The “Feruz” ferry left Turkey for Port Kavkaz carrying on board 40 rail cars with construction cargoes and consumer goods for Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. This is the first official voyage of a new railway ferry line Samsun (Turkey) – Kavkaz (Russia). Train ferries “Smat” and “Feruz” of CNF03.01 design are used for the transports; they are owned by Black Sea Ferry Investment shipping company (51% of stock belong to OAO RZD).
This kind of route clearly reduces travel time and cheapens cost of cargo delivery from Turkey to the Russian Federation and Central Asia republics. As for the Port of Samsun, either wheel sets are changed there (from 1,520-mm gauge to 1,435-mm gauge and vice versa), or the items are reloaded from cars onto motor transport or a European-gauge car.
It is to note that the maiden voyage of CNF03.01 ferry “Smat” took place on this line back on December 16, 2010. Seven voyages from Samsun to Kavkaz were made in 2011, with 11,237 thousand tons of cargo transported. In 2012, 18 voyages were made and 64,790 thousand tons of cargoes carried.
The vessels were designed and built to M-SP 3.5 Class of the Russian River Register, meeting all the requirements of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping. They are intended to carry rail cars and rolled machinery, as well as ISO containers and oversized loads.
The ferries can accommodate 64 heavy goods vehicles. 20-ft containers capacity – 106 units in one tier (depending on container weights, total TEU number can reach 318 units).