[professor.march]

KSRTC shows this option between Bangalore and murdeshwar. Anyone knows what bus this is? I searched online but I'm not finding any information about this.

[thanixravindran]

Travelling to Chennai from Bangalore. Which travels is good now a days for punctuality? In Redbus, operator names are not familiar except Intrcity smart bus. Pre COVID, used to like Evacay and Asian express.

Do we have any electric buses yet on this route for day journey just to try out?

[akash_v12]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

Travelling to Chennai from Bangalore. Which travels is good now a days for punctuality? In Redbus, operator names are not familiar except Intrcity smart bus. Pre COVID, used to like Evacay and Asian express.

Do we have any electric buses yet on this route for day journey just to try out?

Usually KSRTC is very good in terms of timings. Use can find the buses on this website. If you want sleepers, choose Ambaari Dream Class or Ambaari Utsav and if you're okay with the semi-sleepers/seaters, take any of the Airavats.

[SchumiFan]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

Travelling to Chennai from Bangalore. Which travels is good now a days for punctuality? In Redbus, operator names are not familiar except Intrcity smart bus. Pre COVID, used to like Evacay and Asian express.

Do we have any electric buses yet on this route for day journey just to try out?

Nuego has electric buses. I've seen their Chennai Puducherry service arrive in Thiruvanmiyur at the same time almost every day.

No reviews on their BLR/CHN service though.

Nuego

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by akash_v12

Usually KSRTC is very good in terms of timings. Use can find the buses on this website. If you want sleepers, choose Ambaari Dream Class or Ambaari Utsav and if you're okay with the semi-sleepers/seaters, take any of the Airavats.

Thanks. I used KSRTC extensively in the past but this time I have to go directly to South end of OMR which rules it out. I tried YBM sleeper and it worked okay. Boarded 11 PM in Electronic city and reached Siruseri by 5 AM on time and bus condition is okay. And good thing they didn't stopped for some tea break in between and forced everyone to wake up for a break by switching on the lights.

Originally Posted by SchumiFan

Nuego has electric buses. I've seen their Chennai Puducherry service arrive in Thiruvanmiyur at the same time almost every day.

No reviews on their BLR/CHN service though.

Nuego

Thanks. I saw a Neugo in EC and it seems they have services between Chennai and Bangalore. Next time will try out in day time

[akash_v12]

Originally Posted by professor.march

KSRTC shows this option between Bangalore and murdeshwar. Anyone knows what bus this is? I searched online but I'm not finding any information about this.

I believe it is this Tata 13.5m Prototype bus. Found a picture on Facebook by him.

[condor]

VRL has been replacing their buses. Their new Super Bus series and the Magna series are good.

On another note, even KSRTC"s Pallakki buses for travel within Karnataka have good feedback. The driver even calls the passenger at the pick-up points if the passenger is not there when the bus arrives.

[dailydriver]

We should ideally wait till the end of the journey and then post a review. When one starts typing on TBhp in the middle of the trip, it could either be because he has really good things to say or is about to start a rant!

Midway through my travel from Chikkamagaluru to Bengaluru by KSRTC Power Plus bus, I am cursing myself to no end for choosing this mode of transport.

CONS:

1. Delay of ten minutes at the starting point.
2. Took one hour forty five minutes to cross Hassan - a distance of barely 60 kilometres.
3. Though it sometimes reaches the upper 90s, average speed even on NH 75 post Hassan is around 75kmph.
4. The legroom, specially with a reclined seatback in the front, is abysmal. My knees kept brushing the hard plastic back.
5. The seat width is visibly lesser than in the regular Volvos. Two decently built adults side by side is a sad squeeze.
6. Most importantly, or should i say, disappointingly, the bus seems to have mistaken the world Power and is using it in all the wrong places. The constant vibrations are reminiscent of the old ramshackle buses that we used to ride in during our childhood. Add to that the inadequate suspension damping - even minor road imperfections and small rumble strips disorient the bus and in turn are clearly felt by the passengers. It is like travelling in/on a non linear, unsynchronised vibrator.
7. The bus is noisy: the whoosh of the electric motor, the racketeering AC and the unsettled suspension are a clear recipe for a disturbing few hours.

PROS:

1. Costs lesser than a regular Airavat Club class.
2. The seats, though narrow and tightly spaced, have adequate amount of cushioning, contours and support. The recess for headrest could have been better.
3. Supposedly more environment friendly than the ICE powered alternative.
4. Stops for breakfast at Pakashala. Decent hotel, clean washrooms and some sights!

Front

Back

Side profile

The clock running six minutes behind

The cockpit

Sadly, no elevated experience for me

Inadequate legroom

The midway break(fast)point

Speed

[Oppanna]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Midway through my travel from Chikkamagaluru to Bengaluru by KSRTC Power Plus bus, I am cursing myself to no end for choosing this mode of transport.

You are not alone!

I had been to Mysore on Saturday and on the return I had to take this Olectra EV for the very first time as there was no other service available at that time and I was running late.

Like you rightly mentioned the speed limit is 80kmph, absolutely no leg room and when two well built adult sit on the seat it is a jugalbandi only!

After sometime the electric whoosh sound becomes so irritating and the suspension was also OK OK

Nothing to praise and of course it is not something I will repeat!

