- Fare and where to buy tickets
- Metro lines
- Working hours
- History
- Peculiarities
The metro in Almaty was thought for a long time - the first mentions were in the General Plan of the city, which was approved back in 1978 during the Soviet era. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the work was quite active, and they were paid from the general budget of the country, but the period of perestroika came and all work stopped.
The metro in Almaty, the latest Soviet project, is a system of so-called off-street rail transport. This is the only metro in Kazakhstan and the second in the region (after Tashkent). Its grand opening took place only on December 1, 2011, since then the passenger traffic has been constantly growing.
Canadian and Austrian companies have worked on the project over the years, since the Kazakh leadership actively attracted sponsors. The construction budget was changing, the numbers were impressive. Potential partners were considered, for example, the Canadian company Bombardier, known for building subways in New York and London, Mexico City and Ankara. There was also a cooperation agreement with the German company Philipp Holzmann, no less well-known in certain metro-construction circles.
Today, the metro in Almaty is the second longest in Central Asia and 15 in countries in the post-Soviet space. At the same time, the continuation of the first branch has already been designed, there is a second line, and on some diagrams a third.
Fare and where to buy tickets
For the convenience of passengers, there are various options for paying for travel in the subway:
- Smart token. Its cost is 80 tenge (one trip).
- The same token, but in a children's format (ages 7 to 15, designed for schoolchildren, requires presentation of a document upon purchase). The cost is half as much - 40 tenge. The smart token is valid for one day, but the metro management suggests using expired on Wednesdays, for this a permanent promotion called "Token Day" has been introduced.
- Smart card. Its cost is 100 tenge, it is reusable. You can buy such a card both at the ticket office (at the metro station) and at the vending machines where transport tickets are sold. One trip costs 80 tenge, in total you can replenish the card for 60 trips (you can deposit money for 2-60 trips, no more). The card is valid for 3 years from the moment when money was last deposited on it.
- Payment using bank cards. There are different options here - Master Card or VISA card, as well as Union Pay. Contactless terminals are a convenient payment method for citizens and tourists.
- Special POS terminals, they are also configured to pay with bank cards.
- The latest innovation is the Onay cards. In this system, there are 4 preferential transport cards - a student card, a student card, a social card and a card of a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. The first three assume 50 percent fare. Holders of a social card over the age of 75 and holders of the War Veteran Card travel in the Almaty metro for free.
Metro lines
The only line for today has a total length of 10.3 km, with a total of 9 stations. Half (5 stations) are defined as deep, the rest are shallow. The line starts at Raiymbek Avenue, and ends at Altynsarin Avenue. In total, there are seven trains on the line, each of which consists of 4 cars.
Metro stations (from end to end):
- "Raiymbek Batyr".
- Zhibek Zholy.
- "Almaly".
- "Abaya".
- Baikonur.
- "Theater named after Mukhtar Auezov".
- "Alatau".
- Sairan.
- "Moscow".
Working hours
The subway opens at 6-30 in the morning, and the stations close at 23-30. This mode has been calculated economically and in terms of passenger traffic. Opening hours - Astana time.
The different interval of movement was also calculated in connection with the passenger traffic and is:
- on weekends - 13 minutes;
- on weekdays during off-peak time - 10 minutes;
- during peak hours - 8 min.
The travel time of the train from the end to the end is about 16 minutes.
History
The history of the design and construction of the subway in Almaty was long and rather complicated. The main points that delayed construction have always been related to financing. Also, the complexity of the construction of the subway is largely associated with seismic conditions in the city.
All the time of construction, there were skeptics who considered the metro an unbearable burden for Kazakhstan after the collapse of the Union, and also did not understand at all why, in principle, this type of civil public transport was in this city. However, in spite of everything, the metro was opened, although it took more than 35 years to design and build. Today, there are developments that make it possible to significantly expand the metro and offer residents and guests of the city a convenient and safe way to travel halfway across the land.
Peculiarities
The main feature of the metro in Almaty is considered to be the rich decoration of the stations. And this is actually so - the best architects and designers worked on the design, the stations are decorated with panels and other decorative elements. Each of the stations is essentially a completed art object. Travertine and granite, marble and mosaics, glass, plaster medallions and much more were used in the decoration.
An important feature of the metro is that the escalators are equipped with a motion sensor. It's interesting, but in the absence of passengers, they automatically stop. Korean-made escalators are characterized by a smooth and unhurried ride, which guarantees the absence of the possibility of injury to passengers.
In the carriages there is not only an air conditioning system, but also a constantly working video surveillance system - this is both the safety of passengers and the ability to prevent terrorist attacks in time. Passengers also note the fact that there are no advertisements or rubbish at any metro station - perfect order is one of the features of the metro in Almaty.
Official site of the Almaty metro: metroalmaty.kz
