HOW TO TRAVEL TO AND AROUND THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN
Travelling by air
Travelling by train
Travelling by car/bus
Travelling by ship/riverboat
Travelling by air
The Republic of Tatarstan has 24 airports. Two of them “Kazan“ and “Begishevo“, have international status, and one “Bugulma“ has national status. 16 of the others serve local routes, two are non-commercial airports belong to Federal defence and sport organisations, and last two belong to the Ministry of the Aviation Industry. Regular flights connect the republic with 26 cities of Russia and countries of the CIS. Direct flights from Germany and Turkey are available.
International airport “Kazan”
Such airlines as Tatarstan National Airlines, Tulpar, IDF, Aerostan, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines use the airport for their planes, as well as Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Kazan International airport has direct flight connection to airports of CIS-countries such as Kiev, Simferopol, Baku, Dushanbe, Samarkand, Tashkent, Fergana, Khujand, Yerevan. Also there are flights of international destination: Dalaman, Istanbul and Antalya (Turkey), Thessalonika (Greece), Frankfurt-on-Main (Germany). Few aircompanies have daily morning and evening return flights to Moscow. During summer time there are direct flights from many countries by Lufthansa.
International airport “Begishevo”
The airport serves Naberezhnye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk and neighbouring area. There are daily return flights to Moscow. Regular return flights are available to the biggest cities of Russia and CIS – Kazan, Moscow, Noyabrsk, Nizhnevartovsk, St. Petersburg, Sochi and Khujand.
Airport “Bugulma”
There are daily return flights to Moscow.
Travelling by train
There is about 1000 km of railway line on the territory of the republic, of which 250 km are electrified. The main line goes through the cities of Zelenodolsk, Kazan and Agryz (Moscow-Ekaterinburg connection). Another line goes through the oil-extracting areas in the south-east part of the republic (Moscow-Chelyabinsk connection). There are the less important lines going north-south direction from Zelenodolsk to Ulyanovsk and from Agryz to Bugulma.
The most links connecting the European (Western) part of Russia to the eastern part pass through Kazan. Every day the trains to or from Moscow, the main Western destination, one by one stop in Kazan. There is a special extra-comfortable train on this line called “Tatarstan”.
↑top
Travelling by car/bus
There is a total of 18,300 kilometres of roads in Tatarstan (1994). 33% of populated rural areas are not connected to the public highway network by tarmac roads.
Bus transportation facilities represented by the network of public coach and bus routes in the republic cover about 55,500 kilometres. Inner-city and village routes are to 2458 km, and suburban and interurban routes cover 11,378 and 41,677 km. More than 2000 buses from a total 3000 work these routes on daily basis. Inter-city connection schedule is regular and has intervals as few times per day. Inner-city connection has intervals from 5 to 30 minutes. Private transport in the republic is the most available and cheap one. A passenger is paying a fixed price not for distance but for a trip, no matter how long it can take. Prices are more than reasonable: for bus it is about $0.1, for express bus $0.2, for tram or trolley $0.1. The frequency of arrival and departure is high every 5-15 minutes from 6 a.m. till 12 p.m., and 45 minutes to 1 hour during night. Network of routes is very extended, so it is possible to reach any part of a town or city.
↑top
Travelling by ship/riverboat
Kazan has the largest port on the river Volga. It can receive ship or boat from any Russian city that has water connection. Other important ports, but on the river Kama, are Naberezhnye Chelny, Elabuga, Krasnyi Klyuch (at Nizhnekamsk) and Chistopol. The waterway transportation is reliably navigable from March till October.
↑top