[GeeTee TSI]

It is very surprising that the EV bus fares worse than the ICE multi axle (Volvo) in refinement and comfort. I felt the same especially when the clicking and hissing noises in the rear most row of the Power Plus was comparable to the rear engined ICE.
Even the ride was nowhere as cosseting as the air sprung Volvos

[elampumpkin]

My Mumbai-Pune runs were done courtesy of Shivneris; They were very comfortable. Ever since they started the e-shivneri service, I always pray for a Volvo or a Scania to show up at the bus stop. While these new buses are in a much better condition with fresh interiors and charging points everywhere, the ride quality of the bus leaves a lot to be desired. The effects are exacerbated with the inherent silence of an EV and subpar fit and finish, causing a lot of creaking noises. I shall keep waiting for Volvo EV buses to eventually replace Olectra!

[baranib458]

I had the worst booking experience with YoloBus. I'm not sure if i was fortunate but i did not travel on the bus and this post is on the booking and cancellation experience with YoloBus.

I had a plan to travel from Chennai to Bangalore with a group of 6 plus 2 infants. It was on a weekend and we were looking for all seats in the same bus. We had an option of YoloBus on Redbus which was supposed to start at 10.41PM from Koyambedu, Chennai. After couple of booking failure from Redbus, I tried booking through YoloBus's website and this was the first redflag I missed to see through. The booking via YoloBus website was successful at the first try.

I received the below booking confirmation in whatsapp with Boarding time as 10.41PM. They do not share any other updates via email or SMS and it is only vis Whatsapp. This is a major concern if one doesn't have Whatsapp enabled number.


After arriving at the boarding point I tired the link provided in the confirmation for live status of bus and it wasn't working. The boarding point doesn't have any lounge and it is just by the side of road.

With multiple attempts and live tracking not working, I started to call the Captain number provided in the confirmation and it was continuously disconnected by the person from other end. This got us all tensed and we started trying from multiple numbers. None of the calls were getting accepted. After 10 to 15 minutes of trying, one person responded stating the contact and Bus number were of IntrCity and it was a wrong number.

This got is pissed and we started to try reaching customer care. The audacity of the operations team is that no one is available after 8PM and this is the prime time of majority of boardings. This was also getting us nervous as we had women and infants with us with no place to even sit.

We were at the boarding pint till 11.30 hoping something or someone from YoloBus will come up. One other bus came by11:30 and the driver said our bus was under repair and they are not sure if it will run today. A person holding the YoloBus tablet came in and he was also clueless. We got his number and found another bus to go to our destination. It was a no brainer to wait with no concrete information it was getting too late to miss any available buses hoping YoloBus will be an operator with good ethics.

I received a Whatsapp ping by 11:52 stating the bus is 60 minutes late. and someone called me by 1:15AM and asked me where I was and the bus was waiting.

These guys were nuts to assume everyone will wait till 1:15AM without any information that was supposed to start by 10.41PM.

The next day I started reaching out to customer care and these guys started to play dumb from the beginning. Some how their system says the boarding time was 11:50PM and they started to put the blame on me. They will put your call on hold for 10 minutes and disconnect. They wont transfer the call for escalation. Every connect will have to start from scratch. These guys were playing dumb and also avoiding all contacts.

They tried all available techniques to move away from this topic. The tickets costed Rs.5000 and they completely ignored all my calls and emails after a while. I'm sure my contacts are blocked everywhere.

Their X platform is useless. Customer care is pathetic. Operations team is a bunch of fraudsters to be frank.

I suspect they use some psychological methods while engaging with customers to just give up and I did give up after a couple of months considering my mental health impacting due to all the hours of worthless wait and discussions with these guys.

They share all fraudulent details in emails, stick to actions like not adding attachments of proof and playing dumb later on.

I hope these kind of businesses are penalized some way or the other.

The major positive to these kind of business are non availability of physical kiosks or lounge so we can't hold anyone accountable.

Never on a YoloBus.

[blorebuddy]

Looks like the YoloBus service is bad. Once I saw the ticket price was tempting (50% less than other operators) on RedBus but after seeing the rating I did not book. Also I saw the operator address was showing Gurgaon for a Bus going to Madurai from Bangalore. I go by RedBus rating which is more or less accurate. Also I prefer small operators than the larger ones as my experience with larger ones are not so good. They do not bother about customer service. Smaller ones behavior is better and their vehicle maintenance is better.

[thanixravindran]

I remember I wrote it earlier about this. There are too many operators in Chennai to Bangalore route unlike in the past where there were only few regular operators. It looks like the operating model has changed post COVID. Bus owners just outsource the operation for fixed fee and operators are new age companies with just a tablet for booking and a new name. All of them are mostly regular AC sleepers with high mileage and no more Multi-axle Volvo or Scania sleepers.

Intrcity has more services and overall okay but cancellation too is happening from them if seats are not filled. I finally settled with YBM travels (previous BLM travels) for my weekly rhythm. Prompt message upon booking, call near boarding time and quite punctual at pick up with on time performance in reaching destination.

I see mostly Shatabdhi and VB itself is having seats available regularly but couldn't make use of it being at farthest end of Railway station in both cities