KAZAKHSTAN: President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was issued ticket number 001 when he travelled from the airport to Ulttyk Museum to inaugurate Asata Light Rail Transit Line 1 on May 16.
Tokayev said the opening was an event of special significance for Astana and for Kazakhstan, saying ‘the capital should eventually develop into a transport hub of Eurasia.’
Astana LRT Line 1
The 22.4 km LRT Line 1 is an automated light metro rather than a light rail line. The 1 520 mm gauge route is designed for a maximum speed of 80 km/h and fully segregated from road traffic, with 11 stops at ground level and seven elevated.
Line 1 starts at Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport Äuejai station in the southeast of the city and runs to the Nūrly Jol railway station in the east, serving destinations including the Botanical Garden, Abu Dhabi Plaza, Astana Arena, the House of Ministries and the Grand Mosque. The depot is located northwest of the airport terminus.
Services operated by municipally-owned City Transportation Systems run every 5 to 10 min between 06.00 and 23:00, with an end-to-end journey time of 40 min.
LRT development
Conceptual designs for a 41·8 km north-south line were unveiled in 2011, and a framework agreement for implementation of the project was signed in May 2015 by project promoter Astana LRT LLP and a Chinese consortium led by contractor China Railway International Group.
Construction works for the 22.4 km first phase began in May 2017. However, a bank backing the project ran into problems in 2019, and then-President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev stopped construction of the partly-built project on cost grounds in 2020.
The project stagnated until the city announced funding to relaunch it in 2022. In 2023 a new agreement was reached with a consortium of China Railway Group and the China Construction Sixth Engineering Bureau Co., a subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Co.
Local media reports that the overall project cost remained at €1.5bn, as had been approved in 2016, although technical specifications and the train design were updated.
Automated trainsets
CRRC Tangshan has supplied 19 trainsets specifically designed for the local climate. Each four-car set is 60 m long with a capacity of 600 passengers at 6/m².
Noise-reduction features include large-diameter wheels, and an electric heating system will prevent the windows from fogging up during sudden temperature changes.
Chinese partners supplied the communications-based train control technology supporting GoA4 unattended automatic operation.
Second phase
The city of Astana is planning a second phase of LRT development with several extensions and new corridors which would add a further 26.5 km and 20 stations.
The plans include an 8 km nine-station extension toward the older central railway station Astana-1, a branch toward the residential district of Zhagala and an extension toward the satellite city of Kosshy, for which the first structures are now in place.