[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by S5157

One of my friend had a very bad experience yesterday with VRL (21/11/2012).

I always read good reviews about VRL but this incident has shaken my trust in them.

As pointed out in the previous post this does not seem to be the fault at VRL but the incharge who was coordinating with you.

Generally all time changes or bus changes are intimated by SMS mostly or if it is close to departure time then they call and inform. I had this once when returning to Hyderabad from Chennai. VRL's scheduled bus broke at the Koyembedu point so they had to arrange for another Volvo 9400 which they did in time and informed all the passengers by SMS with the bus registration number.

Shoot a mail describing the whole thing and see what reply you get from VRL.

Anurag.

[dhandapanik]

Bangalore-Pollachi travel in ABT X Travels:
Last friday(23-Nov-12) travelled in ABT from Bangalore to Pollachi. I have reached their Madiwala boarding point by 9.30 PM. Scheduled departure of the Pollachi bus is 10.00 PM. Bus came in to Madiwala by 10.05 PM. As per the boarding pass, 6842 should have come in. But due to some confusion, they have sent 6842 to Karaikudi and 6841 came to Pollachi. Boarding started immediately after the bus came in. Bus had around 34 passengers by now and we departed from Madiwala by 10.25 PM. We are late by 25 min. :( This is the first time in my ABT's journey that we are late by 25 min late. My co-passenger was also a regular passenger in this bus and he also said the same. We took the Electronic city flyover and few people got inside the bus in Hosur and now the bus is full.

After crossing Elec.City, i slept and it was a comfortable journey till the end. I got up when the bus was near udumalpet. We reached Udumalpet by 6.15 AM. Informed the driver that i have to get down before Pollachi and noticed that first seat in the bus was full of water. All those water came in from AC vent. Really felt bad for the lady who was sitting there. Finally i was dropped at my native(few kms before Pollachi) by 6.45 PM. A 15 min late.

I repeat from my previous review, ABT -> Its high time to replace the buses. My return journey was in Hindusthan Multi axle. While sitting in Hindusthan reception, A guy over there said that ABT and Conti had very good number of regular passengers for years and he happily said that they got many of them to Hindusthan. i was about to say that, i was one among them.

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by dhandapanik

I repeat from my previous review, ABT -> Its high time to replace the buses. A guy over there said that ABT and Conti had very good number of regular passengers for years and he happily said that they got many of them to Hindusthan. i was about to say that, i was one among them.

But did ABT not build some more buses in their body shop beginning of 2012? They had some redesigned buses which I saw from "another" forum where you too had posted some pics of TNSTC buses. If not its seriously high time that ABT replaces or atleast refurbish their buses, if they want to retain their loyal customers. So far its been good reviews about the Hindustan guys, but do you have any idea how is the ARC guys doing? They had the new Prakash built ones right?

[dhandapanik]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

But did ABT not build some more buses in their body shop beginning of 2012? They had some redesigned buses which I saw from "another" forum where you too had posted some pics of TNSTC buses. If not its seriously high time that ABT replaces or atleast refurbish their buses, if they want to retain their loyal customers. So far its been good reviews about the Hindustan guys, but do you have any idea how is the ARC guys doing? They had the new Prakash built ones right?

Yes, they have built their new buses at their AE workshop in early 2011.

ARC was the first to get the zedone buses and they had 36 seats in a 12M bus. Looks like they sold of few buses to a different operators. Now they operate in routes like Coimbatore-Chennai, Coimbatore-Trivandrum(via Alapuzha), Pollachi-Chennai, Coimbatore-Marthandam, Coimbatore-Pondicherry etc..,

I'm not sure whether ABT and ARC are planning to exit this business.

[dhandapanik]

Coimbatore-Bangalore In Hindusthan Travels - Again.

Travel to bangalore on sunday(25-11-2012) was confirmed on thursday only and checked the tickets for Pollachi-Bangalore in ABT and the bus was full. I dont want to try KPN. Then checked Hindusthan's Coimbatore-Bangalore services. Their AC Sleeper was full and few tickets in last rows were available in their Multi. Without any second thought, booked the ticket.

