[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by venki.bala

Hi Anurag,

How was the journeyin Orange travels? what was the travel timings? it would be helpful for many as there are many negative reviews about orange travels off late.

Venki Anna,

Sorry buddy but I am travelling on the 21st of this month and returning to Hyderabad on the 24th. Will post my reviews once I am back.

A teaser:

Hyderabad to Chennai I chose Kesineni travels, Rs 1100 and its the Seat 04.

Chennai to Hyderabad I chose Orange Travels, Rs 1200 and seat 1A.

Wantedly chose two different operators to compare their service and it will be better to give a good review. Will click pictures if possible.

Cheers,
Anurag.

[TheARUN]

Originally Posted by Manzone799

I came to Bangalore by a KaSRTC Volvo from Ernakulam yesterday. It started from Ernakulam bus stand at 8.35 pm - it was a driven by a familiar driver (a baldy, don't know his name) whom i had seen couple of times in the same route. He is known for his rash driving, excessive horn usage and relentless light flashing. I was seated right behind the driver's seat and i could clearly see his dash-board. The dashboard showed a warning triangle sign - and it read WARNING !! CHECK BRAKE AND ENGINE OIL ! While off-boarding the bus, I asked the driver what that warning message meant - he told me its a fake and can be ignored.

Is this a random error which can be ignored ? or is it something that the vehicle staff need to stop and check ? Volvo is known for its efficient vehicle monitoring systems and its very unlikely to give fake warnings. Anyone here have encountered the same situation ?

Extremely scary situation. Low engine oil is somewhat fine, but low break oil!

[binaiks]

Travelled last night by the Ashok Leyland Luxura AC Sleeper (12RE Chassis, 225BHP Euro-III engine, body by Azad) operated by Atlas Travels (owned by NAS-Neelu). The service was introduced in the middle of April this year. The bus operates Bangalore-Ernakulam-Kottayam.

The bus (NL-01-B-0877) was to leave Bangalore at 2015hrs (from Madiwala), but left only by 2102hrs - Atlas is known for late departures. First impressions - excellent interior quality. The berth was sufficiently wide, and is comfortably long for people below 6ft. I was in U5 - the last single berth. The engine was fairly silent at idle (unlike the growl of the Volvo B9R). Noise insulation was great. I fell asleep even before crossing the border - ride quality was good. There was a bit of body roll - but that is expected in the upper berth.


^ This was the first bus

Had a really nice, continuous sleep. There was one sudden heavy brake past Hosur - but the retarder helped a lot. I woke up sometime around 3AM, and we were still on the 4-laned road, and the bus wasn't going fast - we were moving a slow but consistent pace. Slept off again, and woke up when the attendant came and woke up at 4.15AM. He said "you've change the bus" - was wondering what was happening.

Somehow came back to senses - there was a mini commotion in the bus, since almost all the passengers were deep asleep. Got off the berth and collected my bag and headed towards the front - the bus had an accident! The entire front left side was damaged - the door too was damaged and passengers had to make do with a small gap. Had a word with the driver, and understood that the accident was near Hosur - the hard braking I mentioned earlier!! Not a single passenger even realised that we had an accident!

The pairing bus (NL-01-B-0899) was waiting for us there - all passengers changed buses. The attendants of both the buses helped passengers in moving baggages. All this was happening at Uthukuli (Near Tiruppur). We started from there at 4.30AM. The driver of this bus was rash, and was honking most of the time. He was trying his best to make up time. Had another nice sleep from here on - woke up at around 0630, when the attendant came calling for passengers getting off at Palakkad. The bus took the Palakkad-Ottapalam-Shoranur-Thrissur route (that is its regular route). There were drops at Ottapalam and Shoranur as well. Was finally dropped near Ashwini Junction in Thrissur at 0758AM - Uthukuli to Thrissur, about 185kms, was done in 3h25m, including stopping on CBE Bypass for a police checking and at Walayar Checkpost. The end-to-end running time was high, at 10h58m - but that was due to the accident and the slow running after that.


^The pairing bus

Both the buses were maintained really well - the second one had some rattles coming from the curtain rods. Ride comfort was really good, and sound insulation was comparable to a Volvo. I am really not sure of heat - since I was in an upper berth. I am sure to repeat a ride of the service - because I had a really nice sleep.

Overall, I rate 3.5/5 for the service (for the delays at starting). The bus gets a 4.5/5. The first driver gets a 4.5/5, and the second guy gets a 3.5/5.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Travelled last night by the Ashok Leyland Luxura AC Sleeper (12RE Chassis, 225BHP Euro-III engine, body by Azad) operated by Atlas Travels (owned by NAS-Neelu).

