24 HOURS on Kazakhstan’s OLDEST Night Train…

Kazakhstan is one of the world's biggest countries and as you'd expect it takes a long time to get around today I'll be making a 24-hour long journey through modern day Kazakhstan aboard one of the country's Soviet era carriages we'll be taking a look at all parts of the experience from the Cozy retro interior to the less glamorous Parts experience seeing this country's vast step landscape in a brutal winter while we stop off in its rural areas join me for an incredible journey back in time through this amazing country welcome back to another video and I'm going to be taking the Kazakhstan Railways train up to Northside the country's capital city for this journey I'm on board the turksib Astana which is one of the privately operated trains here in Kazakhstan and I'm in a coupe second classroom so let's go so you may notice that I'm in a car for the start of today's video well almati has two main stations for long distance trains the creatively named almati one and the similarly imaginative almati II the latter is located vaguely close to the city's Center while almati one is not even slightly close my train is annoyingly departing from Almaty one station which can easily be upwards of an hour's driving peak times so be sure to head to the station in plenty of time [Music] many different bus services also surf the station but from my observations these were often packed anyway welcome to Almighty one station originally dating back to 1929 with at least three major ovals since I'm running a little bit late due to heavy traffic on the roads so let's waste no time in getting inside before being granted access to the Concourse area all passengers must first pass through your security check now don't worry this isn't as time consuming as at an airport and I was through in about one minute I'll Massey one station was last overhauled about 10 years ago in 2013. it's actually quite a modern station definitely a lot more than my carriage for the 24-hour trip tonight one side of the station features a ticket office though personally I'd recommend booking online using Kazakhstan temerjal's pretty decent website which is easy to use and even has an English option as well as the ability to select your exact place on the train especially as the trains can often sell out in peak season our Massey one is an aesthetically pleasing station with a design that also has some cultural meaning the Kazakh people were traditionally Nomads so it makes a lot of sense to see traditional nomadic patterns made out of the floor tiles the station has everything you'd need from Plenty of seating to all sorts of shops selling gadgets to keep you entertained as well as snacks and drinks there are also a few restaurants here should you wish to grab a meal before boarding your train even a hairdressers can be found in the station and perhaps strangest of all a claw machine game I've never seen that in a station anyway my train today is number 43 the 1802 service to costanay it's already waiting at platform number two so let's head outside and take a look here it is this train is in the old cyan Livery of kazakhstan's National Railway operator Kazakhstan curiously this train is actually operated by a private company called toxibustana very little information exists in English about these private operators in Kazakhstan but from what I can tell the national operator runs the locomotive and technical side while the private operator is responsible for the staff and carriages today's train has two very different types of carriage these brand new Russian carriages were built just a few years ago as part of a rolling program to replace the previous Fleet then there's the Soviet era Fleet built in what was then East Germany from the 1960s there's no way to tell which type of carriage you'll get so you just have to wait and find out though due to unforeseen circumstances I'll be traveling in both of these Carriage Types on this 24-hour Journey stay tuned to find out why our train will be hauled by this chinese-built type kz4ac this Fleet of 27 electric locomotives are responsible for most passenger operations on kazakhstan's electric rail network and as you can imagine they certainly cover a lot of distance in a year let's head over to the train almati one station has just three tracks so it's not easy to get lost here the platforms here are always busy with activity plenty of locals come to the station to sell their goods apples are a local specialty in almati so I'd highly recommend sampling some you definitely won't have any trouble finding them [Music] all right with local produce in hand I think it's time to get on board I'm traveling in coach 11 today which is one of the Soviet era amendorf carriages from East Germany boarding is simple with the carriage attendant waiting for any book passengers on the platform [Applause] once your ticket is checked your name is crossed off the list as you are shown to your room I've booked the entire room to make filming easier this involves buying four separate tickets which can sometimes confuse staff anyway now I'm all explained let's get settled and have a look at today's route we'll be traveling west first towards Shu before making a reversal to continue North stopping at many stations across the kazakhst step the journey is scheduled to take 24 hours and one minute to cover the 1 329 kilometers or about 826 miles we depart Almighty one on time at 1802 beginning our one day long journey across the country [Music] it seems like I've caught the station at a busy time with lots of Locos shunting around the local area with most rail journeys in Kazakhstan being very long there are only a few multiple units in operation in the country much of the fleet is still made up of Soviet era locomotives real Freight is a huge thing in Kazakhstan thanks to its borders with Russia and China as well as sitting upon the Caspian Sea in fact cargo makes up 88 of the railway's revenue with over 50 of the country's Freight traveling by rail but now let's have a look around the compartment here on this Soviet train all compartments in second class more commonly referred to as CUPE contain four beds they feature sliding doors which can be locked in fact they feature three locks so there's certainly no security concerns here these carriages look like they've barely been touched since they were built way back in the mid-1980s they feel very homely and are a great place to spend hours or days traveling in flight controls can be found next to the door allowing you to turn off the warm yellow lights in the night bedding for all four baths can be found on the top bunk [Music] more blankets can be found above the door for when it gets cold during the day the two lower bunks are used for sitting on these are fairly comfortable and very spacious given the maximum occupancy of these rooms is four people these lower bunks also lift up to provide Secure Storage for luggage nobody can get to it while you're sleeping on top of it you do need to make the bed yourself but this is easy enough the sheets are brought to you by the prevonitsa or