KYZYLORDA – The Passenger Transportation company launched on Dec. 29 a new high-speed passenger train that will cut the travel time between Astana and Kyzylorda by one third.
“The train consists of 23 cars, including two cars of grand class, two of business class, 14 of tourist class, two dining cars and three technical cars. The train will stop at the following stations during the route: Karaganda, Sary-Shagan, Chu, Zhambyl, Shymkent, Arys-2 and Turkestan. Time of the route to Kyzylorda is 22 hours, 25 minutes and back – 23 hours and 22 minutes,” the company said in a statement, adding that the train would run once every four days.
The first passengers on the Kyzylorda platform were met by Regional Akim (Governor) Krymbek Kusherbayev, who gave his congratulations at the launch of the train.
“The head of state has always paid special attention to the development of road infrastructure. One example of this is the construction of the railway line Zhezkazgan-Saksaulsk and international transport corridor Western Europe-Western China. Launching a new route will save [travellers] 12 hours,” said Kusherbayev, emphasising that this is one of the projects whose implementation was accelerated by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s recent state-of-the-nation address.
Since October, a system has been in place to allow discounts for advance ticket purchases. Passengers who purchased tickets early received discounts of up to 35 percent. By the date of the departure of the trains, the ticket price depending on demand would change (from 44 to 35 days before departure of the train the discount would be up to 35 percent, from 34 to 25 days – up to 25 percent, from 24 to 8 days – up to 15 percent).