After making the payment, it got signed out and was searching for the ticket and logged in again. Luckily the ticket was there. Gave this as a feedback to them. I hope they will fix this problem soon.

My boarding was at Nava India and reporting time is 10.45 PM. Till 8.00 PM i was at home and i have travel to Pollachi and from there i have to catch a bus to Coimbatore. Now the problem started, I forgot to take a print out of the ticket. I called to Hindusthan office and they said, no problem sir, show the sms/email and board it. Got a relief!

Boarded a city bus to Pollachi and reached there by 8.45 PM. I dont want to waste any time in Pollachi BS for getting a seat in coimbatore buses. Already the buses were crowded. Boared Amman to Coimbatore and the bus started by 8.50 PM. There was a Rail over Bridge construction going on in SIDCO gate and buses were diverted via different routes. I was worried about this. To much relief, buses were not diverted during my journey and we didnt get stuck in Railway gate too. In all my last few months travel to Coimbatore, i used to spend atleast 10-15 min in this Railway gate. Finally, reached Ukkadam BS by 9.40 PM.

Took a city bus and reached Hindusthan Nava India office by 10.30 PM. Their AC Sleeper to bangalore was standing there. It was ready to depart. Went inside the waiting hall and talked to receptionist guy about the ticket issue. Now the best part is, he got the ticket number from me and gave me a duplicate ticket printed. This is what we call the best customer service. Not all operators does this. I hope they will start allowing m-ticket soon.

I was literally praying to get an I-Shift this time. Then by 10.55 PM, the beauty came in. Yes, it is an I-Shift. KA01 AB 3484 turned out for the Bangalore trip today. Interiors were too good and we started off by 11.05 PM. we departed from Nava India office with 32 people on board. 10 more people boared from Hope College. He took a different route from Kalapatti Junction in Avinashi road. He went via KurumbaPalayam and some more places and not sure why he took this route. Went to sleep after 15 min or so. Finally, I was dropped at Silkboard by 5.00 AM.

Enjoyed the engine sound whenever the gear shift happened. Overall a very comfortable Journey in Hindusthan again.

Looks like Hindusthan will be adding few more routes soon. We may see Coimbatore-Thenkasi and Thenkasi-Chennai AC sleepers soon. They already got their own office in Madiwala and they are planning to own one in Perungalathur too. If thenkasi route comes in, then they may look for their own office there.

Hindusthan, please start a Bangalore-Pollachi route with a multi axle service. Here is one customer waiting for you!

I have booked my return trip ticket in Conti 9100. Expecting a good journey with them.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by dhandapanik

.... Now the best part is, he got the ticket number from me and gave me a duplicate ticket printed. This is what we call the best customer service. Not all operators does this. I hope they will start allowing m-ticket soon.....

Try this at Kallada's Madiwala office.
First of all those guys will never respond. And after few remainders, he will stare at you as if you have asked some money from him. Then he will say no its not possible.
Then you will have to raise the voice, show some message from mobile, or show the email in mobile / tablet / laptop. After all this as a last option, he may give a ticket or he will say its ok go and board the bus.
By this time you will be desperate and go and sit inside the bus. But inside the bus another guy will come for ticket checking. But this guy will start the same story. Then again you will repeat the same story and he may be convinced.

[ramzsys]

Originally Posted by dhandapanik

He took a different route from Kalapatti Junction in Avinashi road. He went via KurumbaPalayam and some more places and not sure why he took this route.

It is to avoid Avanashi 4 laning(perpetual) road. KPN starts from Omni bus stand, so they directly take Annur road.

