Kazakhstan & Kyrgyzstan 2018

Two weeks, two countries, two seasons. Kazakhstan & Kyrgyzstan 2018.

Arriving in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, in early October and the temperature is a pleasant 26°although the locals are wrapped-up against the cold. Just one of the unusual sights that are about to assault the senses in this futurist 'planned' city of one million inhabitants, living in the world’s largest landlocked country that is the size of India with the population of the Netherlands.

A new Iveco Hybrid emerges from the underpass in front of the opera house in Astana.

Work on designing Astana started just after independence in 1991, utilising the vast sparsely populated Central Steppes to replace the former crowded capital Almaty which is located in the south of the country. Despite being devoid of hills and having only one major river, the geology makes the city unsuitable for a subway and so the public transport network is solely reliant upon buses, although a monorail between the airport and railway station is currently under construction.

The only sighting of a bus in Astana not in corporate livery. There was no identifying operator name, chassis type or body manufacturer.

The oddly named 'Astana LRT' is responsible for 1,000 buses operating on 71 bus routes. Since 2014 the City has invested heavily in new buses and supporting infrastructure with aid from international banks. 214 buses were delivered in July 2015 followed by several hundred in the following three years. Much of the recent investment was linked to the international Expo17 held in the city during the summer of 2017. Iveco was appointed official supplier for Expo17 having already established a presence in the city by supplying 358 Citelis Euro V buses. In time for the Expo, 210 Urbanway and Urbanway Hybrids were delivered from the factory in Annonay, France, while the final assembly was carried out locally in Kostanay, at facilities belonging to Iveco Bus’s partner and distributor SaryarkaAutoProm.

An Astana Iveco Citelis, one of the deliveries for Expo 2017.

Support infrastructure also saw investment - a new depot, improved bus stops and travel cards have all been implemented. The city has 1065 bus stops, 82 of the busiest were upgraded to semi-enclosed with Wi-Fi connectivity and heating, essential when temperatures can plummet to -20 combined with heavy snow fall. In July 2018 new enter-and-exit rules began, boarding via the front door, exiting via any door  and cash fares became double the amount charged using the 'Transcard' smartcard system, currently a single fare using the card cost 90 tenge (approx US $0.26). 

Astana City Tours, Higer KLQ6119GS.

Almaty

Set around a dramatic backdrop of the Zailiysky Alatau mountains, the former capital Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 2,029,800. The city is comprised of beautiful tree lined avenues in a grid formation, fed by a modern motorway network that brings people in from the surrounding plains and also leads to chronic traffic congestion. The public transport system consists of one subway route with 9 stations, 8 trolleybus routes and 110 bus routes. Bus routes are numbered 1 to 205 with route 3 operating 24hr from the airport, whilst trolleybus routes are numbered 1 to 25.

An overloaded  PAZ-320302-11-CNG climbs Dostyk Avenue on route 5. 

In the late 1990s public transport passed to 48 private operators operating 3,304 buses. Today that figure is 13 private companies and 1 municipal operator, Almaty Electrotrans, together operating 1,535 buses and 200 trolleybuses. Approximately 800 of the buses are CNG powered, some converted from diesel other purchased new. 2010/11 saw 200 new CNG deliveries with further deliveries from Daewoo (GDW6126HGNE model) and Yutong (ZK6120HGM model) in subsequent years. The trolleybus network has also seen regular investment although it has currently stalled, and there are 200 modern Neoplan YoungMan JNP6120GDZ operating which have all been delivered since 2008.

Trolleybus 3013, a Neoplan Youngman JNP6120GDZ, sits at the central market on a late Sunday afternoon.

Once again a smartcard, the 'Onay', is available reducing the fare from 150 tenge cash to 80 tenge. Surprisingly, conductors are still used on some services and they carry a hand held scanner to supplement the one fitted beside the driver cab. If time only permits just one bus journey, it is worth hopping on a number 12, with a peak-time headway of seven minutes, departing from the Kazakhstan Hotel in the city centre and climbing 899m in 14.5km through the city's most affluent suburbs to the terminus at Medeu. This is the world’s largest high mountain ice skating rink and is the gateway into the Shymbulak Ski Resort, passing through the city's most affluent suburbs on route.

A Russian built GAZ LiAZ 5292 laying over at the Medeu ice stadium, the terminus of route 12, having climbed 899m in 14.5km from the city centre.

Before heading to either Sairan or Sayakhat, the two bus stations with inter-regional departures, it is worth reflecting on Almaty's prominence in the local bus building industry. In 2007 Daewoo Bus Kazakhstan LLP opened a factory and 2019 production is expected to be between 300 and 400 units. 2016 saw the launch by Higer and Parasat of a project for producing electric buses and in 2018 Euracom Group GmbH opened a facility that can build 100 electric buses per year.

