[binaiks]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

I agree with silversteed. Take the first Volvo of Kerala SRTC which is an Ernakulam starting service. This will get you to Bangalore before 6 AM. However keep in mind that this is a single driver operation and there were some "rest period" issues earlier but I believe these are now sorted out. The Trivandrum service is a dual driver operation but the bus may get delayed reaching Ernakulam depending on traffic on NH 47. Both these buses also enter Trichur KSRTC bus station.

There are no more "dual driver" operations in Kerala RTC Volvos. All buses leave Kerala with a single driver now. The Trivandrum-Salem-BLR bus changes driver at Thrissur, Kottayam-BLR at Palakkad and Trivandrum-Kozhikode-BLR at Bathery.

The "rest period" was an unnecessarily blown up issue - which happened in a single bus with one particular driver, who has since been removed from the duty.

[MadiMaama]

Hi all,
Last Monday, I took a SETC Volvo to Pondicherry from Chennai CMBT and am posting my review here.
Me and my friends decided to visit Pondi for a small vacation and arrived at CMBT on Monday at 4:30pm. We were told that there was an AC bus that departs at 5pm. At 4:45 the bus arrived. It was a Volvo City Bus (Similar to the Vajra of Bangalore). We took the last seat and I was in the window seat. I was getting the full blast from the AC as the control knob was broken!! Coming to the bus,it was dirty and poorly maintained. Only one door was opening in the front and the rear doors could not open as the spare was kept there. The bus left at 5 sharp. As we left CMBT, a PRTC Volvo arrived and it was immaculate and clean and left us with second thoughts of travelling in the SETC bus. The conductor came and issued tickets and we were on our way. Enroute, we halted at Thiruvanmiyur, Tidel Park and Madhya Kailash. the bus was full from CMBT itself. We hit ECR and the view was spectacular as always. Mamallapuram and kalpakkam too were bypassed. We reached pondi by 9pm. here is a small observation by me. As we neared pondi, we could feel the heat from the engine entering the cabin.
Ratings:
Bus cleanliness;4/10
Comfort;7/10
Speed:8/10
Driver skills:8/10(No honking and smooth braking)
My advice though, take PRTC buses over SETC if you are going to Pondi

[dhandapanik]

Originally Posted by MadiMaama

Hi all,
Last Monday, I took a SETC Volvo to Pondicherry from Chennai CMBT and am posting my review here.

This is not operated by SETC and it is from TNSTC-Villupuram. They were Ex.MTC Volvos. Volvos which MTC was using prior to JNNURM-1 were transferred to TNSTC-Villupuram and they are now used for intercity operations.

[SchumiFan]

Originally Posted by MadiMaama

Hi all,
Last Monday, I took a SETC Volvo to Pondicherry from Chennai CMBT and am posting my review here.
My advice though, take PRTC buses over SETC if you are going to Pondi

You took the bus even after seeing it externally? That's brave of you. They have completely ruined the bus as if it was given to a bunch of kids.

Same case for the Intra city MTC's as well.

PRTC is wonderfully maintained and is on time mostly as I see it arriving at Thiruvanmiyur every day when I cross it in the office bus. PRTC though have very less number of buses to maintain and hence do their best job on each of them.

[TOINGPOING]

Seems TN Government has got other 'important' (know what I mean !)things to do these days,rather than looking after the needs of the passengers. People pay their hard earned money for comfort,which they never get. Problem is,it is very difficult,rather impossible to take legal action against these crooks.

[MadiMaama]

Originally Posted by SchumiFan

You took the bus even after seeing it externally? That's brave of you. They have completely ruined the bus as if it was given to a bunch of kids.

Same case for the Intra city MTC's as well.

PRTC is wonderfully maintained and is on time mostly as I see it arriving at Thiruvanmiyur every day when I cross it in the office bus. PRTC though have very less number of buses to maintain and hence do their best job on each of them.

No choice sir. We did not know of the PRTC service.

[pranav_mankad]

Here is a quick gist of my recent experience with KSRTC Club Class for journey from Bangalore to Pune and back.
Overall Impression : Very Good

Key Points:

• Took evening 5 p.m. Mumbai bus on way out of Bangalore and took return trip of 4 p.m. from Pune. Both the time, busses were clean and well maintained. On the return journey, rear suspensions were making slight noise though
• The Crew was well mannered. They were dressed in white dress and could speak in Hindi
• Booking process itself was smooth. Did online booking. Got SMS for tickets. Further, before 30 mins, got SMS with details about bus as well as with Crew mobile no.
• Bus left on time and arrived at destination on time. They had declared where they will take food break on their website itself. It was followed. The eateries where they stopped were acceptable. They had clean toilets and reasonably good food quality.
• They provided blankets and water. Played 1 full and 1 half bollywood movie. After food break, they switched off movie to allow passengers to sleep.
• Driving was steady and safe. Never felt sudden breaking/acceleration or cornering. They maintained steady speed.
• They picked up parcels both the times on their way. While going out, they stopped after Yeshwanthpur and picked up parcels. While returning , they stopped near exit for Vai ( Mahabaleshwar ) and picked up parcels of Strawberry. These were loaded in the luggage compartment

I would certainly recommend these services.

