The Arctic region has received increasing attention in recent years. One of the topical areas of transport system development in the Russian Federation is the transit potential of the Arctic region as well as transport connections with the Barents region countries. The purpose of the research is to make a transport and economic research of variants of automobile transport network development in the Barents region - the transport route Arkhangelsk - Naryan-Mar. The research objectives are: to analyse regional transport network of Nenets Autonomous District; to develop versions of Arkhangelsk - Naryan-Mar transport routes; to estimate transport and economic characteristics and choose a variant of motor transport route. Two variants of the Arkhangelsk - Naryan-Mar road route have been considered in the course of this work. The first one is 887 kilometres long and goes along the sparsely populated territory, through the village Volokovaya. The second route is 940 km long. It is situated in the north through 10 settlements, including the town of Mezen, the administrative centre of Mezen municipal district. A more feasible route is the second option, which runs along the shores of the Mezen Bay of the White Sea and the Chesh Bay of the Pechora Sea. In spite of the fact that this route is 77 km longer than Route 1, it will be a transport artery, passing through 10 settlements, among which is the town of Mezen, the administrative centre of Mezen municipal district.