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  "PageContent": "<h3>Euro Gunzel - An Australian railfan in Europe</h3>Over the years there have been many examples of former railway lines being turned into roads. But in the Caucasus Mountains above Sochi in Russia the opposite is happening – the former Krasnopolyanskoe Highway running through the Akhtsu Gorge is being turned into a 1,700 metre long 750 mm gauge tourist railway.Photo via В Сочи / T.meSome historyThe Krasnopolyanskoe Highway serves the ski resorts around Krasnaya Polyana high in the Caucasus Mountains, and was first built in 1891-1898 according to the design and supervision of mining engineer V.K. Konstantinov. The road followed the route taken by the Mzymta River flowing to the sea, with four kilometres through Akhtsu Gorge hugging the path of a narrow pack trail. During Soviet times the road was upgraded for larger vehicles, rock sheds were provided to shelter travellers from rockfalls in the steep terrain, and from June 2002 traffic lights were used to implement one way traffic flows along the four kilometre long stretch of gorge.Photo via крым-сочи.рфBut despite this the narrow road did not meet modern standards, and so in 1998 work started on the 2580 meter long Краснополянский тоннель (Krasnopolyansky Tunnel) to bypass the narrow road through the gorge. Work stalled in August 2002 due to a lack of funds, but resumed in 2004, with the tunnel opened to traffic in August 2005.Google Street ViewBypassing the Old Krasnopolyanskoe Highway.Google Street ViewWhich was then abandoned.Photo via крым-сочи.рфHowever after Russia won their bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi, the Krasnopolyanskoe Highway towards Krasnaya Polyana was in for another upgrade, with a combined motorway and rail route being built along the left bank of the Mzymta River, duplicating the existing two lane highway.A key part of this was Тоннельный комплекс №3 (Tunnel Complex No. 3) – which consisted of a 3201 metre long road tunnel parallel to but across the river from the Краснополянский тоннель (Krasnopolyansky Tunnel).Google Street ViewAlong with a parallel 4615 metre long single track railway tunnel.Google Street ViewWork started on this tunnel complex in 2009, and it was completed by 2013.Reconstruction of the Old Krasnopolyanskoe Highway as a tourist attraction was floated in 2015.Reconstruction of the famous rocky section of the Krasnopolyanskoye Highway will begin soon. Repair work includes clearing the section, strengthening the steep slopes and restoring the road surface on the oldest highway.After the reconstruction is completed, the rocky section of the old Adler-Krasnaya Polyana highway will become an excellent excursion site. Many tourists will be able to take walking trips here, first of all, guests of the nearby ski resorts “Gorki-Gorod”, “Laura” and “Rosa Khutor”, – noted the head of the resort and tourism department of the Sochi city administration Alexey Grachev.The investor in the highway reconstruction project was the company OOO “Yuzhnaya Zvezda”.But it appears that nothing came of it.And the railwayMay 2024 saw rumours of another plan for the Old Krasnopolyanskoe Highway, with local media outlet Sochinews.io: Новости Сочи eventually getting to the bottom of them – a new tourist attraction called «Музей истории строительства горных дорог России Ахцу» (Museum of the History of Construction of Mountain Roads of Russia Akhtsu), including the 1,700 metre long 750 mm gauge  «Поезд парковый на рельсах»  (“Park Train on Rails”) tourist railway.Last week, information about a narrow-gauge railway line under construction in the area of ​​the old Krasnopolyanskaya road aroused great interest. Social media users shared their assumptions about the future of the currently dangerous facility.We tell you what is actually happening there and what is planned in our exclusive material.Indeed, the old road to Krasnaya Polyana is becoming more active. Work is underway to strengthen the slopes, and rails and sleepers for the future narrow-gauge railway are being laid. All this is the very beginning of a large project called the Museum of the History of Construction of Russian Mountain Roads in Akhtsu.The first stage is the construction of a 1,700-meter-long railway. A train will soon be launched on it. A small tourist train with literally three open carriages, each with a capacity of up to 50 people.“After the installation of the railway line is completed, the construction of tourist infrastructure will begin. There will be a museum here telling the history of the construction of mountain roads in Russia, recreation areas where you can have a snack and drink local tea with a view of the beauty of Krasnaya Polyana,” said the author, founder and owner of the project Alexey Grachev.According to Alexey Grachev, it is also planned to place attractions here. But this is all in the future. At the initial stage, the new tourist route will be a mini-trip on a mini-train with one stop. To organize the movement, two observation platforms will be equipped – in front of the tunnel and behind it.