How Much Do We Use Our Seas?

The problem of our age of transportation is the tunnel between Karaköy and Galata, which is one of the first subways in the world, but unfortunately we were quite late in the subway public transportation projects. Many metropolises of the world have enormous subway systems. One of the most beautiful of them is the Moscow metro, I wrote earlier.

But I'm not going to get into the subway topic today. Our topic today is the seas.

Our country is covered by seas on three sides. I don't know why, sea transportation between our coastal cities is not at the desired level. Ferries operating between Istanbul and Bandırma, and the ferries to Yalova, Mudanya, Bostancı and Yenikapı are alternative sea routes to the highways that we all know and perhaps even use frequently for many years. Before the bridges were opened, Eskihisar Topçular or Çanakkale strait crossings were also frequently used. Although, I know that these lines are still popular because the bridges are very expensive. There are also ferry services to the islands in both Istanbul and Çanakkale. There are city line ferries in Izmir and Istanbul, and even the Izmit gulf ferries that we used to board occasionally when I was a kid. There are car ferries between Bodrum-Datça, Cyprus-Taşucu, Mersin, Hatay and many ferry lines that I can't count.

However, what I'm talking about is a more organized sea transport. A nationwide ferry system that operates on all our coasts, from Antakya to Artvin, some by express and some at shorter distances. Is there any reason not to do this? I don't think so.

So why haven't we done it until now, why isn't such a transportation system being built?

No demand? I think you start small, you will see there will be demand, my life experience all these years is that people have learned some things by living, do as much research, survey as you want, you will not find the right answer. Those who learn by experience will understand and begin to demand.

Are the ferries not fast enough? I think no, there are fast ferries in the world, the speed of ours is not very low either.

Weather conditions? Yes, there may be disruptions due to weather conditions from time to time, but I think it is suitable for air and sea transportation for a long time in summer and winter in our country.

Do you think it will be expensive? I do not think, on the contrary, I think it will be more economical than land transportation. Because ships can have larger capacities than vehicles used in land transportation.

We call it the blue homeland, but we do not use a large part of our homeland. I think this should be one of the priority projects of the Ministry of Transport. In fact, the main task of the Ministry of Transport is transportation projects throughout the country, and it should be so. Otherwise, you did it with the municipalities, I did it, it's not the conflict that needs to be done. The conflict that I don't understand the most is this. They say something in our competition, I won't tell you here, you already understood what it is.

Moreover, such a system can be applied not only in passenger transportation, but also in freight transportation. Ship transportation in the world competes with road transportation. More priority at long distances.

Although we have an advantage that many other geographies do not have, we do not know its value.

For years, the world has invested in highways, all these investments have been made, and the maintenance costs are still the money of the world. How much do you think it costs to replace the top layer asphalt? For example, how much does the top asphalt of a 100 km long highway cost? The top layer is 5 cm thick. Asphalt is sold in tons, but let's look at the m2 price. The ex-factory price of 5 cm thick asphalt is over 100 liras. This is the removal of older asphalt, transport, laying, compaction, road line, barrier, profit, advantage, etc. There are many other expenses. 100 lira is the price of one square meter, which is the price of mid-May 2022 excluding VAT. Who knows how much money was made today. The width of a three-lane highway is 11.25 meters from 3.75 meters each lane, that's one-way. You calculate the rest. If we change the top asphalt layer on one side of a 100 km highway, it will not cost less than 5 billion liras. If you do, you will do both ways, 10 billion liras are gone. Let's be fair, it's big money even if we change the asphalt every four years. The world has a way in the country. Who knows how much asphalt work is done each year. Don't get me wrong, this is just the maintenance cost I'm talking about, who knows how much money was spent on the construction of the roads.

Okay, it was good to build highways, don't get confused with what I said, of course highways should be built. But besides this, sea routes should also be used. Many metropolitan cities on the coast already have infrastructure for ports, and I'm sure investments in maritime transport will cost much less than for highways. An initial investment cost for ports and ships, and at regular intervals a maintenance cost for ports and ships only.

You don't have to worry about making highways in the seas. Therefore, there is no such thing as maintenance cost. Let's say ship roads, that is, the roads are ready, moreover, you can use ships of any size on these roads, ships can be any width you want. There is no size limitation for these cruise lines. There is no load limit either. What more do you want? Isn't it a great advantage if you look at it from this point of view?

