Transforming Urban Mobility in Tashkent Through Public Transport Reform and Electrification

The World Bank–supported roadmap shows that Tashkent’s fast-growing city-region is suffering from fragmented transport governance, car dependence, and unequal access, and argues that public transport reform is critical for cleaner air, safer roads, and social inclusion. It proposes metropolitan-level coordination, fair contracting, electric buses, and integrated bus corridors to turn public transport into a reliable, competitive alternative to private cars.

Prepared by the World Bank in collaboration with the Government of Uzbekistan, with analytical support from the International Finance Corporation and consultancy work by Integrated Transport Planning Ltd., and funded by the Korea Green Growth Trust Fund, a study, Public Transport Improvement Roadmap for the Tashkent Region, examines how Uzbekistan’s capital region can modernize a public transport system struggling to meet fast-growing demand. Tashkent city and its surrounding region are home to about five million people and are expanding rapidly, particularly in satellite towns outside the city. While economic growth has accelerated, transport systems have lagged, leading to rising car ownership, heavier congestion, longer travel times, and worsening air quality.

Public transport has failed to keep pace with this growth, especially in the region outside the city core. Only a small share of regional residents live within walking distance of bus stops, forcing many people to rely on private cars or informal services. This has increased traffic crashes, worsened pollution, and reduced access to jobs and services, particularly for women, low-income households, and those traveling outside peak hours.

Why Public Transport Is Falling Short

The report finds that institutional fragmentation is a major reason public transport performs poorly. Responsibilities for planning, financing, contracting, traffic management, and enforcement are split among national ministries, Tashkent city, and the Tashkent region. This overlap leads to weak coordination, slow decision-making, and unclear accountability, serious problems in a metropolitan area where daily travel crosses administrative boundaries.

Operational and financial arrangements reinforce these challenges. The public bus operator dominates city services and benefits from state support, while private operators, who run most regional routes, face high borrowing costs and little financial protection. Informal marshrutka services fill service gaps but operate with limited oversight, focusing on peak-hour profits rather than reliability or safety. As a result, competition is weak, service quality is uneven, and investment remains limited.

Government Reforms and Their Limits

In 2023, the government launched major reforms through a Presidential Resolution aimed at improving service quality, attracting private investment, introducing gross cost contracts, expanding bus priority lanes, and accelerating the shift to electric buses. The roadmap acknowledges real progress, including more predictable funding for city buses and the rollout of electric fleets.

However, the report also finds that these reforms are still incomplete. Gross cost contracts have stabilized payments but have not yet created fair competition or clear service standards. Bus lanes have been introduced, but weak enforcement, illegal parking, and unsafe road design mean they have delivered only modest improvements. Electric buses offer major environmental benefits, but their high upfront cost and short contract periods make them financially risky for private operators, especially on long regional routes.

A New Vision: Metropolitan Governance and Clean Buses

To address these issues, the roadmap proposes a clear shift toward metropolitan governance. It recommends creating a city-region public transport authority, possibly built around the proposed Center for Traffic Management, to unify planning, contracting, ticketing, and corridor management across Tashkent city and region. International examples from Europe and Latin America show that such authorities can improve coordination, accountability, and service quality.

Within this framework, gross cost contracts would be redesigned to focus on service performance, clear standards, and equal treatment of public and private operators. To scale up electric buses, the report proposes new business models, such as pooled procurement and leasing arrangements, which can reduce costs and attract private financing. These approaches have already succeeded in countries like India, Chile, and Colombia.

Turning Strategy into Action on Key Corridors

The roadmap applies these ideas to two priority regional corridors linking Chirchiq and Nurafshon to Tashkent city. These routes serve tens of thousands of daily commuters but currently suffer from congestion, unreliable services, and poor transfer facilities. The proposed solution combines dedicated bus lanes, better traffic management, safe pedestrian access, modern passenger hubs, integrated ticketing, and electric bus deployment.

Crucially, the report stresses that institutional reform and infrastructure investment must happen together. Pilot corridors can demonstrate what works, build capacity, and create momentum for wider reform. If implemented well, the roadmap argues, Tashkent can move away from car dependence toward a cleaner, safer, and more inclusive transport system, one that supports economic growth, protects public health, and improves everyday life for millions of residents.