From Buses to Ride-share - Uzbekistan's Quiet Transport Glow-Up

We have spent a bit of time thinking about Uzbekistan recently. This is for a few reasons:

1. The Stans (well at least some of them) are fast becoming very competitive host nations for sports. We have a lot of good friends through sports in Uzbekistan and it has been amazing to watch the growth they are achieving in sport.

2. We are doing a small white paper in the transport and mobility sector - which is eye opening and above all fun! The paper focuses on accessibility, which is something close to our hearts with our previous para sports roles.

3. Our talented business partner is shortly travelling there, so we thought we would captialize on her trip:)

Looking in chat forums, it's clear that there is a lot of misunderstanding in the country when it comes to ride share. People realise their carefully downloaded Uber app is a digital paperweight.

"No, dear visitor. We do not Uber here. We Yandex or Uklon".

That small cultural fact - Uzbekistan's rideshare market has two key players with the larger one wearing a yellow Yandex jacket - may seem insignificant but it is the perfect entry point into one of 2026's more underreported transport stories.

While Western travel writers recycle photos of Registan Square, Uzbekistan is hauling its public transport network out of the Soviet 1980s with surprising speed, a fleet of Chinese electric buses, and, finally, a serious conversation about whether a wheelchair user can actually board a bus.

One thing to remember is that Uzbekistan is Military Vector. They work with every country and are effective neutral - this means fast growth in today's PT market.

The Yandex Monopoly

Yandex Go held about 86% of the Uzbek rideshare market in 2023. In March, Yandex Uzbekistan signed a sponsorship deal with the country's Professional Football League - the rideshare equivalent of putting your name on the national stadium!

Uber, Lyft, Bolt and Grab are not in town although Uklon is, and they are growing very fast and effectively.

Pricing is also good across the board; trips are about the same as an Auckland flat white.

The catch for Yandex: the app has no meaningful wheelchair-accessible vehicle category, and the fleet is overwhelmingly standard sedans.

Convenience for some, invisibility for others - especially those who identify as having a physical or mental impediment - this is an area that other companies can move into.

Metro: Beautiful, Expanding, Occasionally Forgetting the Lift

The Tashkent Metro is a tourist attraction in its own right - the Pakhtakor chandeliers make European, and us Australian and New Zealand transit nerds weep gently. It looks like it was made for royalty and probably was!

By late 2026, at least six new stations are expected to open, completing a ground-level ring through the centre and pushing the Chilonzor line out to the Ring Road. Daily ridership on the new section alone is forecast at 85,000.

So far, so good. Now the awkward bit: brand-new stations such as Turkistan have opened without lifts. In 2026. A reported 85% of Tashkent's buildings remain unsuitable for people with limited mobility, and roughly 70,000 Tashkenters live with some form of impairment. A January 2026 bill will require ramps and handrails at bus stops, and a $200 million World Bank package signed off in March funds bus-stop accessibility upgrades. The direction is right. The pace is "marshrutka pulling away from Chorsu."

Electric Buses: 1,200 Reasons Not to Inhale Deeply

The bus story is unambiguously good. Uzbekistan has imported around 750 electric buses, 520 of them in Tashkent, with another 202 Yutongs added late last year. By the end of 2026, authorities plan to deploy a further 1,200 modern buses - 30 articulated 18-metre giants, 500 standard 12-metres, 470 nimble 9-metres - targeting a 50% electric fleet by 2030.

Crucially, low-floor electrics are accessible by default. Sometimes the cleanest path to inclusion is just replacing the bus!

The BRT, sadly, remains the vibe of BRT without the physics: red paint, inconsistent boarding islands, patchy signal priority. Reform pending.

The Stans Scoreboard

How do other Stans compare?

• Kazakhstan is the regional honour student: 79% of city buses meet accessibility standards, the Invataxi adapted-minivan fleet has hit 1,426 vehicles with an audacious 34,000 target, and a $26.5 billion transport-sector ambition is on the table.

• Kyrgyzstan is the fast growing underdog - ADB is financing 120 battery-electric, fully accessible buses for Bishkek.

• Tajikistan is grinding away on Middle Corridor rail.

• Turkmenistan has taken the CIS chair for 2026 and announced a transport agenda - the diplomatic equivalent of a 40-page menu and no entrée yet!

Verdict

The vehicles are improving quickly. The infrastructure however is sprinting to catch up...and if they can get the accessibility piece right, will have an amazing system moving forward!

Til next time

Andrew

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Transit Trends · Andrew Collings, KA Advisory. Read and comment on the original on LinkedIn.

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