Transport in Aktobe

 

Bus 15 from the station runs the full length of Abilkayyr Khana and back. Intercity buses leave from Avtostantsia Ekspress.

 

The airport sits at the southern edge of the city. Air Astana offers four flights a week to Astana and a daily flight between Almaty and Aktobe. There is also one Air Astana weekly connection between Aktobe and Frankfurt, though on a less than convenient routing, via Astana. Scat flies six times a week to Aktau, with onward connections to Baku, Mineralnye Vody, Tbilisi or Yerevan depending on the day, and four times a week to Atyrau, with onward connections to Baku. Scat also offer six flights a week to Astana and two a week to both Almaty and Moscow.

The railway station is at the heart of the old town. Aktobe lies on the route of the Orenburg-Tashkent railway, and trains stopping here include the services from Moscow to Almaty, Tashkent and Bishkek.Trains from the station run at least once daily to Almaty (40 to 46 hours), Aralsk (11 hours), Moscow (37 hours), Orenburg (Russia, 7 hours), Shymkent (31 hours) and Uralsk (12 hours). Trains to Uralsk, including the Moscow-bound 7 and 387, duck into Russia en route and require a Russian visa and possibly a double-entry Kazakhstan visa.

Longdistance taxis are to be found in the square outside the railway station.

There are two bus stations. The modern Ekspress bus station sits on the edge of town, to the north of Aliya Moldagulova Avenue: heading eastwards along that thoroughfare, turn left after crossing over the railway bridge. This is a long-distance station, mostly focused on destinations in Russia, offering reasonably comfortable buses, often boasting television (a mixed blessing) and an on-board toilet. Daily destinations include Astana (26 hours), Uralsk (8 hours) and Russian cities including Orenburg (6 hours), Orsk (3,5 hours) and Samara (14 hours).

The Sapar bus station is further east along the same road. This is a battered, Soviet-era building, with a picture of a winged bus above the ticket counters. It serves various destinations within Aktobe Region of no strong touristic interest, together with some departures to closer destinations in Russia, including five departures daily to Orsk and two to Orenburg. There is also one bus every other day to Astana.