Since Hindusthan has a pickup point at Hopes, they take this route to reach Annur(and then Avanashi). I have said about this here

[aroonanand]

Did a trip to Goa over the weekend by bus and here's my experience

Onward: Bangalore to Goa 2040 VRL Multi Axle Volvo Semi Sleeper
Was informed that the bus will depart from the VRL Terminus at Anand Rao Circle - reached there around 2010 and saw several buses parked. Whilst this was a compound dedicated to VRL, passenger facilities were virtually non existent. Resembed a govt bus stand with stinking wash rooms and inadequate seats. Was extremely chaotic as none of the buses carry destination boards and neither are any announcements made. The passenger just gets the registration number of the bus and passengers have search all over the terminus to locate their bus. This was made worse because not all buses park in the bays - several of them park in the corner of the terminus to load cargo and hence it was extremely chaotic. Why cant they just display destination boards in the buses (Saw several SRS / Seabird buses on the road with boards / route no and time to avoid this confusion).

My bus finally arrived at 2050 and we left at ~2100, about 20 minutes late. They were playing the movie READY when I boarded. Bus was a B9R with ~5.5lakh kms on the odo. Windscreen had a crack and interiors were showing signs of ageing and bad maintenance. Lot of creaking noises. The 2nd LCD TV would not shut properly after the movie and so the crew had to resort to tying it with a rope !!! Only one driver for the 12+ hour journey which was not very pleasant. Driving style was quite aggressive with lot of sudden braking and honking, instead of dipping the lights. We stopped ~ 11 PM at some Anand Bihar Hotel (Seabird, Airavat and other VRL buses also stopped here). Again, stinking washrooms on offer. We stopped in the morning ~7 AM at another place which had worse washrooms for coffee. Finally dropped off at Panjim ~ 10 AM. AC temperature was quite high for the journey and so it was not very cool at all. No announcements when the bus stopped for dinner / coffee and with curtains drawn, passengers were not even aware if the bus stopped at a restaurant or whether it was a passenger pick up stop or any other reason. Crew was also speaking very loudly causing disturbance to passengers and stopped frequently to chat with drivers of other VRL buses on the route (during overtaking or buses in the opposite direction) on sectors where the road was not 4 laned.

Have travelled by VRL on several occasions and experience has been consistently mediocre to put it mildly. Buses are maintained poorly (I have travelled by Volvos and Isuzus) and have been badly driven on all my journeys. Staff are far from courteous. Whilst several regulars on this forum are appreciative of VRL and their service, I have not found them to deserve any compliments. Maybe, they are the best on the Karnataka routes but they do pale in comparison with TN / Kerala based operators both for quality of buses and service levels.

Return: 1800 SRS Travels Multi Axle Semi Sleeper Volvo (SRS has a flexi rate policy - they charge 800 bucks for Mon - Thu and 1150 on weekends for the Goa - Blr route. VRL charges 950 across the week)

Bus was waiting when I reached the pick up point (Mandovi Bridge) by 535 PM - bus was a new B9R with 88k on the odo. Extremely Clean interiors. We left at 605 PM and the bus was less than 30% full. Picked up some more passengers at Margoa and we left for Bangalore. Driving style was the opposite of the VRL guy - fast but not rash with minimal honking. Driver was quite courteous during boarding. He used the headlights to overtake. AC was maintained at a nice 22 degrees. Stopped at the same lousy place for dinner for ~20 minutes. Reached Hubli at 0000 hours to pick up some more passengers and was dropped off at Anand Rao circle by 650 AM. Was able to sleep peacefully in this leg. SRS had 2 drivers who changed duty at Hubli. Very good experience by SRS and hope they maintain the service levels (Had a bad experience by SRS on the Trivandrum Blr sector a few months back). Only grievance - leg room was quite poor and the person in front of you will literally be on your lap if he / she uses the recliner.