Nice review Binai.

I remember your trip in Prakash built Volvo sleeper last time. How do you compare the sleeper built quality and sound insulation between these two?

[srikant]

Binai, Thanks for your quick update about that JRS Tech bus, but by the time i went back to Redbus to book the seat, that particular bus was not listed at all to my surprise. Atlast found a last row seat in Sai Neeta Volvo to Ernakulam.

Travel Date: 17 May 2013
The bus was scheduled to leave from Kalasipalayam at 8.30pm and the bus was there at 8.20pm itself. I came to know from the staff there that this particular service Bangalore-Ernakulam was starting from the same day.

The bus was in pathetic condition and not even a semi-sleeper, it was a MH regd bus. Since it was their first trip they had some pooja and left by 9.15pm but again stopped to check air pressure and went to Madivala for next pick up. Atlast left Madivala at 10.15pm again stopped at Silkboard for filling fuel, which made them leave by 10.30pm atlast.

The ride was decent and i could catch up with some sleep at the last row, dont know when the driver changed, but when i woke up in the morning i found the new driver driving and he was really lugging the engine. He was not used to Kerala driving style and was struggling to drive inside Kerala. People in front seats even started mocking him for not catching up with most limited stop local buses and also suddenly the Kallada too overtook the bus which made people laugh at the driver. Atlast reached Aluva by 10.30 AM.

Next my travel is to Chennai from here, for which i have booked the Kallada multiaxle service leaving from Thrissur Shaktan stand at 7.15 pm. Let me try out that. Any comments on their Thrissur-Chennai service?

Mean while when i went out this evening i saw exactly same buses that you mentioned about, the Kallada sleeper and Atlas dreamliner and just thought of trying them next time but your feedback has taken off both of them out of my list. Kallada due to AC issue and Atlas due to timing issue. I feel i should stick to multiaxle Kallada.

Originally Posted by binaiks

Travelled last night by the Ashok Leyland Luxura AC Sleeper (12RE Chassis, 225BHP Euro-III engine, body by Azad) operated by Atlas Travels (owned by NAS-Neelu). The service was introduced in the middle of April this year. The bus operates Bangalore-Ernakulam-Kottayam.

The bus (NL-01-B-0877) was to leave Bangalore at 2015hrs (from Madiwala), but left only by 2102hrs - Atlas is known for late departures. First impressions - excellent interior quality. The berth was sufficiently wide, and is comfortably long for people below 6ft. I was in U5 - the last single berth. The engine was fairly silent at idle (unlike the growl of the Volvo B9R). Noise insulation was great. I fell asleep even before crossing the border - ride quality was good. There was a bit of body roll - but that is expected in the upper berth.

Attachment 1085069
^ This was the first bus

Had a really nice, continuous sleep. There was one sudden heavy brake past Hosur - but the retarder helped a lot. I woke up sometime around 3AM, and we were still on the 4-laned road, and the bus wasn't going fast - we were moving a slow but consistent pace. Slept off again, and woke up when the attendant came and woke up at 4.15AM. He said "you've change the bus" - was wondering what was happening.

Somehow came back to senses - there was a mini commotion in the bus, since almost all the passengers were deep asleep. Got off the berth and collected my bag and headed towards the front - the bus had an accident! The entire front left side was damaged - the door too was damaged and passengers had to make do with a small gap. Had a word with the driver, and understood that the accident was near Hosur - the hard braking I mentioned earlier!! Not a single passenger even realised that we had an accident!

The pairing bus (NL-01-B-0899) was waiting for us there - all passengers changed buses. The attendants of both the buses helped passengers in moving baggages. All this was happening at Uthukuli (Near Tiruppur). We started from there at 4.30AM. The driver of this bus was rash, and was honking most of the time. He was trying his best to make up time. Had another nice sleep from here on - woke up at around 0630, when the attendant came calling for passengers getting off at Palakkad. The bus took the Palakkad-Ottapalam-Shoranur-Thrissur route (that is its regular route). There were drops at Ottapalam and Shoranur as well. Was finally dropped near Ashwini Junction in Thrissur at 0758AM - Uthukuli to Thrissur, about 185kms, was done in 3h25m, including stopping on CBE Bypass for a police checking and at Walayar Checkpost. The end-to-end running time was high, at 10h58m - but that was due to the accident and the slow running after that.