“The train will operate all year round, but twice a year the facility will be closed for maintenance – to ensure safety,” said Alexey Grachev.By the way, special attention is paid to safety here.As already mentioned, work is being carried out on the site to strengthen the mountain slopes. It is planned to equip special places, reliably protected from rockfall, where it will be possible to safely exit the train.The composition itself is made of particularly strong modern materials, so that its body can withstand the impact of a stone falling from a slope.Residents and guests of the resort will have the opportunity to see the legendary mountain road in just a couple of months. The opening of the first part of the initial stage of the historical and tourist project is scheduled for June-July 2024.By this point trackwork was well underway.Photo via В Сочи / T.meWith a small diesel locomotive used to transport materials along the completed section of railway.Photo via В Сочи / T.meBut media outlet SOCHI1.RU reported that local ecologists were against the project.Scientists from the Sochi Geographical Society have filed a petition with the Sochi prosecutor demanding that the construction of a narrow-gauge tourist railway be stopped in one of the most beautiful places in the resort – the Akhtsu Gorge.As reported by the SGO “Sochi Geographer” telegram channel, back in 1988, the Akhtsu Gorge received the status of a natural monument. On its slopes grow endemics listed in the Red Book: Circassian cyclamen, Voronov’s snowdrop, long-flowered muscari, as well as one of the rarest plants – hard-leaved bellflower, or mzymtella.During the Olympic construction, the Sochi Geographical Society managed to save the mzymtella from extinction as part of a biodiversity conservation project.Ten years have passed, and now the life of the rare bellflower is threatened by businessmen from OOO Simmetriya, who are laying rails for their little train on a closed rocky section of the old highway to Krasnaya Polyana.Sochi National Park is the only place on the planet where this type of bellflower grows. In the Akhtsu Gorge, according to observations in August 2021, employees of the scientific department counted only about a hundred specimens of this relict plant.Construction of the project was made possible because the former road being used for the tourist railway was not part of the national park.After scientists from the Sochi Geographical Society raised the alarm about the construction of a dangerous entertainment in the form of a narrow-gauge railway on the old Krasnopolyanskoye Highway in the Akhtsu Gorge, our publication decided to find out the details in the Sochi National Park.The management of the protected area neither denied nor confirmed that construction had begun in the gorge. It turned out that the old Krasnopolyanskoye Highway is not within the boundaries of the specially protected natural area, but belongs to the municipality. The national park is responsible only for part of the gorge.The information that OOO Simmetriya, which began installing the trolleys on the narrow-gauge railway, did not enter into an agreement with the national park for the construction of dangerous entertainment has been confirmed.“The Federal State Budgetary Institution “Sochi National Park” did not enter into any land lease agreements with OOO “Simmetriya ,” the national park’s management responded to Kuban Inform.Our publication is preparing a request to the Sochi mayor’s office to find out who the businessmen who are trying to install trolleys for unsuspecting tourists in the previously closed part of the gorge are dealing with.With details of the lease of the land to a private company being revealed in June 2024.The city administration gave the land for the construction of a railway in the Akhtsu gorge to the company “Simmetriya”. This was reported to “Kuban Inform” by the Sochi administration. The company will use the land near the national park for almost 50 years.“An agreement on the provision of a land plot for use under lease terms (lease agreement) was concluded between the municipal formation of the resort city of Sochi and the limited liability company “Simmetry”. The term of the agreement is set until 11/25/2069″ — the official response of the administration to our publication says.In particular, the resort gave away two plots. One, with an area of ​​2,857 square meters, was designated for “nature tourism,” and the second, 21,746 square meters, was designated for “transport.”The mayor’s office did not specify how the safety of tourists will be arranged, or whether the endemic and red-listed plants will really be destroyed. However, officials stated that the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources is responsible for this.