Transport in Taraz

Taraz’ Aulie-Ata airport, 8km from the centre off the Shymkent road, has three SCAT flights a week to Almaty and four to Astana. The train station (Baluan Sholak) is 4km south of the centre. At least five daily trains run to Almaty (9,5 hours) and six or more to Shymkent (four hours). There’s at least one a day to Astana, Turkistan and Aralsk. From the bus station (Zhambyl), 4km northeast of the centre, minibuses leave when full for Almaty (eight hours, until 6pm) and Shymkent (three hours, until about 6pm). Shared taxis to Almaty (seven hours) leave from outside the bus station during daytime. Shared taxis to Shymkent (2,5 hours) wait on Zhambyl just north of Tole Bi. The road to Almaty is mostly in decent condition except for the badly potholed 160km stretch skirting the Kyrgyz border between Merki and Korday.