Learn Hardcore Russian: Туристический автобус стоит у вокзала. - The tourist bus is standing at the station.

у вокзала – literally by the station, usually outside or right next to the building/complex.
- Туристический автобус стоит у вокзала.
  The bus is next to the station, probably outside.
на вокзале – at the station in the sense of on the territory / in the station area (inside the building, on the platforms, etc.).
- Я жду тебя на вокзале. – I’m at the station (inside/within it) waiting for you.

So у вокзала emphasizes near the station, while на вокзале emphasizes being on/within the station area.

Why does Russian use стоит (“stands”) for a bus instead of a verb that literally means “is parked” or just “is”?

In Russian, inanimate objects and vehicles that are in a vertical or resting position are often described with verbs like:

стоять – to stand
лежать – to lie
висеть – to hang

For vehicles (cars, buses, trucks) that are stopped and not moving, стоять (to stand) is the most common verb:

Машина стоит у дома. – The car is (parked) by the house.
Автобус стоит у вокзала. – The bus is (standing/parked) by the station.

Using быть (to be) in the present (есть) is usually omitted, so you would not say … автобус есть у вокзала here. Стоит is the natural, idiomatic choice.

How is стоит pronounced, and where is the stress?

Стоит is pronounced as sta-EET (two syllables), with the stress on the -ит:

IPA: [stɐˈit]

A common mistake is to pronounce it as one syllable like English “stoyt”; that’s incorrect. It should clearly sound like two syllables: сто-ит.

What is the difference between стоит and находится in this kind of sentence?

Both can describe location, but they feel slightly different:

стоит (from стоять) – literally stands. For buildings, vehicles, objects that “stand” somewhere. It also suggests they are upright and stationary.
- Автобус стоит у вокзала.
находится (from находиться) – is located, more neutral and formal, often used for official or general locations:
- Автобусная остановка находится у вокзала. – The bus stop is located by the station.

You can say:

Туристический автобус находится у вокзала.

It’s grammatically correct, but in everyday speech стоит sounds more natural for a bus that is just sitting there at the moment.

Why is it туристический автобус and not something like туристский автобус or автобус для туристов?

All of these are possible in Russian, but they differ in style and frequency:

туристический автобус – the most common, neutral phrase for a tourist coach / tour bus.
туристский автобус – also correct, but sounds more formal or bookish; it’s less common in everyday speech.
автобус для туристов – literally a bus for tourists; this describes the function more explicitly and can be used when you want to emphasize for whom it is.

In this sentence, туристический автобус is the normal, idiomatic way to describe a tour bus.

How do туристический and автобус agree grammatically?

In Russian, adjectives agree with nouns in:

gender
number
case

Here:

автобус – masculine, singular, nominative
туристический – masculine, singular, nominative (ends in -ий)

So:

туристический автобус – a tourist bus (masc., singular, nominative + nominative)

If we changed the case or number, the adjective would change too:

Genitive singular: туристического автобуса
Plural nominative: туристические автобусы

Can the word order be У вокзала стоит туристический автобус? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, У вокзала стоит туристический автобус is perfectly correct.

Basic meaning is the same, but the focus changes slightly:

Туристический автобус стоит у вокзала.
Neutral: we are talking about the bus and saying where it is.
У вокзала стоит туристический автобус.
Now the phrase starts with the location, so it sounds more like:
By the station, there is a tourist bus standing there.
The place у вокзала is more in focus.

Both are natural; choice depends on what you want to emphasize first: the bus or the location.

Could we say Туристический автобус есть у вокзала in the present tense?

No, that sounds unnatural here.

In modern Russian, the present-tense form есть of the verb быть (to be) is usually omitted in simple statements of existence or location:

Автобус у вокзала. (rare, but possible in specific contexts)
Автобус стоит у вокзала. – natural

Туристический автобус есть у вокзала could be understood, but it sounds odd and not idiomatic. Use стоит (or another verb of position) instead.

What does у mean here, and how is that different from у in у меня есть?

The preposition у has a few related meanings, all followed by the genitive case.

Location: by/at/near
- у вокзала – by/at the station
- у окна – by the window
Possession: at someone / someone has
- у меня есть книга – literally at me there is a book → I have a book
- у неё есть машина – she has a car

Same preposition, same genitive, but:

With things/places: у + place → by/near that place
With people/pronouns: у + person → often expresses possession.

What exactly is a вокзал? Is it any station?

Вокзал usually means a large passenger station, especially:

a railway station (most common meaning)
sometimes a big bus terminal (then specifically автовокзал)

It does not normally refer to small stops or metro stations. For those, Russian uses words like станция (station), остановка (stop), etc.

So in this sentence, у вокзала is most naturally understood as by the main railway station or by the big station building.

How would the sentence change if there were several tourist buses instead of one?

You need plural forms:

Туристические автобусы стоят у вокзала.

Changes:

туристический → туристические (plural nominative adjective)
автобус → автобусы (plural nominative noun)
стоит → стоят (3rd person singular → plural)

Everything else stays the same.