[sbkumar]

Tried the Kallada BENZ sleeper from BLR-NGL. The bus seemed to be maintained well, the drivers courteous ( there were two + 1 cleaner). They had a small cardboard partitioning between the two berths for about a feet long and on the side where the pillows are, which I think is quite good when strangers book on the double berth, but can be quite a nuisance when you have small kids traveling with a couple. The blanket was given in a plastic cover with a sheet inside which read "specially dry cleaned" for you :-). It was good though. But most importantly, like those people who cannot appreciate a fine wine, I am not able to find any difference in ride comfort w.r.t the normal sleeper buses run by SRS/KPN. It started around 9.15 from Madiwala and reached NGL by 7 which is definitely better than others. I randomly tested the speed using my phone's GPS and they were holding it around 120 KMPH Max which is also fine I guess. They played some Malayalam christian devotional song for a very long time. And being in the first row ( there is no door for the passenger cabin) I could hear a lot of honking sound and conversation. Overall not a very pleasant experience but not bad too. May be my expectations of Benz Sleeper were a little high.

[coolclouds]

Many times I spotted this bus between 6 to 6.30am at Madiwala, arriving from Trivandrum. Looks like they are fast on this route with very few stops unlike several other Kallada buses.

[TKMCE]

Aaroon

Looks like in some routes particular operators are better.In the Kerala route quite a few including yourself and Binai had bad experiences with SRS. Many people find SPS okay but my experiences was always consistently bad on their Ernakulam Bangalore route - most of the time over the last three years I end up with the same driver guy who is so temparamental that depending on hs mood of the night in question he can take any thing from 10 to 14 hours!!! His time wasting on a bad day will make your SRS experience on the Goa VRL bus trivial

I guess VRL is strong on the within Karnataka and Karnataka Mumbai routes where they are a long time operator and well established. Looking at recent reviews here and elswhere Kallada G4 seems to be well liked by a lot people and looking at the timings they are maintaining, they will capture the BLR-TRVM route via Nagercoil in no time. Suresh Kallada group is now appearing to have major crewing issues but most of it seem to be in their Chennai operations.

Reading about the SRS bus terminal, same is with KPN at Wilson Gaden When they started, things were very good, now the place has detiorated badly and toilet facilites are non existent. Speaking about private terminals, the one operated by Ensign Agencies for buses handled by them at Ernakulam were too good. Airline style with "now boarding" announcements with boardng passess et all, a decent waiting area and being at Jos Junction, food outlets were plentiful. Those guys were proactive in terms of passenger feedback too. I remember getting off there at the end of a journey in a badly delayed SMP travels bus (they operated between Chennai and Ernakulam) and the manager at Ensign intercepting us and collecting details about the delay and pormising to speak to the operator. Thy were a class act but I beleive this terminal is no longer being used although the agency is I think still there. Shantinagar in BLR ofcourse is one of the best long distance bus temrinals and has a waiting room as well for their premium service pax.

[PVS]

HYD-BPP-OGL-HYD TRIP
Hyderabad-Bapatla-Ongole-Hyderabad Trip

Did a mid-week trip to Bapatla, Ongole and back to attend a religious ceremony near Bapatla, and a friend's wedding at Ongole. Hyderabad to Bapatla was by Shambhavi Globus A/C, Bapatla to Ongole by train (Krishna Express) and Ongole to Hyderabad by APSRTC INDRA A/C.

APSRTC has, off late, started an INDRA A/C service to Bapatla. This service starts from the BHEL area, comes via Lakdi-ka-Pul, does not touch MGBS, and directly comes to Dilsukhnagar. On the day of my travel (27th November), this bus had (surprisingly) 100 % occupancy. APSRTC ONLINE drew a blank when I queried for this service on 27th. I had to go down to the neighbourhood APSRTC booking counter, only to realize that this bus was full. I wasn't too interested in the Super Luxury service, so headed back home and logged on to Abhibus.com, instead of redbus.
Of the options listed, Shambhavi Orange Service was the lone operator with a GLOBUS A/C service. Kaveri Kamakshi, Morning Star and a couple of others, had their regular non-A/C 2 * 2 services available.
I booked a seat, and was surprised when AbhiBus offered me a discount of Rs 19/-. The total fare, at Rs 361/- seemed far reasonable compared to Kesineni's Rs 500/- on their now defunct Volvo service, given the fact that the travel times were almost the same. I was given a reporting time of 22:55 and a boarding time of 23:10 and the boarding point was on the main road, opposite Sai Baba Temple near Dilsukhnagar bus stand.

