Kazakhstan Spends Billions To Keep Train Tickets Cheap

Each railway passenger in Kazakhstan receives about 8,100 tenge in subsidies from KTZ and the state budget, Orda.kz reports.

Energy expert Olzhas Baidildinov pointed this out after a Samruk-Kazyna public council meeting dedicated to the work of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy.

In 2025, KTZ transported 13.6 million passengers. In total, 19 million people traveled by rail in Kazakhstan.

Subsidies for passenger transportation rose from 137.7 billion to 154.2 billion tenge over the year. Of this amount, 108.7 billion tenge was covered by KTZ itself, while another 45.5 billion tenge was reimbursed from the state budget.

Baidildinov gave a conditional calculation. If 154.2 billion tenge in subsidies is divided by 19 million passengers, the result is about 8,100 tenge per person.

Of course, this is not exactly how it should be calculated, but still: 154.2 billion tenge divided by 19 million passengers means each passenger receives a direct subsidy from KTZ and the state budget of 8,100 tenge for each ticket,he said.

According to Baidildinov, this figure is important because passenger transportation remains unprofitable for KTZ and other companies, given Kazakhstan’s long distances.

He believes passenger losses eventually put pressure on freight and export tariffs. In other words, a cheap passenger ticket is partly paid for not only by KTZ and the budget, but by the entire transportation system.

The analyst said the problem stems from distorted tariffs. Passenger transportation is unprofitable, some domestic freight routes also fail to generate profit, and the state restrains tariffs and fuel prices. As a result, subsidies appear in several places at once, weakening the economic logic of railway transportation.

Original author: Alexander Zhdanov

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