From St. Petersburg to the Russian border with Finland, only 140 kilometers. Therefore, residents of the Northern capital and the Leningrad region often spend Finns. In the Leningrad Region there are three checkpoints for crossing the land border with the Republic of Finland. These are Torfyanovka, Lingonberry and Svetogorsk. You can get to them on the federal road A-181 Scandinavia.
According to European classification, this road is called E-18, after the border it is visible on the signs from the Finnish side. Previously, it was sometimes called the M-10, although in reality it is simply a continuation of the federal road with the same designation. The fork in the checkpoints is located near Vyborg. To the south, to "Torfyanovka" and further, the European highway E-18 to Helsinki just goes. Directly, along the Saimaa Canal, at the Brusnichnoye checkpoint. To the north, along the Svetogorsk highway, to the point "Svetogorsk".
"Peat"
There are two ways from Vyborg - to the south, to the multilateral automobile checkpoint MAPP Torfyanovka. Through the city, a little shorter, or a detour, but faster. From Finland, "Peat" is called Vaalimaa.
It is believed that this is the largest automobile checkpoint in this country. In addition, it is a direct destination to Helsinki. The declared throughput of more than 2 million cars per year. Although there are congestion and problems on it. In 2006, a case was recorded when a 40-kilometer convoy of trucks accumulated at a checkpoint. Through this passage they go to Helsinki, Kotka, Turku or Hamina. The transition works around the clock and seven days a week. Cyclists can pass through it. No Pedestrian Crossing.
Lingonberry
The second way is almost straight - towards the Brusnichnoe MAPP. On the Finnish side, this border crossing is called Nuijamaa. Until 2001, the border post was in the village of Brusnichnoe, 25 km from the border.
Now MAPP has been transferred directly to the border, but the name has been preserved. The road to Lingonberry leads along the Saimaa Canal. The highway crosses it through gateways in several places. It is best to go on it in the summer when navigation. The Saimaa Canal itself is a grandiose and very picturesque structure. But you can get even more impressions if you look at how tourist vessels and yachts pass locks.
The huge lake Saimaa, the natural waterway of eastern Finland, had no access to the Baltic. The canal was built to transport goods from this country to the Baltic Sea. The first navigation took place in 1856. The channel is unusually beautiful.
In tsarist times, up to 27 pleasure craft flights took place along the canal from Vyborg to Lappeenranta during the season. After the revolution, due to the cooling of relations between Soviet Russia and the Republic of Finland, the channel’s cargo turnover decreased, and the flow of tourists almost dried up. Through this passage they usually go to Lappeenranta, Kouvola, Lahti, Tampere or Mikkeli. The crossing point is open around the clock for all types of transport; pedestrian crossing is prohibited.
In “Lingonberry” they cross not only the land border with Finland, but also the water one. At the Palli lock of the Saimaa Canal there is a water checkpoint.
Svetogorsk
To drive through the third MAPP of the Leningrad Region - Svetogorsk, you need to turn north from Vyborg, onto Svetogorskoye Shosse and after 50 km there will be a MAPP.
Since 2017, this Svetogorsk highway has become a federal road. From the Finnish side, this crossing point is called Imatra. Svetogorsk is located 6 km from the Finnish city of the same name. The crossing point is open around the clock. No Pedestrian Crossing.
Choice near Vyborg
The road to Vyborg is not difficult. Although in some places it is not wide, but there are no settlements and traffic lights on it. If traffic congestion has not occurred due to an accident or repair work, the travel time is fairly easy to calculate. The flow of cars can be dense, but a wide curb makes it possible to pass faster transport. Although this does not welcome the traffic police, which is indicated by signs on the road. However, this has already developed into a certain ethics of “Scandinavia”, as well as a blinking “emergency gang” in gratitude to the driver who lost the lane.
The difficulty starts near the city, "the choice begins near Vyborg." It happens that there are so many cars at the point that the line for crossing the border with Finland can take several hours. It should be noted that any border crossing consists of two stages: Russian and Finnish. Queues can be on each of them, either individually or together.
If there is a specific direction and business, then choose the transition that is more convenient, but there are options when it is easier to drive 50 extra kilometers and will be faster.
Webcams in Finland
To make such a decision, reliable information is needed that the queue at the neighboring MAPP is less. For the convenience of tourists and transport companies, from March 1, 2011, the border service of the Southeast region of the neighboring state, together with the customs service, installed webcams. On the border with Finland, you can now find out how things are at other checkpoints. Data is provided on the official portal.
Cameras on the border with Finland are installed at all border crossings from it to the Leningrad region. In Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa and in Imatra.
In addition to the website, coordinated by the Center for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Southeast Finland, there are several other Internet resources that provide access to webcams on the border with Finland.
The site has a map of accidents, road works, weather conditions, links to Finnish roads webcams. Including several video devices of all points of transitions from the Finnish side to the entrance and exit.
Images change at intervals of about 5 minutes. Next to the photo are air temperature, roads, road surface condition, wind speed. In winter, the operation of cameras is unstable, as there are warnings on the site.
The resource is useful for further movement in Finland, it has up-to-date and reliable information about the condition of roads, repair work, restrictions on sections, congestion and traffic accidents.
Webcams in Russia
A similar decision to install cameras on the border with Finland was made by the North-Western Customs Administration of the Federal Customs Service of Russia. On the website of the Office you can find links to their Internet resources.
Information on average waiting times at Russian checkpoints in both directions: from Russia to Finland and back, is presented in text form. Data provided for cars, trucks and buses.
There is a version for mobile devices. Information on average waiting times at Russian checkpoints in both directions is also presented in text form. Data is late for several minutes, sometimes hours.
It’s inconvenient that there is no shooting time in the photos. The site has a warning that images are updated with an hourly delay.
Webcams work on the border with Finland only to leave Russia. The advantage of the site is that you can get information in text mode. The site also has statistics pages by which you can predict the number of cars in the queue by day of the week, time, direction of movement (from Russia to Finland and vice versa).
Queues
The source of data on the status of the queues for the site are messages from users already standing in them.
The resource contains links to webcams. On the Russian side are Torfyanovka and Svetogorsk. The camera on the border with Finland “Lingonberry” is not represented at all. From Finland - Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa, Imatra. All links open cameras on the Finnish border from the Finnish side from the website of the Traffic Administration of this country.
Statistics
Since only cameras on the border from Finland reliably work, using them you can predict only departure from Finland to Russia. But for entry it is better to use statistical data: activity at all points of the transition begins from 9 am, decreases after 13 hours. The reverse flow reaches a maximum of about 18 hours and lasts up to 20 hours. During the week, the flow is uniform and begins to increase by the weekend, reaching a peak on Saturday.
Well, of course, on New Year's holidays, Christmas sales and during mass departures in May and November, the statistics do not work.