A thousand rubles from every Russian: why build a new railway in Sochi?

Moscow official and popular blogger Alexander Yevsin commented in his publication on plans to build new railways and highways in Sochi as part of the Southern Cluster project, which is likely to contribute to the development of domestic tourism in Russia:

“Nothing spoils the resort atmosphere of the Krasnodar Territory coastline on the way to Sochi like the railway passing in the immediate vicinity of the beaches. Of course, this is one of the factors that reduce the attractiveness of an otherwise completely unique and fertile land.

Finally, a decision has been made to move the railway inland, the new road project must go through the mountains. In addition to the obvious advantages for the Black Sea resorts of Sochi, it will also speed up the movement of trains, because high-speed traffic on the old line cannot be done due to the fact that people literally cross paths everywhere.

The transfer of the railway in Sochi from the coast to the mountains was estimated at 1.4 trillion. rubles. According to Kommersant, a quarter of this amount may come from the NWF, the rest will be invested by Russian Railways. Due to the new project, the travel time of a passenger train from Moscow to Adler should be halved, to 16 hours.

But that's not all. The relocation of the railway is only a part of the Southern Cluster project - it also provides for the construction of a backup for the Dzhubga-Sochi highway. The decision on the need for this project was finally approved by the President of Russia.

This is good news, the implementation of the project should give a powerful synergistic effect on the development of the region's economy and tourism attractiveness. In general, the attention that the state has begun to pay to the development of important infrastructure projects is encouraging, and roads are almost the basis of everything else!".

Alas, the overwhelming majority of blog readers did not support the author, and the motivations were very different. Someone ridiculed the very idea of a railway as outdated:

“Why go by train to Sochi when there is a plane? It takes a day to get from Moscow to Sochi by train, and 2.5 hours by plane plus 2 hours in advance you have to be in the port - 4.5 hours..."

But that's not the point. Many commentators have expressed completely justified concerns about whether the already overcrowded and suffering from poor infrastructure of Sochi resorts will withstand another portion of tourists?

“It is not the railway lines that pushes me personally from the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory. The main problem in our south is rotavirus infection. You can rest there with a relative degree of safety only in June; in July, an epidemic of vomiting and diarrhea begins among vacationers. Locals admit that they do not swim in the sea from July to September inclusive, despite the fact that the locals have already developed some kind of immunity to this disease. Let's better improve the ecology of the area, build sewage treatment plants, control guest houses. They very often discharge their effluents with direct fire into the sea. Forcing citizens to swim in sewers is cynical..."

In addition, it is not clear why the authorities are going to spend money on this project when there are much more pressing problems:

- Russian Railways invests budget money. In retirement money has run out, but 1.4 trillion for a useless project is. Welfare state, you will not say anything. 30 percent of the population does not have sewerage and gas, but they have money for the rails.

- Another reason for cutting a trillion - nothing more. Why couldn't it be used to modernize ordinary highways, where people are still dying in road accidents? Or spend that money on funding a dying trucking industry? Because Rotenberg is behind Russian Railways. And beyond the highways no longer exists.

- One thousand rubles from each citizen of the country. Or two for each worker. On an unnecessary project, because the resort cannot digest more people.

- Complete nonsense, even now, when the season is over, there are a lot of visitors in Sochi, including by cars. As a result: traffic jams, strong gas pollution, mountains of garbage and many times more sewage in the sea, and right now several districts are sitting without water ... The city is not ready and will not be ready for extras! Why don't these "benefits" be smeared all over the coast towards the Crimea ?! It would be more useful, but Sochi has already been killed.

- Instead of going through the reduction of vehicles in the resort region, we went through the creation of a backup. As a result, all cars will still run up against the undeveloped transport structure of settlements.

- The railway does not interfere there at all. Trains to Adler rarely run, a picturesque road on Lastochka from Tuapse to Sochi. Just another fight. They will destroy a good historical road, and what they will build is unknown.

- Obviously, the economy has already been raised, since they decided to develop the resort business. Just nothing that passenger traffic has NEVER been profitable? Yes, China is building 1,000 km of NEW roads across the country, and we are about 100 km. Do we even need it? It is necessary for the Southern regions - with your own money, please, but there are not even simple bridges across the country across the rivers of Siberia, the Far East and other regions.

- Are there any other problems? In the Moscow region, there is not everywhere gas, there are no roads in the regions, children go to school for several kilometers through the mud, hospitals are killed! XXI century in the world, and Russia in some regions in the nineteenth!