Almaty to Astana: train or plane? Times and fares 2026

01

Train or plane: which should you take?

Take the plane unless you want to spend a night on the train. Flights are scheduled at about 1 h 40 min to 2 h, and even with the trip to both airports you arrive the same morning or afternoon. The fastest train, a Talgo, takes 16 hours; the daily ones take 16 h 39 min to 17 h 24 min.

The train makes sense in one case: you leave Almaty-2 in the late afternoon, sleep in a berth and arrive in Astana the next morning, which saves a hotel night. A coupe berth costs about the same as a cheap flight, and a seat costs less, but a seat for 16 hours through the night is hard going.

We would not take the private trains for this trip. They take 21 to 25 hours, and their coupe costs only about 6,600 ₸ (about $15) less than a Talgo coupe.

02

Which trains run between Almaty and Astana?

Four Talgo pairs and two private trains. The Talgos are run by JSC Passenger Transportation, part of Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ): 003/004 and 009/010 every day, and 105/106 and 119/120 on alternate days. The private carrier Turksib Astana runs 043/044 daily and 015/016 on alternate days.

The times below come from KTZ's booking search, which we ran on 24 September 2026 for departures on 15, 16, 17 and 18 October. KTZ's own train list, titled as the schedule for May 2026, shows the same pattern: 4/3 and 10/9 daily, 105/106 and 119/120 every other day, 43/44 daily and 15/16 every other day. All times are local; Almaty and Astana use the same time zone.

Trains 105, 106, 119 and 120 run on to or from Petropavl and Kostanay, and 015/016 and 043/044 do too. For you, that only means Astana is an intermediate stop, so the train does not wait long there.

03

How much does a ticket cost?

A Talgo seat cost 8,368 ₸ (about $19) and a berth in a four-person compartment 18,698 to 23,724 ₸ ($42–53) for mid-October departures, as shown on 24 September 2026. Lux started at 23,733 ₸ (about $53). KTZ's prices change by date and by how full the train is, so the table gives the range we saw over four days.

Only Talgos 009 and 010 showed a seat class. The other Talgos sold coupe and lux only. The private trains sell platskart, open-plan berths, and coupe; their fares barely changed between dates.

KTZ shows a price strip for the week around your date. Northbound, the cheapest ticket on any train for 12–18 October was 8,368 to 9,720 ₸; southbound, it dropped to 7,861 ₸ for 19 October. The strip shows the cheapest class only, which is usually a seat or a platskart berth.

04

Why does the train take 16–17 hours?

The Talgo is not the fast train older guides describe. In a July 2026 report by Qumash, a passenger recalled the trip taking 11 to 12 hours and complained that it now takes about 17, and over 20 with delays. The October 2026 timetable confirms the 16–17 hours; we found no current KTZ timetable with a shorter time.

Part of the change is the route. From April 2025, Talgos 4/3 and 10/9 stopped calling at Shu, a station where the locomotive was changed, and Kursiv reported the journey falling from over 17 hours to 16. In the October searches those two trains are scheduled at 16 h 39 min to 17 h 24 min.

Delays can add to the journey time. In the same Qumash report, KTZ explained summer lateness by rail temperatures of 58–62 °C, which force speed limits, by station rebuilding and track works, and by heavy summer traffic. Heat-related restrictions affect summer travel; the station works are part of KTZ's programme to modernise more than 100 stations, Almaty-1, Almaty-2 and Astana among them. Do not book a flight or a tight connection for the morning you arrive.

05

Which station: Almaty-2, Nurly Zhol or Astana-1?

In Almaty, go to Almaty-2 for every Talgo. KTZ's notice says that from 15 July 2026, because Almaty-1 is being rebuilt, boarding and alighting at Almaty-1 are temporarily suspended; it lists trains that now pass through Almaty-1 without taking passengers, including 015/016. Trains use Almaty-2.

One conflict matters if you book a private train. On 24 September, KTZ's booking search still sold Turksib Astana's 043/044 with Almaty-1 as the departure and arrival station, and the notice does not name that train. We follow the notice, which means we cannot tell you where 043 boards. If you book it, call KTZ's information centre on 1433 before you travel. The Talgos avoid the question.

In Astana, check the station on your ticket, because the city has two. The October searches put the daily Talgos 003/004 and 009/010 at Nurly Zhol, the station at the end of the airport light-rail line, and every other train at Astana-1. KTZ's train list, titled May 2026, still names 10/9 as an Astana-1 train; the booking search for October shows Nurly Zhol, and the ticket is what counts. KTZ's search still shows Astana-1 as НҰР-СҰЛТАН 1 and names the daily Talgos АЛМАТЫ 2 → НҰР-СҰЛТАН-НҰРЛЫ ЖОЛ. What to see in the city is in our Astana guide.

06

How do you buy a KTZ ticket?

Online on bilet.railways.kz or in KTZ's app, or at a station ticket office in Kazakhstan. KTZ's site rules say sales for long-distance trains open 45 days ahead at 07:00 Astana time and close 10 minutes before departure. We searched but stopped before payment, so we have not confirmed that a card issued abroad goes through.

The rules say payment goes through Halyk Bank's page and accepts Visa and Mastercard cards of second-tier banks, the Kazakh term for commercial banks, as long as the card is open for internet payments. They say nothing specific about foreign cards. If no seats are left, the site offers a waiting list in your account; when a place comes up, you get a notice and one hour to pay.