“Issues of regulating the use of flora and fauna listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation are assigned to the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources” the official response from the resort administration states.Local residents were unhappy that public land was handed over to a private company.The public civil movement “For Sochi!” does not share the enthusiasm of the developers: candidate of economic sciences Elena Bokacheva notes that the project has not been discussed and has not been approved by the city administration. The project has not been agreed upon or accepted by the city’s urban development council.At this stage, the attraction was created only on the basis of an agreement with the Sochi administration for the lease of a section of the road for 49 years and a license for the use of subsoil issued by the Department of Subsoil Use for the Southern Federal District.I contacted the Sochi Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor’s Office and the Southern Department of Rosprirodnadzor, which identified gross violations of federal legislation. Rosprirodnadzor responded that the company did not have a positive conclusion from the environmental assessment of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation for the use of subsoil.During the patrol, employees identified a violation of the protection regime of the Sochi National Park: the company “Simmetriya” installed metal structures fixed in the rock, with a stretched metal protective net against rockfall without design and technical and special permit documentation agreed with the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, — Elena notes.According to her, on July 15 of this year, the environmental prosecutor’s office filed a motion regarding violations of the law on the protection of the environment and cultural heritage sites, the requirements of which were ignored. According to the environmental prosecutor’s office, the project has not passed the assessment of harmful impact on the environment, construction work is being carried out in the water protection zone of the Mzymta River, which negatively affects aquatic biological resources.In addition, the project has not been agreed upon with the Federal Agency for Fisheries, and the land leased by the company is located within the boundaries of the protection zone of the cultural heritage site of federal significance “Kepshinskaya parking lot” in the area of ​​the Akhtsu Gorge.Part of the lessee’s land is located on the territory of the cultural heritage site “Place of execution of 21 Red Army soldiers of the 273rd Sochi regiment”. In addition, the site is partially located within the boundaries of the protected area of ​​the cultural heritage site “Two scrap metal left by the builders of the Krasnopolyanskoye Highway in the area of ​​the Akhtsu Gorge”, 1879-1902, Akhtsu Gorge, 33rd km.The project to create the “Park Train on Rails” attraction has not been agreed upon with the Department of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of the Krasnodar Territory Administration.And local authorities raised concerns about the risk of landslides.The Adler District Prosecutor’s Office of Sochi, following numerous requests from citizens and organizations, conducted an inspection of a new tourist facility in the Akhtsu Gorge on the old road to Krasnaya Polyana.The specialists of the Russian Emergencies Ministry Department for Sochi, the Sochi Hydrometeorological Center and the Sochi Administration Civil Defense and Population Protection Department involved in the inspection unanimously noted the high degree of avalanche danger of the specified area and the lack of sufficient engineering and technical protection of potential consumers of the service, — the press service of the Krasnodar Territory Prosecutor’s Office reports.The supervisory authority took into account that no activity has been carried out to date, and the head of the organization was warned about the inadmissibility of violating legislation in the field of population protection from emergency situations.The 1,700-meter-long railway has already been built. A small tourist train with three open carriages, each with a capacity of up to 50 people, is supposed to run along it.But despite their concerns, in September 2024 the first train ran, as a closed trial run at what was now called  «Парка аттракционов Ахцу» (“Mountain Park Akhtsu”).The Telegram channel “Море-зовет” recently wrote that very soon a new tourist attraction will open on the old Krasnaya Polyana road in Sochi – a narrow-gauge railway along a rocky section.According to the organizers, special attention was paid to safety here. It is claimed that they strengthened the mountain slopes, equipped special places reliably protected from rockfall, for a safe exit from the train.The road will be opened for tourists at the end of September, and it will be possible to “safely enjoy the infinitely high mountains, frightening cliffs and vaults of the mystical tunnel cut into a huge rock more than 100 years ago.” The cost of the trip is 1,400 rubles, the Telegram channel writes.The train itself looking comical – a fibreglass steam locomotive body with non functional wheels plonked over the top of a diesel locomotive.Photo via Море-зовет / T.meHowever since the first trial run, there has been silence from the park operator – their VK Page and Instagram accounts have been silent since their “Opening in September 2024” announcement, and their website went dark sometime after April 2025.And the train – parked at the station at the northern end of the line, getting covered in leaves.Footnote: more on the old road“Akhtsu Gorge: Exploring the abandoned Soviet road from Sochi to Krasnaya Polyana”.And riding along the abandoned road on a motorcycle.Footnote: and more tunnelsA piece of tunnels in Sochi (Russian language), along with a useful map:Further reading",
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