Talk:Moskovsky Rail Terminal

"Terminal" or "Station"?

Is "terminal" always an appropriate word to translate the Russian vokzal in station names?

Moskovsky Rail Terminal (Saint Petersburg) is indeed a terminal, since it's the last station on its line: all trains that come in have to reverse to leave it. This is also the case with 6 out of 9 main Moscow terminals. The other 3 main stations in Moscow - Kursky Rail Terminal, Savyolovsky Rail Terminal, and Belorussky Rail Terminal - each have a pair of tracks that continue "beyond" the terminal, and are used by some scheduled commuter trains (e.g., commuter trains coming from the west to Moscow's Belorussky Rail Terminal can continue beyond the "terminal" and leave Moscow toward the north via Savyolovsky Rail Terminal, or to the south via Kursky Rail Terminal). One can thus argue that the term "terminal" is not very appropriate when applied to those three stations; however, I'd rather not start this diuscussion now, since it's so much easier to let existing articles names remain as they are. (I guess, a counter-argument may be that those stations are "almost" terminals: only one pair of tracks continue beyond the terminal, and only a small fraction of all trains use them. Nonetheless, one may note that, according to Google and Google Books, "Belorussky Train Station" or "Belorussky Railway Station" may be a lot more common, outside of Wikipedia, than Belorussky Rail Terminal. Note also that books talking about Lenin in 1917 usually mention "Finland Station", not "terminal").

But what about not-yet written articles about the main stations in cities such as Nizhny Novgorod? Calling the main station (Moskovsky Vokzal) Moskovsky Rail Terminal (Nizhny Novgorod) seems rather inappropriate, since its not a terminal station at all: all (or most?) tracks run through it, and trains can leave the station in either direction, east or west, much like they do at New York's Penn Station or Indianapolis Union Station. I would therefore suggest something like Moskovsky Rail Station (Nizhny Novgorod), and similar names for other such stations.

I am mostly raising this issue now because it's time to create category on Commons for this building - and it's better to use the same name on Commons and in en wiki. Vmenkov (talk) 12:36, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

I wholeheartedly agree with this argument. It's about time someone started to bring order to the articles about the stations/terminals! My only suggestion is that if a guideline is to be created based on this proposal, no matter what that guideline is going to be, WP:UE would still take priority (i.e., if, under the terms of this proposal, a "station" is better known in English as a "terminal", then "terminal" would be what we'll have to use). Otherwise, the proposal is very logical, and I see no reasons to oppose it.

Also, while you are at it, may I suggest you think of including station/terminal naming conventions in the proposal? Examples of what could use a little standardization include "Moscow" vs "Moskovsky", "Rail" vs "Railroad" vs "Railway", and whether the "rail(road/way) station/terminal" part needs to be capitalized or not.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 13:35, September 15, 2009 (UTC)