On the platform of the Simferopol bus station “Kurortnaya” this winter day there are not many people. Sasha Sosnovets accompanies his wife Oksana to her relatives in Skadovsk. The woman has parents there, so she often has to travel “to the mainland”, as the Crimeans say.
– It was possible to get by bus from Crimea to Skadovsk earlier, but these are trips at your own peril and risk, – says Alexander. – Private traders carry, passengers are not insured, you never know what can happen on the way. And the tickets cost twice as much as on this flight.
“On the new routes, which today went on a flight for the first time, everything is thought out for the maximum comfort of passengers,” says First Deputy Minister of Transport of Crimea Nikolai Lukashenko. – These are modern and comfortable cars with a capacity of 35-50 passengers.
Elena returns to Skadovsk from Simferopol. Here she was in the republican hospital on the recommendation of a doctor. The woman found out about the new bus route through the Telegram channel.
“Before, I had to go to the border of the Kherson region on the courier, and then take a minibus to Skadovsk,” says Elena. – And now I know that at 20.20 I will be home, without transfers and cheaper.
Before the bus enters the station square, it is controlled by the security service at the barrier. The mirrors face down, look into the trunk and into the cabin. Passengers’ bags are also checked with a portable detector before boarding. Today, caution is not too much.
– We checked both the bus and the luggage, – says the head of the transport network Natalia Lugovaya. – The device shows the presence of explosives, powder gases and drugs.
From Simferopol the flight will leave at 15.30. It would seem a little late, especially for the winter time, but the Ministry of Transport assures that such a time was not chosen by chance, but taking into account the wishes of the people.
“Now many residents of the Kherson region go to the Crimea to get some documents here, to see a doctor, just to do some shopping,” says Nikolai Lukashenko. – Therefore, we freed them for the first half of the day so that people were not tied up and nervous.