Talk:Marshrutka

Kind of weird, I think it should begin with PAZ picture. And I thought PAZ is still the backbone of this transport, because Gazelle is low-capacity and usually the ride is triple the cost –Gnomz⁰⁰⁷(?) 02:46, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

I replaced the image with the one of PAZ, but someone living in Russia should really just take a picture of a real thing. The PAZ picture is not even good enough for the pre-1992 section, because PAZ, even being crampy, crappy, and small, is technically still a real bus, not a mini-cab. Plus, the picture has unverified status.—Ëzhiki (erinaceus amurensis) 12:20, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

Pictures

What kind of minibuses are these monstrosities (I assume the ones in the Kiev and St. Petersburg pictures are the same model)? I've never seen one quite like these before. Just curious.—Ëzhiki (ërinacëus amurënsis) • (yo?); 00:35, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

• Sorry, have not looked. It seems like in SPb they are presently the only one in existence abakharev 01:29, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
  • The St. Petersburg one appears to be some kind of Mercedes Benz minibus (a newer Mercedes-Benz TN, I presume) and is definitely not the Tata Etalon in the Kiev picture.--Paffka (talk) 19:32, 24 July 2008 (UTC)
    • Thanks for clarification!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 19:37, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

City legends

What about suicidal caucasian "Gazellist" without driving license and "40 minutes of horror and you're at home"? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 194.186.150.252 (talk) 14:54, 23 December 2006 (UTC).

A few changes

I took away the verifiable notice because this article is not encyclopedic. It relates the experiences of travellers in former Soviet Bloc countries and provides other travellers with an understanding of a public transport system that is not found in English-speaking countries.

Clarified the GAZelle photo since it is only typical in Russia. I have firsthand experience seeing and travelling on marshrutki in Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Ekaterinburg and Satka (CHEL), as well as in Ukraine (Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Krivoy Rog, Simferopol, Feodosia).

Wavetossed (talk) 21:40, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Just because the article in its current form is based on "experiences of travellers" is not an excuse not to request references. I restored the "unreferenced" note. As for the image caption, I had to remove "Russian" from it because that particular image was taken in Ukraine (I should know, I am the photographer). If you look closer, you'll see that the sign is in Ukrainian and that the license plate is Ukrainian as well.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 13:39, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

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Merging

I think this article should be part of Minibus article instead."Marshrutka" is a slang word by the way. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.219.160.246 (talk) 12:32, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

"Minibus" is a type of vehicle; "marshrutka" is that vehicle in a certain application. The difference is quite significant, so the merger, in my opinion, is unwarranted. The article could, however, use a rename (to routed taxi, for example), as "marshrutka" is not an English word.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 18:25, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Marshrutka is not necessarily a minibus.--achp (talk) 22:12, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I'll indeed rename it. Óðinn (talk) 05:45, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

I don't quite agree with the argument for the move. That argument can be used to rename all traditional articles on wikipedia to some strange English description, that in fact, nobody uses.--Paffka (talk) 18:56, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

Ok, how about the argument that "Marshrutka" is only a Slavic term, whereas in the Baltic, Caucasian and Central Asian states it is called something else?.. Besides, there is a specific policy called WP:NEO. Óðinn (talk) 06:16, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, the fact that it's not marshrutka everywhere is what I agree with as a fair reason to move. Fair enough for the neologism rule whether it sounds right or not. --Paffka (talk) 20:28, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

"Routed taxicab" is the more radical neologism, with a mere 28 (12) English ghits. "Marshrutka" has 15k English ghits. "Marshrutka" is definitely the dominant name, I guess CIS countries and Bulgaria have adopted the term from Russia, whether they're Slavic countries or not. I found another name mentioned only in the Romania section, and it looks like the kind of word that languages of the former Soviet Union would be keen to borrow because it's hard to translate. Another solid argument is that all other Wikipedias have their article named marshrutka in the native spelling, not a translation. Please don't undertake such moves without a careful discussion. Todor→Bozhinov 13:24, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

"Routed taxicab" is hardly a neologism; it's just a rare combination of two English words. If ghits are your concern, I suggest moving the article to "fixed-route taxi" (1,090 ghits) or "routed taxi" (11,000 ghits), both of which are much more Anglophone-friendly than "marshrutka", a word absent from every English dictionary I've consulted.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 14:54, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Editing the article

I think this article needs to be sorted out. There is some structure of the article shown in contents, but there is poor structure within the text, it is just hard to read.

It would be great if somebody who lives in CIS countries (and knows english well) would edit this article to fix its structure and make it more realistic, because as of 2009-06-13 it indeed looks like a single traveller's experience.

I live in Poltava, Ukraine and I can tell a bit about this topic (and I may edit a part of article later). It is necessary to add more 'Bogdan's, because since early 2000's their amount has greatly increased, they are popular in all ukrainian cities, e.g. in Poltava they make ca. 1/2 of all so-called (*1) marshrutkas. Also maybe it would be good to place info about a ticket price in marshrutkas (the differ from 1.25 to >2.50 UAH as I know - as of June 2009).

1: In fact, native people in Poltava doesn't refer 'Bogdan's and 'Tata Etalon's to marshrutkas, either they are reffered to busses along with bigger ones (and the same price of 1.00 UAH). Only smaller ones (Gazelle, BAZ, Rutah, Mercedes Sprinter, and similar) are called marshrutkas (with price of 1.25 UAH, and do not have a conductor). That's all the difference about it. 193.84.90.3 (talk) 17:54, 13 June 2009 (UTC) Roman K.