[TKMCE]

Originally Posted by binaiks

There are no more "dual driver" operations in Kerala RTC Volvos. All buses leave Kerala with a single driver now. The Trivandrum-Salem-BLR bus changes driver at Thrissur, Kottayam-BLR at Palakkad and Trivandrum-Kozhikode-BLR at Bathery.

Is there any logic in deciding where there is a driver change? I feel a single driver driving overnight all the way from Trivandrum to Bathery on the Trivandrum Kozhikode Bangalore service is dangerous as he drives 500 Km at a stretch including a major Ghat section.The Trivandrum Salem Banglore bus has a driver change at Trichur which means he drives just 300 KM. I know that the driver who does Trivandrum Bathery gets 1.5 or 2 duty credits for the stretch instead of the 1 duty credit the driver who does Trivandrum Trichur gets, but aren't such practices dangerous for the driver and passengers ?

Some of the Kerala SRTC shft patterns especially on long and medium haul operations may not be ideal from a safety perspective which the pasengers boarding the bus are not aware of. Unless things have changed recently, to my knowledge I understand there is no concept of "minimum rest" before the crew starts the return part of their trip.

I have heard crew complainig about this on two instances on the Kerala SRTC buses (not Volvo or Airbus) I was on. In the first instance the crew was mentioning that though the incoming trip was signifcantly delayed in reaching the desitnation due to heavy traffic blocks , they were still asked to start back on their return trip on schedule. The second case was even worse as it was one of the early morning departures around 5 AM and the crew had a scheduled rest period from 11 PM after starting their duty at around 2 PM. They had a mechanical break down on the first part of the journey which delayed their arrival by about two hours but they were still asked to start back on schedule .

Now the less said the better about some private operators the better. There are enough horror stories here in this thread itself.

This is why I would prefer a two driver operation. I have travelled on the Bangalore Thiruvalla KeSRTC Super Deluxe a numbler of times which used to be a two driver operation (don't know if it still is) and the various crews who used to operate that bus had good co-ordination .Also the conductors generally used to be alert right through the trip even if the bus was full ex Bangalore which used to be be case on week ends.

I am not aware of the duty regulations of Loco pilots on Indian Railways, but as far as airlines are concerned in most parts of the world including India there is legislation in place to ensure compliance with laid down duty time guidelines. This is why fatigue related accidents are much less on airlines than in buses.

[treadmark]

Originally Posted by silversteed

You can check the KSRTC Garuda services - there are two, one at 7pm and the other one at 8pm (the TVM-BLR service), have seen the latter pass Silk Board before 6:30am consistently,

Originally Posted by TKMCE

I agree with silversteed. Take the first Volvo of Kerala SRTC which is an Ernakulam starting service. This will get you to Bangalore before 6 AM.
As for private buses, forget it. Timings are not their strong point and if your drop off point is anywhere after Madivala then dont even bother to take them. Stick to Kerala or Karnataka SRTC. There were a number of times I have been dumped at Madivala after travelling in badly late buses and told to make my own way.

Originally Posted by binaiks

There are no more "dual driver" operations in Kerala RTC Volvos. All buses leave Kerala with a single driver now. The Trivandrum-Salem-BLR bus changes driver at Thrissur, Kottayam-BLR at Palakkad and Trivandrum-Kozhikode-BLR at Bathery.

Thank you all for your suggestions, but then nothing went as planned.
I had booked for Kerala RTC Trivandrun ~ Bangalore Volvo leaving Cochin at 20:00 hours since I had a marriage reception to attend on 24 April evening. Unfortunately (only for me) the heavy rain on Friday evening ruined everyone's schedule. The program started late and I was not able to leave until 9.
Though there was seats available for 22:00 Trivandrum ~ Bangalore Kerala RTC volvo gave it a miss since I don't wanted to travel through Calicut / Mysore.
Went to Kallada's office at MG road (Iyyattumukku Junction) at 21:20 and got a ticket for 21:30 Cochin ~ Bangalore Volvo Mutliaxle service.
Fortunately the bus was on time and left at 21:30 on dot, but the interiors were not well maintained, all red seats, curtains and blankets made it claustrophobic. Understood it was a day service came from Bangalore and may be they didn't had enough time to clean.
It was raining heavily all the way till Palakkad in-spite of this the bus reached Madiwala by 6:30 in the morning; the cleaner lad informed everyone Madiwala is the last stop

Cheers!

