As a result of the Narva border checkpoint closure, bus company Lux Express canceled all of its Tallinn-St. Petersburg trips. Despite the fact that the company had begun contacting its customers to inform them of the cancellations on Friday morning, some nonetheless still showed up at Tallinn Bus Station.

"I found out 15 minutes before the departure [time] that there would be no bus," Dmitri told ETV's "Aktuaalne kaamera" on Saturday, adding that he hadn't gotten any info earlier than that. "I just saw that the platform number wasn't listed anywhere, but the bus should have departed already. After that I came across other people in the same situation."

"We were standing here, and people came up to us when they heard us speaking in Russian," Roman described. "Now they're trying to find a car, and we're weighing our options. It seems like the border is open at Pskov, and it's possible to cross there on foot. Looks like we'll be going that route."

Roman is on his way from Munich, Germany, to St. Petersburg, where he wants to reach his sick mother as quickly as possible. Which is also why he doesn't want to exchange his bus ticket for a later date.

According to Ingmar Roos, business manager of Lux Express Estonia, the company is working with its customers to seek solutions on a case-by-case basis. The operator could not, however, divert their buses to another border checkpoint.

"We considered [on Friday] what if we diverted the buses to Luhamaa or Koidula, but the bus permit doesn't grant us the right to do so, and Russia's border guard very likely wouldn't have accepted taking such an emergency measure," Roos explained. "So we believe this would have resulted in these buses ending up stuck at Luhamaa or Koidula."

Saturday was quiet all day at the Narva checkpoint. Only a handful of people showed up at the border, each of whom was likewise redirected to Estonia's other border checkpoints. Wait times for both vehicular and pedestrian crossings at Luhamaa, meanwhile, had stretched to 16 hours, and at Koidula to six.

Ivo Utsar, operations chief at the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), said that those wanting to cross the border into Russia have to be patient, but added that even so, there is nothing overly unusual about these kinds of wait times.

"Worst off are those who have already crossed the Estonian border and have not yet reached Russia, where wait times can sometimes reach 2-3 hours," Utsar explained.

"Conditions there are definitely better than in Narva, which was also one of the reasons why we shut Narva down," he admitted. "People ended up stuck in the gallery there, which posed a health risk, and when uncomfortable situations arise, you may also end up with disturbances of public order."

The Narva border checkpoint in Northeastern Estonia will remain closed to outbound border crossings through 7 a.m. local time on Monday.

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