A friend and I are going on holiday to Georgia in a couple of weeks and I was wondering if any forum members have any experience of the public transport networks in and around the capital?
We would appreciate any advice or tips!
You have to buy a smartcard to use the metro and buses. They have scrapped cash payments on the buses and have scrapped tokens on the metro. But the fares are extremely cheap. It is a decent public transport network.
There are two different types of smartcards for the metro and buses which you can purchase.
A metromoney card costs a refundable GEL2.00 (£0.55) deposit to purchase the card and can be used to purchase this:
GEL1.00 (£0.27) - 90 Minutes
You simply top up your metromoney card with however much you want using cash or card at metro stations and then it will deduct GEL1.00 (£0.27) every time you use it. If you tap in at another metro station or tap in on another bus within 90 minutes then you do not pay anything else. You get 90 minutes of unlimited travel on metros and buses from your first tap at no extra cost.
A subscription card costs a refundable GEL2.00 (£0.55) deposit to purchase the card and can be used to purchase these:
GEL3.00 (£0.82) - 1 Day
GEL20.00 (£5.49) - 1 Week
GEL40.00 (£10.98) - 1 Month
GEL100.00 (£27.45) - 3 Months
GEL150.00 (£41.17) - 6 Months
GEL250.00 (£68.62) - 1 Year
You simply purchase the subscription card using cash or card at a metro station and purchase and load your chosen ticket. This can save you a lot of money if you are planning to use the metro or buses a lot during your stay. So whether you want this subscription card or the metromoney card really depends on how much you are using public transport.
If you are arriving by air then you can take the 337 bus from the airport to the city centre. It runs every twenty minutes from early morning until late evening. There is an office at the airport where you can purchase and load the above two smartcards. There used to be a train to the airport but it no longer runs.
There are also some suburban trains which are very interesting and use old Soviet ER2 Elektrichka units. These are extremely cheap costing either GEL0.50 (£0.14) or GEL1.00 (£0.27) or GEL1.50 (£0.41) or GEL2.00 (£0.55) per ride (depends on the train and distance) and tickets are purchased onboard with cash. They do not accept the above smartcards. But these trains are very infrequent and most routes run just a couple times a day. But if you are interested in taking a ride on some old Soviet ER2 Elektrichka units then i can give you the times. There is a journey out to Gardabani which works well as you can go there and back easily on the same train and you get a view of the villages and countryside outside the city.
Tbilisi also has a network of four cable cars dotted around the city plus one funicular railway. These are interesting to ride on. Some of them accept the main smartcards and some have their own fares. These give you a good view over the city.
