Water (river) transport is a transport that carries passengers and cargo by ships along waterways of both natural origin (river, lake), and artificial (reservoir, canals). Its main advantage is its low cost, due to which it occupies an important place in the federal transport system of the country, despite the seasonality and low speed.
Advantages and disadvantages
River transport in Russia plays an important role in the inter-district and intra-district transportation of our country. Its advantages lie in the paths of natural origin, the arrangement of which uses less cost than the construction of railways and highways. The cost of freight transport by water arteries is lower than by rail. And labor productivity is 35 percent higher.
However, river transport has a number of drawbacks - it is seasonal in nature, low speed of movement, limited use, which is due to the configuration of the water network. In addition, the large 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-sea highways. The inter-basin connections Moscow-Volga, White Sea-Baltic, Volga-Baltic, Volga-Don and Volga constitute today the Unified Deepwater System, the total length of which is 6.3 thousand kilometers. With a steady increase in domestic water transport in the eastern part of Russia, the Volga-Kama basin still holds a leading position. Its rivers account for more than fifty percent of the transportation of passengers and goods. The main place in this basin was occupied by river transport of construction materials (60 percent). Their transportation is carried out in both directions, it is mainly intra-district in nature.
And what is transported along the waterways of Russia?
River transport on these arteries mainly delivers wood, both on ships and in the old fashioned way, on rafts, by rafting. The Siberian forest is transported from Kama to the Volga, and along the Volga-Baltic route - the forest of the Vologda and Arkhangelsk regions, Karelia for the regions of the North Caucasus and the Volga region. Moscow river transport is involved in the transportation of forests through the canal of the same name in the suburbs and Moscow. Through the ports of the Volga and Kama, Kuznetsk coal is transported to the basin, and then it is transported through the waterways to power plants. In addition, salt delivery takes a prominent place - from the Baskunchansky salt field 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 (gourds) 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. In both directions, oil products and oil, grain cargoes are transported.
Main directions
The river transport of Russia is especially developed in the Volga-Kama basins, because the Kama with its tributaries - Vyatka and Belaya - is important in the relations of the Urals with the North-West, the Center, and the Volga region. Mostly grain, timber, oil, chemical goods, and building mineral materials are transported down the Kama. In the opposite direction transport coal, cement, wood. In the upper Kama, the cargo flow is much less. In addition, the Volga-Don Canal contributed to an increase in the transportation of bulk goods along the Volga. Thanks to him, from the regions 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 carries river transport. Samara, like other cities in the Middle Volga region, is the main consumer of these goods. A large role in the development of transport is played by the water transport links of this basin with the North-Western region, as well as with foreign states of the Baltic Sea through the Volga-Baltic route. Apatite concentrate, ore, construction materials, timber are transported through it in a southerly direction, and chemical goods, grain, coal and oil products are transported to the north.
Passenger Transportation
The main passenger flows were concentrated in the Volga-Kama basin. Any river station will offer citizens many local, transit, intra-city and suburban destinations. Passenger ships are quite widely used in the organization of tourism or recreation. The longest transit lines are 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.
Northwest direction
For a long time, rivers served as the central transport communications of the North-Western and Northern economic regions. In the European part, the main waterways for the transport of goods are the Northern Dvina with its tributaries Sukhona and Vychegda, Pechora, Mezen, and in the Northwest - the Svir, Neva and the White Sea-Baltic Canal. A powerful stream of mineral building and oil materials, forests, as well as grain and coal, passes through the northern water arteries. The main ports are Naryan-Mar, Pechora, Mezen, Arkhangelsk, Kotlas.
The North-Western basin ensures the southward delivery of timber and iron ore from Karelia, apatite concentrate from the Kola Peninsula. In the opposite direction - industrial goods, grain, salt and oil products. Transshipment points for various goods are Volkhov, Petrozavodsk and St. Petersburg. From here to Moscow and the Verkhnevolzhsky district, regular passenger lines are organized. Local routes are well developed here, especially with the increase in the number of high-speed vessels.
East direction
In eastern Russia, the Ob-Irtysh basin of Western Siberia occupies the first place in matters of transportation. River transport here contributed to the development of gas and oil resources, as well as forests. From the main transport transshipment hubs (Tobolsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk) , coal, drilling equipment and pipes, construction materials, food and industrial goods come to the oil and gas fields of the Tyumen region along the Irtysh and Ob. Cargo delivery to the deep regions of the mainland is carried out along the Northern Sea Route, followed by transshipment at the mouths of the Taz, Pura and Ob on river vessels. Most of the traffic falls on the forest, 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 in the Irtysh and Ob are building materials, which come from the southern regions to the north, to the areas of the oil and gas industry. In addition, river transport is of great importance in the transportation of grain goods, salt, coal and petroleum products.
On the Ob, along with the ancient ports of Barnaul and Novosibirsk, an important role is played by the ports that arose in connection with the creation of industrial centers - Surgut, Ob, Labytnangi, Salekhard.
Yenisei and Angara
The river transport of the Yenisei connects the southern part of Eastern Siberia with the regions of the Arctic. Here, forest transport reaches two-thirds of the total Yenisei cargo turnover. In addition, grain, oil products, coal and mineral building materials are transported along the river. Upper Yenisei, from Minusinsk to Krasnoyarsk, is characterized by a predominance of freight flow downstream, the main place in it is grain.
The mouth of the Angara: the main part of the forest comes from here, it shares the flow of goods on the Yenisei. The main part goes up, and from the mouth to Dikson - down the river. In addition to the forest, a significant position is occupied by the transportation of building mineral materials and coal. 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 is carried out 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 traffic is coal and building materials, the rest is wood 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, Amur and its tributaries Bureya and Zeya are of great transport importance. The main cargoes are grain, salt, metal, coal, timber, oil and fish. Large ports are Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk. In these areas, due to the insufficiently developed 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 the supply of 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. Passenger transportation by sea is negligible.
Problems of maritime transport in Russia
On a planetary scale, maritime transport in terms of cargo turnover is in first place, distinguished by the lowest cost of cargo delivery. In the Russian Federation, it is relatively underdeveloped, this is due to the fact that the main economic centers of our country are significantly removed 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. So, the sea and river transport of Russia was built over twenty years ago, which is unacceptable by world standards, such ships should be decommissioned. There are practically no modern types of ships in the Russian fleet: lighter carriers, container ships, gas carriers, ships with horizontal unloading and loading, and others. Before the annexation of Crimea, Russia had only eleven large seaports, and this 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 contributes to large financial losses. If the situation with the Black Sea ports is more or less resolved, then a new port is under construction on the Baltic Sea coast.