The rail ferry service between the Bulgarian Black Sea port city of Varna and Port Kavkaz on the Kerch Strait on Russia's Black Sea coast has been put into operation, press center of RF Transport Ministry reports. According to the source, the rail ferry Avangard of Anship LLC was launched for first pilot run on February 28. The capacity of the ferry is 45 wagons. There will be 4-5 round voyages per month (about 6 days per voyage). The test run was used for transportation of technical oil in tank wagons. Varna-Kavkaz rail ferry service is expected to transport 150,000 tones of cargo in 2009. There is a plan to raise it to 500,000 tonnes in the future. The potential capacity of the service is some 2 million tonnes per year.
Aleksandr Davydenko, head of RorMorRechFlot (Russia’s Federal Agency of Marine and River Transport) participated in the solemn ceremony dedication to the event. In his greeting speech Aleksandr Davydenko underlined the political and economical significance of opening a direct international rail ferry service for both Russia and Bulgaria. He called the event to be a landmark as the year of 2009 is announced as a year of Bulgaria in Russia.
Russia-Bulgaria cooperation in the area of ferry links is a promising trend as regards cargo transportation. Russia and Bulgaria can boast strong long-lasting relations in the sphere of transport. Iljichevsk-Varna ferry service existing from the soviet period passed to Ukraine after the Soviel Union collapse. Now cargo from the southern Europe are delivered by ferry from Varna to Ukrainian port of Iljichevsk and then to Russia by railway. Derect route linking Varna and Kavkaz will considerably cut the cost of transportation and have a positive impact on the price of the carried goods.
In January 2008, the Transport Ministers of Bulgaria and Russia – Petar Mutafchiev and Igor Levitin – signed an Agreement for the organisation of a direct international rail ferry link between the port of Varna and the port of Kavkaz, Regulations for the transport of cargo via the Varna-Kavkaz ferry link as well as Statutes of the Council for the joint operation of the new ferry service. In November 2008, Russia’s Federal Agency of Marine and River Transport registered the foreign trade service Kavkaz-Varna-Kavkaz with Kavkaz and Varna as the ports of call for the Avangard vessel.
The Agreement signed between Russia and Bulgaria envisages cooperation and mutual assistance in arrangement and further development of rail ferry services via Kavkaz and Varna ports. Third states can join the Agreement. Launching of the Kavkaz-Varna service is yet another step in implementation of the Black Sea Ring project, which is to link Black Sea ports with ferry services in order to raise cargo traffic and profitability of ferries.