So, I reached the boarding point, which was on the main road (Vijayawada Highway) at around 22:45, and called up the operator on the number listed on the m-ticket. I was directed to call another number, which was one of the crew's contact numbers. I was told that the bus was around 45 minutes away. Picked up a bread omelet, a bottle of water and continued my wait.

Waiting along with me for his bus to Vizag, was a foreigner. This guy was booked on a Sindhu non A/C 2 * 2, and was trying to get in touch with the Sindhu crew to confirm the bus's arrival time. Looked like he was unable to get through, so continued his wait. Frankly, I was surprised to see a foreigner waiting for a long distance service. Usually folks of his ilk, end up taking a train or a plane.

By around 23:00 to 23:15, a majority of the APSRTC and private buses started turning up. I could count at least 20 Kaveri Kamakshi services, apart from other services belonging to Morning Star, SVR, Dhanunjaya, Sri Kaleswari, Kesineni and others.
An umpteen number of APSRTC Super Luxury and Deluxe services also passed by, each of these had 70 to 80% occupancy. No wonder APSRTC continues to be the first choice amongst the travelling populace in AP, as far as buses are concerned.

My GLOBUS A/C turned up at around 23:40 hours. Took my window seat 6A, only to find the window all boarded up by a huge wooden plank. Never mind, all I had to do was to sleep! The Telugu movie played on board (Chhatrapati) played spoilsport to my plans to go to sleep, and finally, at around 01:00, I had to get up and ordered the movie shut.

Could catch a few winks of sleep - reached Guntur by around 05:00 I guess, and Ponnur by around 06:15, and finally got off near Bapatla New Bus Stand by around 06:45. Overall a decent ride on board the Globus A/C. Seats was comfortable, but the legroom was a problem. A/C was adequate, a blanket was provided, but no water bottle was provided on board. I would give this service a 6/10.

Bapatla to Ongole that same noon was by train (17406 Adilabad - Tirupati Krishna Express). Was surprised to see that train pull up nearly on time at the station (around 14:40 hours). It was a 1 - hour ride to Ongole, and the in spite of the having 4 halts en-route (Chirala, Vetapalem, Chinnaganjam and Ammanabolu), with a WAP-7 loco at the helm, the train managed to do the 65 odd Kms within an hour. The ride in the A/C Chair Car was comfortable.

Having visited the friend's wedding, I landed up at the Ongole bus stand at 23:30 to board the Nellore - Hyderabad INDRA A/C supposed to turn up at 23:45. As I turned up at the bus stand, a Garuda operating the Vijayawada Bengaluru Service was waiting to depart. KSRTC's multi-axle Mercedes Benz operating the Vijayawada Bengaluru service also turned up soon after, and left after a 5-minute halt. Amongst other services were a Chennai bound APSRTC Super Luxury, a BHEL bound Garuda, and Deluxe services to Tirupati and Vijayawada. Our INDRA finally turned up around 00:10.

Again, couldn't get proper sleep in the bus. The roads near Macherla were real bad, and our guy had to go real slow. Macherla came in at around 03:30, and again slept off. We finally joined the Vijayawada highway near LB Nagar around 06:30 and I got off the bus near Moosarambagh Cross Roads around 06:45.

[mazda4life]

My mom did a round trip from Mumbai to Bangalore alone, guess this is the first time she did such a journey, and as it happens , we were petrified imagining all sort of situations...me here in US and my brother on travel to China.... She traveled in the KSRTC Airavath club class and she did encounter some issue initially as the booking was done by a agent in Navi Mumbai and conductor was not sure if it was a valid ticket. Anyway, she had a comfortable journey with the crew going extra miles ( huge amount) to help her out.

In fact the driver dropped her at the Shantinagar bus station as it is near to our home in Jayanagar and also assisted in getting her a autorickshaw ...she was so happy with the crew that she booked her return ticket when the same crew was on the route. Need to check how the return journey went. Kudos to the crew for helping her out and sparing us of some anxious moments.

