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In northern Russia (and to a much lesser degree elsewhere), many communities are only reachable by river. In summer there are scheduled boat services on those rivers (see Overview (map) of Russian long-distance river regular passenger ships in regions too remote for roads or railways), but in winter the rivers turn into ice roads (автозимник) like the Хулга / Khulga.

Are there any scheduled bus routes on any of those those ice roads? I'm mostly interested in buses that run over a river for a large distance, as opposed to just crossing the river where there would be a ferry in summer.

I'm interested in bus services on ice roads in other countries too, but I expect Russia to be the "best bet".

gerrit
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    If it does not have to be Russia, take a look at the scheduled van service over the Madeline Island Ice Road. – Patricia Shanahan Oct 08 '19 at 02:13
  • @PatriciaShanahan It doesn't have to be Russia; I just thought Russia would be the best chance. Considering the state of public transportation in the USA in general, I'm very surprised to see a special bus to an island with only 300 inhabitants! – gerrit Oct 08 '19 at 07:32
  • @PatriciaShanahan It seems to connect to Bayfield, but Rome2Rio has no bus nearer than Ashland, so if Rome2Rio is to be believed, this bus route is entirely disconnected from other transportation, which makes me wonder what the point is? School kids? – gerrit Oct 08 '19 at 07:39
  • I don't think that winter roads usually go over rivers, since a) rivers are very curvy, and b) Russia is pretty flat. Anyway, couldn't find such routes yet. – alamar Oct 08 '19 at 17:30
  • @alamar Are you sure? I don't mean 100% over the river, but the major advantage of the river is that there are no obstacles such as trees. – gerrit Oct 08 '19 at 18:47
  • I think that зимник would mostly traverse swamps, where there's no so much trees. The main obstacle in the north is that it's wet. Even Moscow region is one big marsh. – alamar Oct 09 '19 at 08:38

1 Answers1

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Labytnangi - Salekhard bus should go over the river in winter (in summer there's a ferry).

There's a caveat that it will be crossing the river through, not go along it: https://wikiroutes.info/salekhard?routes=38898

alamar
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