Team-BHP - Intercity Bus travel reviews

Quote:

Originally Posted by julupani (Post 3137937)

Well, seems like Kesineni will beat VRL to the punch in connecting the south to the east. Just a couple of days back during my time with the Kesineni guys of the Vijayawada office, I was telling them a service between Chennai and Bhubaneswar/Cuttack will also do good business.

But probably looking at the superb occupancy of the Bhubaneswar/Cuttack - Hyderabad service has generated, Kesineni has done one better than my suggestion. They are lauching a Chennai to Bhubaneswar/Cuttack and Bangalore to Bhubaneswar/Cuttack(via Tirupathi) on 6th and 7th of June respectively.

Just curious to know. How long does the Chennai - Vizag and Bangalore - Vizag Journey time? How much increase in the journey time would now happen due to the extension till Bhubaneshwar? I really didnot know that there exists a huge potential between chennai and Vizag?

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Originally Posted by venki.bala (Post 3138031)

Dont know how good the occupancy was between Vizag and Chennai, but it must have been decent since about 6-7 Volvos and a few sleepers run on the route.

The journey time quoted by Kesineni for Vizag-Chennai was about 14hours each way, while Chennai-Cuttack has been quoted as 22hours each way. Vizag-Bangalore is shown by Kesineni as about 18hours.

Bangalore-Cuttack on the other hand is listed as 25/26hours. This means that more than 2-buses will have to be used to operate the route.

Another factor which may have attracted Kesineni to use Bhubaneswar/Cuttack as an end point for Volvo services is the availability of a service and parts centre of Volvo India at Bhubaneswar. This will probably ease the servicing and maintainance of the buses. Thanks to the mining operations in Odisha, Volvo service operations have existed in Bhubaneswar since the early days of Volvo trucks entering India.

Quote:

Originally Posted by julupani (Post 3138073)

Bangalore-Cuttack on the other hand is listed as 25/26hours. This means that more than 2-buses will have to be used to operate the route. .

I think they will not operate with more than 2 buses in the Bangalore -cuttack route. I think they will optimize by using 3 routes buses namely Hyd, chennai and bangalore. Since one of them will be there early it might return towards bangalore. while the bus from bangalore which reaches late might return towards either Hyd or Chennai. This way they will have very optimized way of operating with only 6 uses instead of 7 which is very good considering the cost of a B9R or B11R. this is just my view. someone can correct me if i am wrong.

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Originally Posted by venki.bala

But they have to pay taxes for TN as well :(

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Originally Posted by venki.bala (Post 3138155)

I too was thinking on the same lines. But if you check there is just no way 6 buses can be used to operate all the routes together, as all these routes are very long. At least 7, but you can devise operations so as to keep them active for more hours of the day.

You can alternate buses which alternate routes. For example at Cuttack, the bus arriving from Hyderabad can be sent towards Bangalore and vice versa. Something similar will have to be worked out at the Bangalore end as well to keep the bus active. Or, instead of a bus staying put at Bangalore for 21 odd hours, it can do a Chennai and back or Mysore and back route and then return to Cuttack on the next day.

But there are also issues of extra permits and taxes that may have to be paid that may affect operating costs which I am not sure about.

On the other hand keeping a Volvo idle at Cuttack for almost one day has the advantage in the sense that there will be a spare bus ready in case of any breakdown of the three buses that will be arriving daily at Cuttack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by julupani (Post 3138234)

I too was thinking on the same lines. But if you check there is just no way 6 buses can be used to operate all the routes together, as all these routes are very long. At least 7, but you can devise operations so as to keep them active for more hours of the day.

On the other hand keeping a Volvo idle at Cuttack for almost one day has the advantage in the sense that there will be a spare bus ready in case of any breakdown of the three buses that will be arriving daily at Cuttack.

Oh yes. I think it makes sense. Maybe it is worth having 7 buses and have 1 always on standby.

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Originally Posted by ambivalent_98 (Post 3141479)

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/20455452.cms

A surprising first from MSRTC. I wonder what if this will hold out to be economically viable. Mumbai Bangalore is a feasible route and revenue churner but I wonder what the private operators will answer back with.

