Re: Intercity Bus travel reviews Completely forgot posting about this one:
Had traveled from Bangalore to Thrissur by Shama's Big Bus on May 26, 2012. I booked the ticket on May 25th night (got it just by chance). Shama's portal as well as Redbus was showing that all buses on the route were full - but Via.com showed two seats to be available for Shama (they were selling the tickets as "Sree Krishna Travels" - but the pickup point and timing revealed that the bus was Shama). I booked through Via - the ticket cost me Rs. 1100 for Bangalore-Thrissur (Shama charges only Rs. 1000 when booked directly through their office/portal). These days, tickets to Mumbai (almost double the distance as compared to Thrissur) sell cheaper!!
The bus was to leave Madivala at 2130hrs - I headed to their office directly from Office (in Chikkabanavar - faaar away in north-western Bangalore). I left office at 1730, and reached Madiwala at 2015hrs!! The distance is around 30kms!! I directly headed to the Shama office, just to make sure that my booking was valid - the guy at the office issued me a boarding pass at 2030hrs itself. I headed out for dinner after getting my pass.
When I returned to their office, I found that there was some confusion - their Pathanamthitta bus (2000hrs from Madiwala) had not yet left! Passengers were told that the scheduled bus had a breakdown, and a replacement is on the way from Kalasipalya. The replacement bus came at 2100hrs, and left soon after. There was no sign of my bus even at 2130hrs. The guy at the counter said, it is on the way.
I just walked out of the office to find a Shama B9R parked at the petrol pump near by, getting attended by some mechanics - that was the Pathanamthitta bus, which would now work the Ernakulam schedule!! I was a bit worried - will it make it to the destination without another breakdown??
Boarding commenced at 2150hrs. The bus was KA-01-AA-13 - the first B9R of Shama. It had some 4.5lakh kms on the odo. The interiors did not appear well kept. I took my seat (#30) quickly - my co-passenger also joined in soon. A while after I settled down, another gentleman came claiming my seat to be allotted to him. Both of us had the same seat numbers in the boarding pass! The travels' agent in the bus allotted another seat to him and settled the matter.
WE started off at 2201hrs - 30 minutes late already. The bus was a bit noisy - the engine could be heard clearly at my seat (9th row). There was a lot of noise from the suspension as well.
The driver was fast right from the beginning - but not rash like the Viji guy. The bus stopped for a pick-up near Narayana Hrudayalaya as well, from where a couple of passenger got in. I slept even before the bus crossed Hosur - woke up briefly when the bus stopped for toll at some place after Salem. I vaguely remember the bus stopping for a break in between (not sure where it was).
I woke up just when the bus approached Mannuthy - that was my longest sleep in a bus for sure. Did not even realise when the bus hit those bad patches at Kuthiran. The bus stopped at Mannuthy at 0510hrs. The cleaner shouted out "Thrissur", instead of "Mannuthy" - I smelt something wrong now. Headed straight to the driver and asked if he would drop inside the town - he replied "No".
I had cross checked with the Shama office in Madiwala before boarding if the bus would drop in the town, for which they replied yes. Now this driver was planning to unload passengers headed to the town on the bypass itself. I was not ready to buy his story, and stood adamant that he would have to drop me inside the town. The cleaner shouted back in Kannada - now another town bound passenger joined me, and we both started back in Malayalam. The driver spoke in Malayalam. The cleaner claimed that they (the crew) were not responsible for what their office guys say - waw! whattaa logic
He (the driver) asked the cleaner to send us to the town in some other bus - which the cleaner wasn't ready to. The confusion continued - I was not ready to budge. Finally, he left Mannuthy at 0520 and headed to the town. We (the two of us who protested) we dropped at Thrissur Round exactly at 0530. (There were lots of passengers bound to the town, who did not protest - hence they were off-loaded at the bypass itself!!)
During the journey, I was told by my co-passenger that they were made to take a rick from Kalasipalya to Madiwala. The office guys in Kalasipalya claimed that the bus left from there at 8pm and the passengers were late! So unprofessional of Shama - they had bad repute before they brought the B9Rs. They were nice for some time - and are now back to their old antics.
Their maintenance is really poor, and their staff behave even poor. Promising something when selling the ticket and finally the passenger ends up in something else. Very bad experience - I'll surely think twice before booking Shama again. Kallada and Kallada G4 are better for sure.
Last edited by binaiks : 4th June 2012 at 16:17.
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