River transport. Transportation by river transport. River Station

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Water (river) transport is a transport that transports passengers and goods by ships along waterways of both natural origin (rivers, lakes) and artificial (reservoirs, canals). Its main advantage is its low cost, thanks to which it occupies an important place in the federal transport system of the country, despite seasonality and low speed.

Pros and cons

River transport of Russia plays an important role in inter-regional and intra-regional transportation of our country. Its advantages lie in the paths of natural origin, for the arrangement of which a smaller amount of costs is used than for the construction of railways and highways. The cost of freight transportation by waterways is lower than by rail. And labor productivity is 35 percent higher.

However, river transportation has a number of disadvantages - seasonal nature, low speed of movement, limiteduse, which is determined by the configuration of the water network. In addition, the major arteries of our country flow from north to south and from south to north, and the main cargo flows have a latitudinal direction.

Main highways

Thanks to the construction of cascades of waterworks, the Volga and Kama rivers have turned into deep-water highways. Inter-basin connections Moscow-Volga, White Sea-B altic, Volga-B altic, Volga-Donskoe and Volzhskoe constitute today a single deep-water system, the total length of which is 6.3 thousand kilometers. With the steady growth of inland water transportation in the eastern part of Russia, the leading position is still held by the Volga-Kama basin. Its rivers account for more than fifty percent of the transport of passengers and goods. The main place in this basin was occupied by the transportation of building materials by river transport (60 percent). Their transportation is carried out in both directions, it is predominantly intra-district.

And what is transported along the waterways of Russia?

River transport on these arteries mainly delivers timber, both on ships and in the old fashioned way, on rafts, by rafting. Siberian forest is transported from the Kama to the Volga, and along the Volga-B altic route - the forest of the Vologda and Arkhangelsk regions, Karelia for the regions of the North Caucasus and the Volga region. The river transport of Moscow is involved in the transportation of timber along the canal of the same name to the Moscow region and Moscow. Through the ports of the Volga and Kama, Kuznetsk coal is transported to the basin, and thenit is transported by waterways to power plants. In addition, a prominent place is occupied by the delivery of s alt - from the Baskunchansky s alt mine up the Volga to the ports of the Volga region, the Urals, the Center, to the North-Western enterprises of the fishing industry and for export. In addition, agricultural products (melon crops) from the Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, fish from the Caspian Sea, as well as chemical products from the Volga region and the Urals are sent up the Volga. Oil products and oil, grain cargoes are transported in both directions.

Main destinations

River transport in Russia is especially developed in the Volga-Kama basins, because the Kama with its tributaries - the Vyatka and the Belaya - is important in the connections of the Urals with the North-West, the Center, the Volga region. Mainly grain, timber, oil, chemical cargoes, construction mineral materials are transported down the Kama. Coal, cement, timber are transported in the opposite direction. In the upper reaches of the Kama, the traffic is much less. In addition, the Volga-Don Canal contributed to an increase in bulk cargo transportation along the Volga. Thanks to him, from the areas adjacent to the Don, grain, coal, melons, industrial products and other goods are transported along the Volga. In the opposite direction - cement, ore, timber, chemical products. All this is transported by river transport. Samara, like other cities in the Middle Volga region, is the main consumer of these goods. An important role in the development of transportation is played by the water transport links of this basin with the North-Western region, as well as with foreign countries. B altic Sea through the Volga-B altic route. Apatite concentrate, ore, building materials, timber are transported through it to the south, and chemical cargo, grain, coal and oil products are transported to the north.

Passenger transport

The main passenger flows are also concentrated in the Volga-Kama basin. Any river station will offer citizens a variety of local, transit, intracity and suburban destinations. Passenger ships are quite widely used in the organization of tourism or recreation. The longest are transit lines from Moscow to Astrakhan, Perm, Rostov and Ufa. The largest river station is located in the capital of Russia. In the Volga-Vyatka basin, the largest river ports are Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Moscow, Perm, Astrakhan, Kazan, Yaroslavl.

Northwestbound

Rivers have long served as the central transport communications of the North-Western and Northern economic regions. In its European part, the main water arteries for the transportation of goods are the Northern Dvina with its tributaries Sukhona and Vychegda, Pechora, Mezen, and in the North-West - Svir, Neva and the White Sea-B altic Canal. A powerful flow of mineral construction and oil materials, timber, as well as grain and coal passes through the northern waterways. The main ports are Naryan-Mar, Pechora, Mezen, Arkhangelsk, Kotlas.