Are you saying the seas are dangerous? I think highways are more dangerous. Although the number of accidents has decreased with the newly built one-way highways, the number of road traffic accidents in 2021 has reached 1 million 186 thousand 353 with an increase of 20.59% compared to the previous year, according to TUIK statistics. Although the majority of those with positive or severe injuries from these accidents are in the city, 40,224 accidents occurred on intercity roads with death or injury. Across the country, 2,719 people lost their lives on inter-city roads. On the other hand, 76,892 people were injured on the roads between cities. So not a little. If we compare maritime transport in this sense, it is much safer to a large extent. The total number of accidents in 2021 is 690. The number of deaths is 71, the number of missing is 30, the injured 47. Of course, no accident, no one should be killed or injured, of course, but as can be seen from the numbers, the difference is huge. These values ​​are the statistics of the Ministry of Transport, Main Search and Rescue Coordination Center for 2021.

I am considering a different method for fees. I have explained the pricing principle in the Moscow metro in my previous articles. You enter the metro system with a single fee and as long as you do not go out of the system, you can wander between the stations throughout the day, you do not pay any other fees. There are tunnels in the metro where you can switch from one line to the other, the same fare to the farthest metro station of the city, the same fare to the next station, it doesn't matter.

The same system can be used in the maritime transportation I mentioned, you can offer a single fee, the opportunity to get on board from Antakya and go to Artvin with a fixed fee. One can get off at the desired port and either continue to the next port by transfer, or get off at that port and leave the port. When re-entering the maritime transport system, it will have to pay a fee once again, the same fee, we used to enter with tokens at the city lines piers, just like that, just like a single coin. If desired, it is possible to reach further distances faster, without stopping at some ports in between, with express ferries. With a good engineering work, it can be observed which lines have more passenger demand and these express lines can be determined. Travel times will also keep to the minute if there is no abnormality in weather conditions. This system I mentioned should work like subways, that is, the times of loading and unloading passengers from the port should be very short. Other ferries with different pricing and timing should be used for car ferries or for freight options. But the system should be the same in all, once you enter the travel system, it is one price to wherever you want.

Not only the seas, but also river transport can participate in such a system. Many of our rivers now have dams, but with a good project, even special transfer systems can be built in dams if necessary. I think this idea should also be evaluated, since it is possible to reach the interior of the country by rivers in this way.

River transport in Russia is a nationwide method of transport. Rivers are used for transportation with special river type ships. You can reach the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea via the river by entering from the Arctic sea or the Baltic sea. In some places, they opened artificial channels and joined two rivers, and made deepening in some rivers. Some rivers are already deep rivers naturally.

In the summer months, most of the city needs were transported by river from Krasnoyarsk city, which is 2000 km to the south, to the city of Norilsk, which is close to the North Pole, where I worked before. Even though the river froze during the winter months, the needs of the city were met to a large extent by this intensive transport of goods in the summer.

In short, our country is a mountainous country, and our rivers are not as big as Russia's, so it is not possible to carry out river transport from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, maybe if there is a possibility to open large tunnels in the future, it may be possible, but it is not possible today. However, I am of the opinion that river routes into the country can also be used, at least up to suitable places.

To sum it up, I think we are still in its infancy in maritime transport. Although there are well-intentioned attempts, I think what has been done is insufficient. Let alone our nationwide maritime, we need to be a maritime country in the international arena with these advantages. I think it is useful to focus on this issue as it is much more economical and much safer in transportation. We can at least start with passenger transport across the country.

With a good engineering work, why not what I have told you? I think we should seriously consider maritime transport across the country.

Since we will manufacture the ferries ourselves, it will also contribute to the national economy in terms of industry. But do not say that we are buying from outside, if you are planning on this scale, you will now arrange for one or two shipyards for ferries.

These works are famous around the world. I'm not saying we don't know, we already know. We have a lot of shipyards. If we can ferry for the Netherlands or Norway, we can do it for ourselves. If we can build the world's first hydrogen-fueled ferry for Greece, we can do it for ourselves. If we can build environmentally friendly electric ferries for Norway, why not, we should do it for ourselves. We just need to embrace this issue as a state policy and build more ferries for ourselves. Norway takes care of it, our next-door neighbor Greece is a world-class maritime country. Why shouldn't we?

Besides, sea voyage is enjoyable, once you taste it, there will be a lot of demand. Maybe they'll even allow angling for advertising during travels. As a country, we like to fish. I'm sure we'll love the ferries too.

How about sea freight, not a good idea? I wish we could do what I said, I wish those at the beginning could think of such projects when they say projects.

Love and regards from Moscow