We landed at Tbilisi International Airport a late night in July 2021. As usual in small airports, a bevy of taxi drivers swarmed at us no sooner than we stepped into the tiny departure hall of Georgia’s principal airport. And more scurried to offer us a ride from an array of parked cabs before the terminal upon us exiting the building.
We thwarted all of them, simply stating that we intend to wait for the first train in the morning, for we had read online not only that trains run frequently between the airport and the city center, but their precise timetable as well. The first route was allegedly scheduled for 8:35 AM.
So we settled on a bench in front of the terminal and had an uncomfortable sleep until the rainy day dawned. After a good stretch, I quickly went inside the terminal, exchanged some cash and bought a SIM card, and walked out again with a plastic cup of coffee procured by the automatic vendor.
As the day progressed, we shouldered out bags and made for the futuristic train terminal across the street. To our surprise, we found the place utterly abandoned; the ticket counter stripped of all equipment, the platform dusted, the rail tracks engulfed by grasses. I would find hard to believe that any train had run through that station for at least a year or two.
What baffles me even more than the fact that nobody bothered to update that information online is that the taxi drivers, all of them without exception, for some bizarre reason, weren’t quick to inform us about the trains’ inoperability. Instead of readily exclaiming that “guys, there are no trains anymore” to reinforce their ride offers, they only, rather indifferently, said “ok” every time we told them we’ll be taking the train and let us be.
Anyway, fortunately, there were at least buses. We boarded the first one of them that halted before the terminal. The conductor lazily confirmed that it’s bound for the center and sank his face back into his phone, not caring at all to ask us to pay for a ticket. So we got a free ride from the airport to Tbilisi Station Square.