North-Western Basin provides southward delivery of timber and iron ore from Karelia, apatite concentrate from the peninsulaKola. In the opposite direction - manufactured goods, grain, s alt and oil products. Transshipment points for various goods are Volkhov, Petrozavodsk and St. Petersburg. From here, permanent passenger lines are organized to Moscow and the Verkhnevolzhsky district. Local routes are also well developed here, especially with the increase in the number of high-speed ships.

Eastbound

In the east of Russia, the Ob-Irtysh basin of Western Siberia occupies the first place in terms of transportation. River transport here contributed to the development of gas and oil resources, as well as forests. From the main transport hubs (Tobolsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk) along the Irtysh and the Ob, coal, drilling equipment and pipes, building materials, food and industrial products are delivered to the oil and gas fields of the Tyumen region. Delivery of goods to the deep regions of the mainland is carried out along the Northern Sea Route with subsequent transshipment at the mouths of the Taz, Pur and Ob to river vessels. Most of the traffic is timber, which comes in rafts to the river port of Asino. Then it is transported on ships to Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk. More than a quarter of deliveries along the Irtysh and Ob are construction materials that come from the southern regions to the north, to the oil and gas industry. In addition, river transport is of great importance in the transportation of grain cargo, s alt, coal and oil products.

On the Ob, along with the ancient ports of Barnaul and Novosibirsk, ports that arose in connection with the creation of industrial centers play an important role– Surgut, Ob, Labytnangi, Salekhard.

Yenisei and Angara

River transport of the Yenisei connects the southern part of Eastern Siberia with the regions of the Arctic. Here, timber transportation reaches two thirds of the entire cargo turnover of the Yenisei. In addition, grain, oil products, coal and mineral building materials are transported along the river. The Upper Yenisei, from Minusinsk to Krasnoyarsk, is characterized by the predominance of downstream cargo flow, with grain occupying the main place in it.

The mouth of the Angara: the main part of the forest comes from here, it divides the flow of goods on the Yenisei. The main part goes up, and from the mouth to Dikson - down the river. In addition to timber, transportation of building mineral materials and coal occupies a significant position. The main ports are Krasnoyarsk, Yeniseisk, Dudinka, Igarka, and on the Angara - Makaryevo, Bratsk, Irkutsk, Ust-Ilimsk.

Lena and Cupid

On the Lena, shipping starts from the port of Osetrovo and continues to the river delta. Here, in addition to domestic goods, goods are delivered that come from the railway - from Tiksi and Osetrovo bays. Two-thirds of the shipments are coal and building materials, the rest is timber and oil. Most of them go from top to bottom. Cargo operations are carried out in the ports of Kirensk, Osetrovo, Yakutsk, Vitim.

In the Far East, the Amur and its tributaries Bureya and Zeya are of great transport importance. The main cargoes are grain, s alt, metal, coal, timber, oil and fish. Major ports - Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk. In these areas, due to the underdeveloped infrastructure of land communications, river transport is also important in the transportation of passengers.

Sea transport

The main significance of maritime transport lies in the fact that it provides a very significant part of Russia's foreign trade. Cabotage is essential only for supplying the eastern and northern coasts of the country. Cargo turnover for maritime transport is eight percent. This is achieved as a result of the longest transportation distance - approximately 4.5 thousand kilometers. Sea transport of passengers is negligible.

Problems of Russian maritime transport

On a global scale, maritime transport ranks first in terms of cargo turnover, standing out with the lowest cost of cargo delivery. In the Russian Federation, it is relatively poorly developed, this is due to the fact that the main economic centers of our country are far from seaports. In addition, most of the seas that surround the territory of Russia are freezing. This significantly increases the cost of using this type of transport. Another problem is the very outdated fleet of our country. Thus, the sea and river transport of Russia was built more than twenty years ago, which is unacceptable by world standards, such ships should be decommissioned. There are practically no modern types of vessels in the domestic fleet: lighter carriers, container carriers, gas carriers, vessels with horizontal unloading and loading, and others. Before the annexation of Crimea, Russia had only eleven major seaports, which is not enough for such a large country. As a result, about half of the cargo going by sea was served by foreign ports. These are mainly former Soviet republics: Ukraine (Odessa), Latvia (Ventspils), Estonia (Tallinn), Lithuania (Klaipeda). The use of maritime transport shipping hubs of other states also contributes to large financial losses. If the situation with the Black Sea ports is more or less resolved, then a new port is being built on the coast of the B altic Sea.