[coriollis]

Originally Posted by mazda4life

the crew going extra miles for helping her out and sparing us of some anxious moments.

KSRTC rules on BOM- BLR sector. More so on PUNE- BLR sector.
Once while traveling, An elderly lady passenger requested the crew for a Bio break. It was just an hour after the dinner halt. Going by my past experiences with the bus guys, I was expecting the crew to get grumpy.
But, they were not only polite, but also requested her to be patient for few moments as they would search for a suitable hotel/petrol bunk to stop.
One crew member accompanied her to see that she was safe. This is the service you get continually from KSRTC.

More so, KSRTC has an option to select ' Single lady passenger' while booking. The adjacent seat is kept vacant, if another lady passenger doesn't book. This is a very good practice IMO. VRL also follows same system.
In all, great work by KSRTC.
Cheers.
Abhijeet

[dhandapanik]

My first experience with Volvo 9100 - Conti Travels

I planned to travel back to Pollachi from Bangalore on last friday(30-11-2012). I initially thought of booking in ABT, but decided to try something different than ABT. Reason is, i have used ABT many a times. What next? After some discussion with friends, thought of trying out Conti's Volvo 9100 service in Bangalore-Coimbatore route. They didnt have their own online booking site. But few seats were sold online through redbus for their Bangalore-Coimbatore service.

It is a 49 seater bus with calf support. Basically it is a 2X2 48 seater + 1 VIP seat in the middle of the last row.

About the bus:
The bus was a white+Blue livery one and the interiors were neatly done. It has completed 35000 KMs by then. Looks like the console is little bit different from the regular B7Rs and B9Rs. AC is of Denso Make.

Seats:
1. Seat were of haritha make and they are branded as Magnum. It is very much similar to the seats present in new KMS built 12M UDs of SETC.
2. Calf support is provided, but Legspace is poor. If the reclining angle is full used, then the previous seat passenger will be in our lap and it is tough for us to move out without asking them to pullup the seats.
3. Instead of going for a 48+1 seater, they should have gone for a 36+1 semi sleeper seats.
4. Cushion is too hard and started feeling uncomfortable after few hrs of travel.
5. Seats cover were of rexin type and easy to maintain. The only good thing i felt about these seats.

About Conti's Service:
1. Conti advertised that this bus has Free Wifi and Mobile recharge facility. Free Wi-Fi usage sticker was there inside bus and it was printed in the boarding pass also. But not sure whether it was working or not. Also not sure about the Mobile rechargers. Searched for them, but couldnt able to find it.
2. A 500 ML water bottle was provided. Label of the water bottle is a customized one for Conti and they had their departure timings printed in that label.
3. No blankets provided. Not providing shawls for an AC Volvo is not a good move. When ABT inaugurated their services, they didnt provide a shawl and after few months they started providing it. They should seriously consider providing shawl. My seat was very close to the AC blower and felt very chill sitting there for the 7 hrs journey. I feel that instead of providing a water bottle, they should consider this.
4. Break was done at a worst restaurant were TNSTCs used to stop. AC was switched off during the break and this is the same thing what KaSRTC guys used to do. Very few people got down during the break. So atleast during night time breaks, they should consider keeping the AC "ON".

Timings:
1. Bus starts from Anand Rao circle at 10.30 PM. I boarded it from their Madiwala office and the arrival time at Madiwala is given as 11.00 PM. But the bus arrived at 11.08 PM and we started from Madiwala by 11.19 PM.
2. It takes Gopi, Sathy, Annur route to reach Coimbatore. Before starting the journey, Crews asked about the number of people getting down at the above listed places.
3. Two drivers were on board and second driver drove the vehicle after the break. He took the Elevated highway and was flying from the start of the journey.
4. I was dropped at Coimbatore - Gandhipuram BS by 6.00 AM. It is exactly the same as what is mentioned in the redbus's arrival time.

Here is the bus which i used. Image Copyright: Binai K Shankar