Carriage attendant with the packs featuring a pillowcase and a cover for the mattress as well as a top sheet this was actually a really comfortable bed and as I had the room to myself I even used two of the mattresses for extra Comfort the pillow was also really soft also if you want more space then the other bunks can be folded and locked away thank you out the window you can find some curtains these might look nice but they're fairly useless as if you pull them too hard then they'll just fall off rather more useful is the window blind which is a bit more durable than the curtains even being too stiff once the lights are off then you can use the individual reading lights for each bunk these gave off such a welcoming Ambience and made the trains feel just like a visit to an old babushka's house anyway at this point I thought it was time to go to bed but first time for a drink unfortunately this service doesn't have a restaurant car so your best advice to bring plenty of snacks however the private needs at the end of The Carriage will be happy to supply tea and water and a selection of snacks too if you're lucky hot water can be dispensed from the samovar at the same end of the carriage this cold heated boiler is also responsible for the Train's heating system and there's a bit of a story involving that later on in the video officially a cup of tea is meant to cost 22 kazakhtenge which is very cheap however whenever I tried to pay it was always refused and one last thing before bed you may have noticed I've not shown you the plug sockets yet well that's because the rooms don't have any if you really need some emergency power then you can find just three European style plug sockets in the corridor I finally ended up going to sleep around 23.40 easily dozing off in my comfortable bed eventually I woke up some 10 hours later taking advantage of the long travel time to get a lion this station is akadir a fairly small City in the center of Kazakhstan after a 15-minute stop We are continuing North on the way to nurse Sultan by the way Kazakhstan has actually renamed its capital city again since I filmed this video nowadays the city is known as Astana we're now in the vast step of Kazakhstan a region stretching the entire northern part of this massive country for some the scenery may be boring but personally I find it very relaxing to sit back and stare off into the emptiness most of the views on the remainder of the route will consist of Railway infrastructure and the occasional passing train also look out for wild horses horses have an important history in Kazakhstan where scientists believing the first horses were domesticated in the region nowadays they are a popular food in modern Kazakhstan believe it or not this tiny Trackside Shack is actually one of our stations today Isa is a very small settlement but still gets multiple trains a day on this route [Music] one thing I'd noticed since last night is that the train was really rather cold now I decided to try and warm myself up with another questionably free cup of tea while I drank this I also topped up my phone's battery with a power bank this is really an essential item when traveling in this part of the world and I'm sure I don't need to be the one who tells you that Wi-Fi is not available on this service as this train is a very slow service it doesn't have high priority on the network much of the time we wait in Freight yards for other trains to overtake [Music] anyway let's go and take a look at the toilets one of these is provided at each end of the carriage sometimes there's a wheelchair accessible toilet however I didn't see one on my train these toilets are clearly not in the best condition so I would always recommend bringing hand sanitizer also there was no toilet seat so good luck with that plenty of soap was provided and the water was working fine by the way you need to push the bottom of the tap upwards to release water toilet paper was present however this is often not the case so be prepared and bring your own at around 13 15 we arrive in tokaraganda the city of karaganda is the first and only major city on today's route being kazakhstan's fifth most populated city with around half a million residents the platforms here feature plenty of outlets to get a snack and whilst I personally had plenty of supplies I did take advantage of the long 30-minute stop here to get a bit of fresh air having said that karaganda is actually kazakhstan's most polluted city also having some of the worst air quality in the world this is thanks to its history as a mining town during Soviet times [Music] at this point with help from Google translate explained to me that the carriage's heating system had failed and it certainly couldn't be a shortage of coal either as a tractor came along for reloading after we departed karaganda I was taken to another carriage this was one of the brand new Russian designed carriages rather surprisingly built by the Spanish company talgo here in Kazakhstan but I wasn't just put in any normal compartment this was the dedicated staff compartment things got a little bit awkward when people started coming up to me asking questions and trying to get a cup of tea our slow Journey continues once again being shunted to the side to allow faster trains to overtake even freight trains seems to take higher priority [Music] one of the big positives about this newer Carriage was the presence of plug sockets allowing me to charge up my phone and Camera there was also a modern and Clean vacuum toilet which is a stark contrast to the Soviet era design with the winter sun once again low in the sky this is an indication that our one day long ride is nearly over so how much does all this cost well I paid 7868 10 gear per bed which for a journey of this length is clearly excellent value for money for all four beds in the room this cost 31 472 10 gear which is still a really good price as we approach Nur Sultan 1 we can see sightings full of carriages this includes kazakhstan's newest talgo trains which use very small carriages and a unique wheel layout these feature a restaurant carriage and even rooms with showers so let me know if you want to see a video on kazakhstan's Flagship overnight train Fleet after just over 24 hours we arrived into nurseal tanwan station around 10 minutes late at 1813. overall I really enjoyed my slow ride through Kazakhstan with the big exception of the failed heating the Soviet era carriages are a delightful way to travel even if very dated having said that you can't complain too much for a journey at such a great price at this station an additional Carriage was added to replace the one with failed heating while the Loco is changed for a brand new oust on Prima as always let me know in the comments what you thought of Kazakhstan strain from the Soviet era do you reckon you could manage 24 hours on this thing if you enjoyed watching my kazakhrowers experience then you'll definitely want to watch this video on screen now

Channel: Superalbs Travels

Views: 218,759

Keywords: Superalbs Travels

Id: ezyQacrlkk8

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023