Distance "Saratov - Kazan". How to get from one city to another?

Widely Russia-Mother spread her wings from west to east. From the calm Baltic Sea to the northernmost peaks, emerging into the raging waters of the Arctic Ocean. The largest country in terms of area, occupying 11.5% of the entire terrestrial surface of the land, is famous not only for its endless expanses, but also for impassable forests, rough rivers, harsh taiga and steppe forest-tundra. The way from one end of the country to another takes one and a half to two weeks, and sometimes all three, if you go in the spring or autumn, when part of the road is blurred, and some - rutted so that the speed of movement drops to the speed of the human step. And if you can still get to megacities of the country, moving along the highway from one city to another, then two small settlements on the map of our vast homeland usually share distances much greater than the usual travel on a straight line.

Distance "Saratov - Kazan"

Do not make exceptions and these two big and famous cities. Federal communications routes between them are not laid, despite their importance among the local population. For motorists, the choice is only regional highways, sometimes narrow and with a road surface, sometimes not always of high quality, which significantly reduces the level of safety when traveling on them. The distance "Saratov-Kazan" in a straight line is 515 kilometers. However, an auto traveler at the end of the trip expects an unpleasant surprise in the form of completely different numbers reflected on the odometer.

The Third Capital

Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, is often called the third capital of the Russian Federation after Moscow and St. Petersburg. And it's not for nothing. The city is very beautiful, especially at night. All lit up by the lights, the Kazan Kremlin looks at the travelers from the height of the hill with a stern and cold gaze. There is even a branch of the subway in the city, whose stations the autoinformer already announces in three languages: Tatar, Russian and English.

By train

The distance between the cities of Saratov and Kazan on a train is easily and easily overcome. It seems that the composition just swam out from the noisy center of the capital of the republic, crossing the exciting Volga, and after a few moments it is already happily rolling into the Saratov railway station, the station "Saratov-1" Passenger. Travel time is a little over fifteen hours. The fare is 1720 rubles for a reserved seat and 2460 rubles for a place in a compartment. The distance "Saratov-Kazan", which the traveler overcomes, following from city to city by train, is already 701 km, that is, 185 kilometers more than in a straight line.

By car

But there are two ways to get there by private vehicles from one city to another. A shorter route runs along the P228 and P221. The route passes through such large cities as Ulyanovsk, Syzran and Balakovo, laying, with a few exceptions, along the river Volga. If you take this route, the distance between Saratov and Kazan along this route will be 675 kilometers. On the outskirts of Saratov, the route is a six-lane highway (three lanes in each direction) with good asphalt surface, clear markings and a one and a half meter security island, without mechanical delineation of the direction of traffic. However, almost immediately after the passage of the auto center "Kamaz", the quality of the road surface decreases and the number of lanes is reduced to one in each direction. The two-lane way goes to Syzran, periodically limiting dangerous cuvettes by road fences, catchers, and only closer to the city the quality of the road surface slightly increases. Samu Syzran itself can be bypassed on the federal highway M5, and, having turned to the regional A251, take a course on Ulyanovsk. The quality of asphalt here also limps, on the strip in each direction, on overtaking it is dangerous to go out. After walking around the center of Ulyanovsk, we are restructuring to the regional highway P241. Pits and potholes here are much less, in some places there is no marking, but quite a lot of emergency catchers. Further we leave on "fedaralku" M7, we cross on it Volga and we approach to an end point of a route.

Option number 2

Quite a large number of car travelers prefer to take another route, following the route "Kazan - Saratov". The distance by car passed along this path increases slightly, but the quality of the road surface is an order of magnitude higher than in the first variant of travel. The second option passes through such large cities as Saransk, Penza and Ruzaevka. Leaving Kazan on the federal highway M7, we go west, towards Moscow, and only after the village of Chirichkasy we turn left, to the regional highway with a direction to Kanash. The highway, even without markings, but almost deserted. Only closer to the settlements the road fills the traffic. Further, the route runs almost parallel to the railway up to Saransk, where it already enters the regional highway P178. We go around the city on P180 and after the district we smoothly leave on Р158, which takes the camper directly to Saratov, passing Penza and other less important settlements. The distance "Saratov-Kazan" according to the odometer in this case will be about 750 kilometers. At 75 kilometers more than in the first version, and 235 kilometers more than the way in a straight line. Here is such an arithmetic!