- Fare and where to buy tickets
- Metro lines
- Working hours
- History
- Peculiarities
When asked which subway can be called the most beautiful in the world, some travelers will immediately answer: "Tashkent Metro". Crystal and marble, graceful patterns in oriental style, brilliance and scope - all these are the distinctive features of the design of many metro stations in the capital of Uzbekistan.
At the same time, this metro, surprisingly, is not the most popular type of urban transport. The reason is that it is located quite far from some of the sleeping areas of the city; for a tourist, this factor most often does not matter at all, since the sphere of his interests lies, as a rule, in the central part of the city. Thus, if you decide to visit the capital of Uzbekistan, its subway will help you see many of the city's attractions.
What other distinctive features does the Tashkent subway have? Built in a seismically active zone and designed for nine-point tremors, this metro has an advanced security system. Appeared in the 70s of the XX century, it became the first metro built in Central Asia. Its annual passenger traffic is a little more than sixty million people, and its daily traffic is one hundred and sixty-eight thousand. You will find more detailed information about this transport system in the following sections of the text.
Fare and where to buy tickets
A trip in the Tashkent metro costs 1,200 soums. It is necessary to purchase a token, which then needs to be lowered into the slot of the turnstile. You can buy a token at one of the ticket offices, they are located at the entrance to the metro.
If you are going to spend a lot of time in the capital of Uzbekistan, you should buy a monthly pass. These tickets are sold at kiosks at major stops.
There are several categories of this travel document:
- normal;
- for schoolchildren;
- for students;
- for pensioners and disabled people.
The design of the cards changes every month. Only a number of special features remain unchanged, which make it possible to distinguish this document from the most skillful forgery. The ticket must also be stamped with the number of the kiosk where the pass was purchased.
Metro lines
There are no deep-level stations in the Tashkent metro. There is also no ground station in this transport system. Most of the lines were built in a closed way.
Currently, the metro has three branches. They have twenty-nine stations. The total length of the tracks is a little more than thirty-six kilometers. There are several metro bridges over the canals.
The first branch, the oldest, was built in the 70s of the XX century. In the diagrams, it is indicated in red. Its length is fifteen and a half kilometers. There are twelve stations on it. Travel time on this line is twenty-three minutes.
The second line, built in the 1980s and marked in blue on the diagrams, is a little shorter: its length is about fourteen kilometers. There are eleven stations on it. The travel time on it is twenty one minutes.
The third line was built in the early 2000s. Its color in the diagram is green. Its length is about six and a half kilometers. There are six stations on it. This entire line can be traveled in about ten minutes. Its daily passenger traffic, which once reached four hundred and fifty thousand, has now dropped to one hundred and fifty thousand. The reason is the distance of the branch from the most densely populated areas of the capital of Uzbekistan.
On the Red and Blue lines, four-car trains are used. Trains on the Green Line consist of three carriages.
Working hours
On the first and second lines, train traffic starts at five o'clock in the morning. These two lines run until midnight. The third line has a different work schedule: on it the movement of trains starts only at six in the morning. This line runs until eleven o'clock in the morning.
During peak hours, trains run approximately every four minutes. At other times, the interval between them can be from seven to nine minutes.
History
The construction of the metro began in the late 1960s. Its opening took place in the 70s, and in the second half of them. The first open line was about twelve kilometers long and had nine stations.
The new transport system was built taking into account possible earthquakes. The metro, according to official statements, can withstand seismic shocks of nine points (on the Richter scale). Since there have not been such strong earthquakes since then, this statement has not yet been confirmed. However, the metro has successfully withstood weaker tremors many times. His work has never been interrupted. The subway has a special evacuation system, which in the event of an earthquake should help passengers quickly leave the subway.
It should be noted that construction work was carried out in difficult conditions. The tunnels were laid in the ground, which has a rather unusual specifics: tunneling shields many times fell below the required level. It was necessary to return them to the desired trajectory, which took a lot of time and greatly reduced the pace of work.
Currently, the underground is an important, but still underutilized form of urban transport. As mentioned above, the branches were not brought to the most densely populated areas of the city. As a result, city dwellers living in these areas prefer ground transportation.
Several years ago, the installation of metal detectors began in the metro, but later they were dismantled (for a number of reasons).
The construction of about twenty new stations is planned. The fourth branch and the Ring Line will appear soon (they have already begun to be built). The fourth line of the Tashkent metro will be overground, its length will be just over seven kilometers.
Peculiarities
In the metro of the capital of Uzbekistan, photography was allowed only relatively recently. Also, until recently, there was a ban on filming, but it was canceled. Many stations of the Tashkent metro are distinguished by their impressive interior design, so that tourists often have a desire to photograph what they see or shoot with a video camera; earlier, for this one could be subjected to severe punishment (it was detention for several hours).
Some tourists consider the metro of the capital of Uzbekistan to be the most beautiful in the world. Others doubt it, but still claim that it is the most beautiful metro in Asia. There is a legend about the builders of the metro: according to it, the Leningrad and Moscow metro builders, invited to Tashkent to design and build a new transport system, decided to compete with each other. The result of this competition was stunning station designs. Whether the legend has anything in common with the real history of metro design is difficult to say, but one way or another, the interior design of the stations invariably delights tourists.
Another feature of the Tashkent metro is that station announcements are heard in it only in Uzbek. However, if you know the name of the station you need, then you can very easily find your way even without knowing this language.
Official website: www.tashmetro.uz/ru
Tashkent metro