Attachment 1085070
^The pairing bus

Both the buses were maintained really well - the second one had some rattles coming from the curtain rods. Ride comfort was really good, and sound insulation was comparable to a Volvo. I am really not sure of heat - since I was in an upper berth. I am sure to repeat a ride of the service - because I had a really nice sleep.

Overall, I rate 3.5/5 for the service (for the delays at starting). The bus gets a 4.5/5. The first driver gets a 4.5/5, and the second guy gets a 3.5/5.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by srikant

Mean while when i went out this evening i saw exactly same buses that you mentioned about, the Kallada sleeper and Atlas dreamliner and just thought of trying them next time but your feedback has taken off both of them out of my list. Kallada due to AC issue and Atlas due to timing issue. I feel i should stick to multiaxle Kallada.

Atlas was late that particular day due to its accident and then change of buses. The drivers were saying that they normally reach by 6 - they were 2 hours late.

About the Kallada AC issue, you are likely to face the same issue in any Volvo B9R delivered after October 2012 - especially the ones with Thermoking ACs (almost all private operators prefer Thermoking). So avoiding Kallada is not surely going to solve the issue. But, I'll surely suggest to avoid booking the last two rows if you ever plan to change your mind.

[srikant]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Atlas was late that particular day due to its accident and then change of buses. The drivers were saying that they normally reach by 6 - they were 2 hours late.

About the Kallada AC issue, you are likely to face the same issue in any Volvo B9R delivered after October 2012 - especially the ones with Thermoking ACs (almost all private operators prefer Thermoking). So avoiding Kallada is not surely going to solve the issue. But, I'll surely suggest to avoid booking the last two rows if you ever plan to change your mind.

I have never tried the Sleeper buses till date. However since i saw this multiaxle sleeper from Kallada and the dreamliner from Atlas, just gave a thought why not try the sleeper. Thats when your review came by.

I travel almost 18-20 days every month across South India and my preferred mode of travel is by Kallada, for the fact that i have seen most of their buses maintained neat inside and reach destination on time. My next travel from Thrissur to Chennai is also booked on Kallada multiaxle, however will give reviews of that here too.

Also another point to make is i have noticed most malayali driver to have skills with speed rather than most drivers who have speed but not really skills.

[venki.bala]

I have booked Dhanunjaya travels A/C Sleeper from Hyderabad to Chennai for this friday for me and my family. Can someone who has travelled by this service recently throw some light on their Arrival timings in Koyambedu?

[sv1976]

Planning a bus trip from Bangalore to Goa on 30th May. The last post i could find about operators on this route was of October last year. Any suggestions on good buses and KSRTC options?

[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by sv1976

Planning a bus trip from Bangalore to Goa on 30th May. The last post i could find about operators on this route was of October last year. Any suggestions on good buses and KSRTC options?

I last travelled on this route in end of Nov - you will find my reviews earlier on this forum. Onward, I used VRL B9R and was quite dissatisfied with the service. Very late departure, poorly maintained bus (dirty, lot of noise), poor choice of refreshment stop and late arrival. Whilst many regulars on the forum favor VRL, I have not had one good experience with them. On the return, used SRS Multi Axle. This was a new service, clean bus, well behaved crew and timely departure / arrival. Between these 2, I would choose SRS (although I had a very bad experience on SRS on the Trivandrum - Blr leg). Hope this helps !

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by venki.bala

I have booked Dhanunjaya travels A/C Sleeper from Hyderabad to Chennai for this friday for me and my family. Can someone who has travelled by this service recently throw some light on their Arrival timings in Koyambedu?

Expect to reach around 8:30. I often see this bus near Anna Nagar (West) Depot around 8:30 when I drop my kids to school. The SRM Sleeper also comes around that time.

[f1fan]

Had a horrible experience travelling by KSRTC (or should I say NWKRTC) to Hubli over the weekend.

Travelled Mumbai - Hubli on Thursday 16-May-2013 on KSRTC Airavat Gold Class (which is a multi axle Volvo run by NWKRTC. The bus was a year old, in good condition and had approx 1.8 lac kms on it). I had booked first row seats behind the driver. Bus was scheduled to come at Sion at 8:10 PM. Called the Driver at 7:45 PM and he told me that the Bus was at Bandra. Reached Sion Circle at 8:00 PM and the called the driver again. Someone else picks up the phone and says that the Bus is at Andheri and would come in 30 min. The Bus finally rolled in an hour late at 9:15 PM.