1. 1

   Search the cities, not a station

   Choose АЛМАТЫ → АСТАНА with your date to see every train. The city search does not show which Astana station a train uses: the train name does for the daily Talgos (→ НҰР-СҰЛТАН-НҰРЛЫ ЖОЛ), and a search to НҰРЛЫ ЖОЛ or to АСТАНА-1 settles it for the rest.

2. 2

   Enter passenger details exactly as in your passport

   The ticket is issued in the passenger's name, and cashiers compare the ticket with the identity document. Use the passport you will travel with.

3. 3

   Pay and print

   After payment the e-ticket is in your account and sent by email. KTZ's rules tell you to print it and show it to the attendant when you board, so carry a printout and your passport.

4. 4

   If your plans change

   You can return the e-ticket in your account up to 1 hour before the train leaves its first station, or at a ticket office in Kazakhstan. The money goes back to the card you paid with, minus a fee of 0.1 of the monthly calculation index, about 430 ₸ in 2026 by our calculation.

07

Flights: airlines, times and airports

Four airlines fly the route. On 24 September 2026, Yandex Schedules listed 106 schedule lines for Almaty → Astana: Air Astana 41, SCAT 34, FlyArystan 29 and Qazaq Air 2. Jets are scheduled at 1 h 25 min to 2 h, mostly 1 h 40 min to 1 h 55 min, and Qazaq Air's De Havilland Dash 8 turboprop at 2 h 15 min to 2 h 20 min. Departures run from just after midnight to 23:40.

The same board showed starting fares of 13,229 ₸ (about $30) on Qazaq Air and 23,216 ₸ (about $52) on FlyArystan, with Air Astana lines from 34,885 ₸. These are an aggregator's lowest prices, not a fare for a given day; check the airline's own site. Many flights change time on 25 October, when the winter schedule starts.

Airport time adds up. Almaty airport's own guide lists Terminal 1 as the domestic terminal and Terminal 2 as international, so a domestic flight leaves from Terminal 1. At the Astana end, the Tarlan Astana light-rail line opened on 16 May 2026 between the airport and Nurly Zhol station: 18 stations, about 40 minutes, 200 ₸ a ride, 06:00–23:00, according to Kazinform. Getting into Almaty from the airport is covered in our Almaty airport guide.

08

Which class should you book, and which trains travel by day?

KTZ offers three classes on Talgo trains: seated, coupe (four-person sleeping compartments) and lux (two-person sleeping compartments). For an overnight journey, we would book coupe. Seats were offered only on 009 and 010 and are the cheapest way to make the trip, but you sit up through the night. Lux cost 1,000 to 12,000 ₸ more than coupe on the dates we checked and had few places: between 1 and 33 per train.

Turksib Astana's trains sell platskart and coupe. Platskart is an open-plan carriage with berths, and the cheapest bed on the route at 8,812 ₸.

If you want to see the steppe, one Talgo runs in daylight: 106 leaves Astana-1 at 06:45 and reaches Almaty-2 at 23:45 the same day, on alternate days. Northbound, only the private 015 leaves in the morning (08:53), and it arrives at 06:25 the next day. Every other train covers most of the route at night.

09

Can you break the journey in Karaganda?

Yes. The Talgos and the private 015 call at Karaganda, and KTZ sells tickets to it, so you can stop off and take another train on to Astana. The catch is the hour: the evening Talgos arrive before dawn.

On 15 October 2026 the search from Almaty-2 showed 003 arriving in Karaganda at 05:03, 009 at 05:54 and 015 at 01:44. Talgo 105 is the only one that arrives by day, at 11:18. From Almaty-2 to Karaganda, a seat on 009 cost 6,767 ₸ and a berth in a four-person compartment on 003 18,608 ₸. We did not check Karaganda to Astana trains for this page; search that part of the journey separately on the same site.

10

Coming from Tashkent or combining with Uzbekistan

The Tashkent–Almaty Talgo 1/2 arrives at Almaty-2 at 08:51, the same station the Astana Talgos leave from at 16:04 and 16:57. By our reckoning that is a same-day connection with about seven hours in Almaty, though we would rather spend a night there. Times and fares for that train are in Tashkent to Almaty. Other trains between the countries are in Central Asia by train.

You buy the ticket in the name on the passport you entered with; entry rules and the QazETA pilot are on our Kazakhstan entry page. For a longer route that joins Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, see Central Asia in 3 weeks, and for all our Kazakhstan pages, the Kazakhstan guides.

11

What can go wrong on this trip?

Mostly time and stations. Plan for a slow train and a late one, and check two things on the ticket: the Astana station and the date of the alternate-day trains.

• The train is slow in any season, and in summer it runs late: a passenger quoted by Qumash in July 2026 said the trip took over 20 hours with delays.
• Lux had 1 to 33 places per train on the dates we checked, and southbound Talgo 120 had only 7 coupe places and 1 lux place left for 16 October.
• Trains 105/106, 119/120 and 015/016 run on alternate days. A train you saw for one date may not exist the next day.
• Astana has two stations. The daily Talgos use Nurly Zhol; the others use Astana-1. KTZ's May 2026 train list and its October booking search disagree about train 10/9, so trust the ticket.
• KTZ's booking search still lists the private 043/044 at Almaty-1, where KTZ has suspended boarding since 15 July 2026. Call 1433 if you book it.
• We have not tested a foreign card on bilet.railways.kz, and the site rules name only Visa and Mastercard of commercial banks.
• The daily southbound Talgos arrive in Almaty after 13:00, so the trip takes an evening, a night and the next morning until early afternoon.

Common questions