This service seems to be "designed to fail". Private operators run Volvo B9R Sleepers for around Rs. 1300~1500, when MSRTC charges Rs. 2180 per passenger! And, the last time MSRTC operated a Volvo seater service, they had earned a (mis-)reputation by entering each bus stand en-route and focusing on small distance passengers.

May be during peak seasons, MSRTC can expect passengers, since private rates go above the roof then. But during off-peak seasons, private operators would surely be cheaper and punctual.

Quote:

Originally Posted by binaiks (Post 3141515)

This service seems to be "designed to fail".

It has been this way all along. There is just zero will to promote and operate the state transport. This service is just a 'tick mark' to operate interstate buses. There is no business plan nor the promise to run the business, Let alone the foresight required. It is a very sad state for MSRTC to be a laughing stock on Mumbai- Bangalore route.

This route can give decent results if not overwhelming if operated on a decent business plan. But MSRTC ran and runs till date a semi-luxury service on this route with fare nearing the Volvo. They have kept this route live as the want to 'Observe and Evaluate' the route potential. This is so idiotic, that it is impossible for me to believe this stuff. I smell a rat(s) here.

Cheers,
Abhijeet.

Did a BLR-Nagercoil round trip last weekend. Wanted a late start from BLR and Kallada Volvo seater 9 PM from Madiwala looked the ideal one for me. Though KPN had some options starting later, didn't think waiting for their unpredictable service was worth the delay. Bus came sharp at 9 PM, was pretty well maintained. Started by 9.20 PM. Played a tamil movie I guess due to it's route through Tamil Nadu for the most part. Drive was good and couldn't think of any rash moves. Reached Nagercoil around 7.30 AM. Overall a pretty decent trip. Being happy with myself for trying out kallada instead of the usual SRS/KPN options I boarded their TVM-BLR Benz Sleeper from Nagercoil that night. This is the second time I tried the Benz Sleeper. I should say I am disappointed with the comfort factor. It was maintained well and clean alright. But apart from that I was feeling that the normal sleepers were better. I don't think I will use this service anymore. I thought it was a one off thing the last time, but I'm sure I am not going to like it anymore. To make things worse the A/C failed for some reason some way after Tirunelveli. Though I didn't know about until I woke up sweating some way after Madurai. They had opened the overhead vents to get fresh air in as even the fans were not working. It was a night mare from there on trying to get some air and sleep. Overnight rains and dropping temperature saved from more misery. The crew didn't care much about fixing it although they tried to do something for about 30 minutes. Finally proved that they were no exception !

Thank you for an honest review of the operator in question sbkumar. I don't know why most operators prefer running these Trivandrum services after 9 PM when 8 out of 10 times it gets into Nagercoil only after 7 AM when it hits the rush hour traffic on the very busy and narrow Nageroil Trivandrum NH 47. It makes people whose destination is Trivandrum reach very late. G4 is even later at 930. Only reliable options are I guess the 7PM (from Wilson Garden) service of KPN (which gets combined half the time with the 8 PM service if there are not many people booked in it) or the 815 PM(from Madiwala) service of SRM.

As for Suresh Kallada, it seems they are getting shoddy once again after a brief period of revival (interestingly looks like now it is their Ernakulum Hyderabad services which are getting the best reviews). As per an earlier review here their Volvo sleeper also has problems and crew indifference is rearing its ugly head again.

Also one question ? Does these sleeper buses (Volvo/Merc) take more time to complete the journey compared to the normal seater buses of the same type???

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Originally Posted by TKMCE (Post 3142898)

Also one question ? Does these sleeper buses (Volvo/Merc) take more time to complete the journey compared to the normal seater buses of the same type???

Not exactly! I have seen their 8.15pm TVM-BLR Merc sleeper reaching Madiwala between 6.30 am to 8.30 am. It reaches early on Monday mornings but late mostly on other days.

The same applies to many other operators too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TKMCE (Post 3142898)

Also one question ? Does these sleeper buses (Volvo/Merc) take more time to complete the journey compared to the normal seater buses of the same type???

That used to be case with the non-Merc/non-Volvo sleepers. These are as fast as the semi-sleepers. But I guess that's one reason for my perceived lack of comfort in them compared to the regular sleeper buses.