The bus left quickly, water bottles were provided and we then got stuck in traffic on the way out of Mumbai. Even post the delay due to the bus coming late and then getting stuck in traffic, the bus still stopped for dinner at their scheduled place (a rundown place after the Mum-Pune expressway) at 12:30 AM and woke everyone up. Passengers had a fight as to why the bus didn’t stop earlier at the food plaza on the expressway as that would have been at good time to have dinner compared to having it after midnight. No answers from the Drivers.

Post the dinner fiasco, the drivers finally provided blankets (at 1:00 AM) and not before that. The Bus entered Pune and picked up passengers at Swargate. Post that the bus entered Kolhapur, Belgaum and Dharwad bus stops and stopped there for 10-15 min each resulting in a frustrating trip. The bus finally reached Old Hubli bus stand at 8:45 AM the next morning, a whole 12 hours for a ride which most other normal buses do in 10 hours and Volvo's in even lesser time.

The drivers were lugging the engine big time and were in no hurry even after being an hour late. Came to know later at they drive all sorts of buses from NWKRTC and were designated to drive back a Corona AC sleeper bus to Mumbai for their next trip.

On the way back, booked the AC Corona sleeper as the Volvo experience was bad. Bus departed on time at 8:30 PM. Water bottles were provided and the bus was clean. The only frustrating piece here was that the bus was four years old and was being driven so slowly that nearly everyone on the road including most of the trucks was overtaking us. Bus never went over 80 (Touched 90 once with lot of difficulty). Reached Sion at 8:00 AM the next morning which actually was decent compared to our experience with the Volvo earlier.

[urzdeepu]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Travelled last night by the Ashok Leyland Luxura AC Sleeper (12RE Chassis, 225BHP Euro-III engine, body by Azad) operated by Atlas Travels (owned by NAS-Neelu). The service was introduced in the middle of April this year. The bus operates Bangalore-Ernakulam-Kottayam.

.

Good review Binai. Am very much impressed by the quality displayed by both Ashok Leyland and Azad in making this bus a noticeable piece.However they could have made the headlamp cluster something more attractive. How was the pick up of the bus? Any chit chats with the crew about their reviews?

One peculiarity which i noticed in the Luxura is the overhead ac unit which have been nicely integrated into the body panel rather than displaying it as a separate fitment which we see in other ac buses.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by f1fan

The drivers were lugging the engine big time and were in no hurry even after being an hour late. Came to know later at they drive all sorts of buses from NWKRTC and were designated to drive back a Corona AC sleeper bus to Mumbai for their next trip.

Read in another forum that all NWKRTC Volvos are locked at 85kmph! That is too much of a speed restriction - Keep away from Airavat Gold Class from now on - they'd only crawl.

[Manzone799]

I Travelled from Bangalore to Cochin by KaSRTC Club class SSL Volvo(9.45 pm departure from Shantinagar B.S) on May 10th. There were 2 services from KaSRTC on this route after 9 pm - One Benz SSL that leaves at 9.20pm from Shantinagar and the other was this Volvo, which was supposed to reach my boarding point St. Johns hospital at 10.00 pm. As it was raining moderately, the Volvo arrived more than an hour late at St. Johns (that was about 11.15 pm). And even then the Benz that was supposed to reach prior to this Volvo was nowhere to be seen. I could clearly see the Benz passengers getting upset waiting for about 2 hours by now. The Volvo reached Madiwala at 11.30pm and then there was an hour long delay across Madiwala thru Bommanahalli - Thanks to Bangalore traffic that gets better with rains !

uI prefer taking the first KaSRTC Benz (leaving at 7.30pm from Shantinagar) out of Bangalore but unfortunately that day i had to book the last one. The bus reached Edapally Junction at 10 AM in morning. It usually takes the straight route to EKM -KSRTC bs stand via Kaloor. This time it took a left from Edapally --> to the Vytilla Hub bus stand ---> thru the Vytilla signal during the peak hours to Kadavanthara --> thru MG Road --> EKM-KSRTC bus stand reaching at a record time of 11.30 am. It was supposed to reach here at 9.30 am Max!

I got down at the EKM bus stand and went home had a quick shower and breakfast. As usual, i took my car out for a drive at about 12.15 noon, as i drove past Kadavanthara (about 12.30 noon) - i saw the KaSRTC Benz proudly entering the city as if it arrived the first ! It was supposed to reach here at 9.00 AM. So, friends if it is raining in Bangalore and you plan to go by KaSRTC down south, then you are screwed !