[m.shekhar]

Hi Guys,

Travelling from Delhi to Kullu this weekend, needed some advice on which are the good bus operators (Volvo) on that route.

[coolclouds]

Ernakulam-Bangalore

Atlas Travels Volvo MAV(Ex. Shama bus)
Scheduled Departure (Edappally toll): 9.15 pm
Actual Departure : 9.13 pm
Actual arrival at Electronics City: 5.45 am

This service used to be Trivandrum - Bangalore service but now they cut it to Kollam - Bangalore. Booked on Redbus for Rs. 1000 and as per ticket, scheduled departure was at 9.15pm. Driver called at 9.10 and informed that he will leave now. I told him that the departure time is 9.15 and reached at 9.13. This bus went inside Trichur town for pickup. Driving was fast and smooth along with Padikkal travels. Padikkal driver called our driver and decided to take Palacode route. Both buses reached E.city at 5.45am.

Return on next day, same bus.
Again, booked two tickets on Redbus for Rs. 900 per ticket. Scheduled departure from E.city was at 9.30pm but to my surprise, bus arrived at 9.27 itself! Bus was full except for my co passenger who cancelled the trip but didn't cancel seat. Co driver asked me if he can occupy that seat and happily slept.
They took Krishnagiri route and arrived Edapplly at 5.40 with a dinner break and extra long fuel break. This time too, Padikkal gave company to our bus.

Overall, a very happy service.

[silversteed]

My parents recently travelled from Palakkad to Bangalore in the KaSRTC AC sleeper bus, that starts from Thrissur at 8:30pm. Since the day of travel was a Friday, there were just 4 people in the bus. The driver(s) showed no urgency at all, and despite a 10pm departure from Palakkad, reached E-City only at 6 o'clock on saturday morning. Worse, they stopped the bus at multiple dingy places, for tea and smoke. When my mother requested the driver to stop at some place where there is a decent rest room for ladies, he simply muttered something and then pretended to not have heard anything at all. She got down in the morning in a really bad shape.

I never had a good opinion about KaSRTC's services to Kerala (never on time, too slow for my liking, lugging the engine, and at times the odd arrogant driver/conductor that ends up in the bus I travel, etc), and this one just affirms the same. My parents used to be satisfied with their AC sleeper services, since they are driven sedately always and of course the comfort of lying down, but now they vowed never to take KaSRTC again.

[hserus]

Karnataka KSRTC now introduces Scanias - Airavat Diamond.

Coaches with electronically assisted braking, an "alcolock" to monitor if drivers have been boozing, tyre pressure monitor, reverse camera etc.

https://www.facebook.com/TheBangalor...20907327919886

More details from an Indian Express article. http://www.newindianexpress.com/stat...cle2885416.ece

Speaking to Express, Anders Grundstrmer, Managing Director, Scania India, said these advanced features will be present in its KSRTC’s Diamond Class buses. “The fire prevention feature will have water sprinklers under the bus near the fuel tanks,” he said.

The other safety features in the Scania buses include the placement of the fuel tank and batteries between the axles of the bus. Grundstrmer said. Explaining about other safety features, he said there is an emergency door, safety belts for each passenger, more number of hammers in each bus to break glass in case of emergency and even roll-over protection.

Pointing out that it is usually the luggage and fuel tank that are most likely to catch fire, he said fire-retardant material have been used for the interiors of the buses.

He said that the structure of the bus has been strengthened to protect passengers in case the bus rolls over. Safety videos on the benefits of using seat belts and emergency as well as safety information brochures will be in each seat. Onboard computer systems limit the speed of the bus to 85 kmph as per Karnataka’s regulations. The computer will also monitor driving information to further improve fuel efficiency and provide assistance in driver training, he said.

[dreamliner17]

I will be travelling to Coonoor for a short vacation with friends. I will reach KR Puram Station at 10.30 on 7th July and will take a BMTC bus to Shanthinagar Bus station to catch the KSRTC Airavat at 13.00Hrs from bangalore and reach Ooty around 21.00Hrs. This is my first travel on this route and i do not know the local language. What could be my favourable options from bangalore to Ooty?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by dreamliner17

I will be travelling to Coonoor for a short vacation with friends. I will reach KR Puram Station at 10.30 on 7th July and will take a BMTC bus to Shanthinagar Bus station to catch the KSRTC Airavat at 13.00Hrs from bangalore and reach Ooty around 21.00Hrs. This is my first travel on this route and i do not know the local language. What could be my favourable options from bangalore to Ooty?

Make sure your KSRTC doesn't actually stop at KR Puram (near the ganesh temple). Most tamil nadu buses will go down that route.