page_title: Marshrutka
section_title: "Everybody pays" fast buses
hierarchical_section_title: Marshrutka / History / Modern days (2000–present) / Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova / "Everybody pays" fast buses
caption_attribution_description: Photo taken at Vokzal plaza, Kiev, Ukraine. The main focus is the stopped en:Marshrutka.
context_page_description: Marshrutka or routed taxicab, is a form of public transportation such as share taxi which originated in Soviet Russia and is still present in Russia and other countries of CIS, in Baltic states, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Armenia. The role of the modern marshrutka is theoretically similar to the share taxi, which uses minibuses in some other countries. The first marshrutka was introduced in Moscow, Russia in 1938.
context_section_description: In Kyiv, Ukraine and probably other places marshrutkas evolve into "everybody pays" fast buses. The vehicles can be small, medium-size, and sometimes big buses, with a higher fare than on ordinary municipally funded buses. The main thing about marshrutkas is they do not carry pensioners and the disabled; depending on the city, students, law enforcement workers, and civil servants (pass holders) ride for free.   Marshrutkas will not take more free passengers (e.g. disabled) than the strictly limited quantity of one per vehicle, while in ordinary buses, trolleybuses and trams the number is not limited and more categories of people (pensioners, etc.) have the right to ride for free. This is the reason why there are many times more marshrutkas in the city than ordinary buses, trolleybuses and trams altogether. 
  Since municipally funded buses must transport pass holders for free, naturally pass holders tend to use a municipal bus versus a private bus. The word "taxi" is needed just to answer the question why they have no free-ride obligations as part of their franchise, as ordinary municipal buses, which are usually "full of free riders", are unprofitable and bring economical loss. A marshrut may even charge the same fare as a municipal bus in the city, but marshrut will still be profitable since there is an effective doubling of the price due to there being one or no free pass riders on board.
  In the 1990s when local authorities temporarily lost their ability to finance city bus work, the bus drivers installed in their buses windows tablets with inscription "Taxomotor." That just meant that every passenger has to pay the fare.
  So, now marshrutkas are public route microbuses, middle-size buses and sometimes big buses which go usually faster than ordinary buses and more frequently, but do not take month subscription tickets and take no more privileged free passengers than the strictly limited quantity of per one marshrutka.
  Stopping marshrutka in the city, at established stops, comes out of practice, being difficult because of the large number of passengers and the high frequency of the stops.
caption: BAZ-A079 Etalon (Tata chassis) (in front) and Bogdan A091 (Isuzu chassis) (behind) marshrutkas. Photo taken at Vokzal plaza, Kyiv
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