local commuter carrier Kuban. Apparently, FPC decided to only operate buses to its own departures, forgetting that passengers essentially don't care which Lastochka train they ride on—the interiors are identical.
Russian Railways also failed to consider that, given the unusual situation, the Lastochka schedules along the coast would have to be adjusted for passenger convenience. Currently, for example, two Lastochka departures are scheduled from Tuapse to Sochi: at 9:25 (the Kuban commuter train) and 9:29 (the very same FPC service). The latter will likely be half-empty—it's unlikely that Krasnodar residents will be eager to get up at 3:00 a.m. to catch it.
A similar absurdity is foreseen on the return journey. Two FPC Lastochka trains arrive in Tuapse from Sochi at 7:47 and 20:23, while buses from Tuapse to Krasnodar are scheduled at 8:30, 8:40, 8:50, 20:53, 21:03, and 21:13. Evening trains will arrive in Krasnodar well after midnight, which is also unlikely to impress potential passengers. It seems that Russian Railways either forgot to consider the interests of passengers or deliberately took the path of least resistance, simply ignoring them.
The ticket price for these buses is 425 rubles (tickets are sold on the Russian Railways website, with three buses available per time slot, meaning there could be up to nine buses traveling in a tight convoy in the morning and a similar convoy in the evening). Russian Railways also stated that "passengers are entitled to free carry-on baggage weighing up to 30 kg, with three dimensions no larger than 120 cm." This is the size of a small wheeled suitcase, which typically fits in the cabin on airplanes. There's no information about what to do with normal-sized suitcases or whether they can be carried at all, nor is there information about the bus class or the availability of any amenities.
Krasnodar passengers are offered only one direct train alternative, which will bypass the eastern part of Krasnodar Krai and take over half a day. Train #664/663 Rostov-Krasnodar-Adler, specially assigned for the repair period, will depart from Rostov at 16:05, then stop in Krasnodar for an hour and a half from 20:26 to 21:50, proceed via Kropotkin (Kavkazskaya) and Belorechensk, and finally arrive in Tuapse at 7:58, in Sochi at 10:18, and in Adler at 11:12. The return departure from Adler is at 19:50, from Sochi at 20:46, from Tuapse at 22:50, with an hour-long stop in Krasnodar from 12:03 to 13:10, arriving in Rostov at 17:16. Only two compartment cars and one reserved seat car are currently available for sale (more will be available on the day of departure). What's even more absurd is that many more cars are available for pre-sale from Rostov, where this train is of virtually no use—no one would want to make the 18-20 hour zigzag from Rostov to Sochi.
The regular double-decker train #641/642 Rostov-on-Don – Adler, like all other trains to Sochi (from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and so on), will depart from Rostov directly via Armavir, without calling in Krasnodar (which will add several hours to the journey time). For unknown reasons, not a single rerouted train was allowed a fare-based stop in Armavir itself. Among other things, this will also disrupt Krasnodar's connection to the center of the country for the next three and a half months – instead of the usual four to five trains a day in winter, only two to three will be available to Moscow.
As a result, from January 14 to April 27, instead of 2,500 seats on Lastochka trains and hundreds of seats on passing trains, passengers between the largest resort town of Sochi and its regional capital, Krasnodar, are offered a few buses with extremely inconvenient schedules and a few carriages on a loop train. It's unclear why the railways prevented the Krasnodar-Tuapse route from running hourly buses instead of two trains of nine buses in the middle of the night and in the evening (and adjusting the coastal commuter train schedule accordingly).
In other words, there will be a complete collapse on this route within three and a half months. True, Utair, which flies from Krasnodar to Adler, has increased the number of flights from two to three per day, but this only means about 70 extra seats. The winners will be taxi drivers and those bus companies that are smart enough to schedule additional buses from Krasnodar to Tuapse (currently, there are fewer than ten per day, including those from Abkhazia).
Source: travel.ru