The Astana Metro is a

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

rapid transit system Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separated rapid transit line below ground surface through a t ...

under construction located in

Astana Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan. With a population of 1,423,726 within the city limits, it is the second-largest in the country after Almaty, which had been the capital until 1997. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

, which is the capital of the country with a population of over 1,000,000.

History

Construction should have finished roughly about the same time as the

Almaty Metro Almaty Metro (, ''Almaty Metropolitenı''; ) is a rapid transit, rapid transit/metro system in Almaty, the largest city and a former capital of Kazakhstan. The first line of the system was opened on 1 December 2011, after more than 23 years of ...

, which was estimated for 2010. However, completion has been postponed several times, in 2011 completion was scheduled to coincide with the Expo in 2017 and as of October 2017 the first stage is planned to be commissioned in December 2019. Project authority Astana LRT LLP signed an agreement with a consortium of China Railway International Group (subsidiary of China Railway Group Limited) and Beijing State-Owned Assets Management Co for construction of the first phase of the capital’s light rail project on May 7, 2015. Construction began in May 2017. The light metro is part of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev's Kazakhstan 2030 economic plan to transform Kazakhstan into an economic power. Video renders of the proposed system show the lines built on viaducts running adjacent to roads, with enclosed stations offering heating and ventilation systems to protect passengers from the

extreme weather Extreme weather includes unexpected, unusual, severe weather, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Extreme events are based on a location's recorded weat ...

variations in the city. The Chinese company constructing the project went bankrupt early 2019. The city hall ordered an indefinite halt to it. Since then, the half-built remnants of the project have become a prominent symbol of corruption within the country. As of 2023, construction has restarted and the LRT is planned to open by 2024-2025. In 2024, it was clarified that the LRT is planned to open in 2025. The Astana LRT will feature ground and elevated stations, with 18 stations spanning a total length of 22.4 kilometers. It will also launch 19 units of rolling stock, each capable of carrying 652 passengers.

Line 1

The North-South route would link Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport with Astana Nurly Zhol railway station via the modern "Left Bank" area of the city centre. The line will have 11 stops and one depot. Capacity is estimated to be 146,000 people per day.

Further phases

Original plans show further phases to link other areas of the city.

References

{{Rapid transit in Asia Transport in Astana Underground rapid transit in Kazakhstan Proposed public transport in Asia Tram and light rail transit systems under construction 2025 in rail transport

History

Line 1

Further phases

See also

References