                  Attempting to attract city sightseeing passengers at Medeu ice stadium is an 18m Eurabus from German manufacturer Euracom Group. Euracom has built a factory in Almaty to assemble upwards of 100 vehicles a year from German kits. The 18m articulated version has a theoretical range of 650km. 

Shymkent         

This is third most populous city in Kazakhstan after Almaty and Astana with a population of 1,002,291.The city has aspirations to attract more tourists whilst continuing to develop as a regional centre. Two double-deck tourist buses were delivered in 2015, purchased by Zhibek Zholy, but to outsiders there seems little to attract visitors beyond a Soviet era centre and Kazak modernism, although they do have a liking for all things London red like buses, phone boxes etc. 

Coming out of the early morning gloom in Shymkent are Green Bus Company Golden Dragon YC6G260N-30 CNG and a Zhengzhou Yutong also CNG powered.

The city has 74 bus routes with a vast array of express services operated by 27 companies, including an international route to Tashkent in Uzbekistan which takes three hours to cover the 145 kilometres. Many operators use the large 'Abtotypak' on the north western side of the city. The majority of local buses are provided by the Green Bus Company which was established in Shymkent during 2014. The company has a fleet of 200 relatively new Yutong and Golden Dragon built vehicles running on CNG.

 

One of the few older buses operating in Shymkent is this MAN on Respublika Avenue, route 26.   

The reason for staying in Shymkent is to use the city as a gateway for visiting the historical sites at Otrar and Turkistan (a city not another country despite its name), both are points along the original Silk Road, about 2 1/2 hours and 600 tenge drive away. Turkistan has a modest bus terminus in the city centre with local operators using a motley selection of Mercedes Benz 0405s, Russian PAZ, Chinese FAW and van derived marshrutkas.

These small yellow and white minibuses can be found on many Shymkent bus routes. Whilst there is no manufacturer’s name, the grill badge does resemble Chinese manufacturer Liao Ning.

Departing Kazakhstan for Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, the journey is best made by air due to the state of the roads. 

Bishkek 

Arriving in the capital, it becomes immediately apparent that the country is less developed than Kazakhstan. The city has an older more established Soviet feel to it which is enhanced by the aging fleet of trolleybuses plying the streets. There are 11 bus, 8 trolleybus and 115 marshrutkas routes with bus fares costing eight som and  marshrutkas ten som. (approx US $0.14).

 

Bishkek trolleybus 1603, a 2008 Belkommunmash AKSM-321, on Moskovskaya Street.

A Chongqing Hengtong CKZ6116NA4 CNG powered bus on Bishkek city route 35 laying over at the central railway station.

In 2018 the city created one transport body under local government control with the aim of speeding up the modernisation of the network which had commenced in 2013 with the arrival of forty-four new trolleybuses. Trolleybus deliveries have come from Belkommunmash OJSC in Belarus and Russian manufacturer Trolza (formally Ziu) who are the current favoured suppliers with fifty-two 5275.03 Optima's due in service by the end of 2019. Work to modernise the marshrutkas network has also taken place, removing many of the older Mercedes Benz 207D's from the streets with replacements between 2009 and 2013, via China Aid, coming from Yangzhou Yaxing Motor Coach Co., Ltd.(now Asiastar). More recent deliveries in 2017 were Chinese built Chongqing Hengtong CKZ6116NA4 CNG powered buses for city centre circular route 35 which also serves the railway station. 

On route to the Chinese border, the Issyk-Kul area is home to many Uighurs peoples, and in a typical town the marshrutkas gather in the bus terminus.

Moving on from the city to experience the natural wonders of this country is relatively simple as the country has an extensive network of marshrutkus routes. This mode of transport does however require stamina and one long day in what was a Mercedes Benz Sprinter van conversion with upright seats was more than enough on this holiday. Thankfully there are tourist coaches and these tend to be old Setra's with the occasional Mercedes Benz and are well suited to the rough roads. Heading east there is little in the way of major conurbations after Tokmok, and major tourist destinations such as Issyk Kul, the world’s second largest alpine lake and the ski resorts around the regional capital of Karakol are mainly catered for by the dreaded white minibuses.

 Neoplan Cityliner N116 on Intourist transfer duties at Bishkek airport.

  

The easy option for the homeward journey was a flight back to Astana, where the temperature had gone from a barmy summer 26° to a wintery -2° with a blizzard blowing. Perhaps the weather is a good analogy for the transport in these two countries. Kazakhstan is enjoying an early summer of new buses and modern route systems whilst Kyrgyzstan is still emerging from a long soviet winter with lack of resources to invest in a modern transport network.

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