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I have a question. How many of the state transport operators offer sleeper bus services. Among the large and successful STCs of south India, the only sleeper buses I can remember are KaSRTCs Corona Sleeper services, which are very limited.

Other than that I know that my home state operator, OSRTC also operates a few sleeper cum seater services.

Why are the STCs not going in for sleeper services, when a large no. of the private operators are operating very long journeys using these?

I think APSRTC used to have some, but not sure if the service still exists. KaSRTC offers both AC and non-AC sleeper services.

Sleeper services are not remunerative over weekdays - they find passengers only during weekends. Private operators make most of their revenue from parcels, than from passengers. Also, private operators provide sleeper+seater services, while KaSRTC offers purely sleeper services.

Moreover, Sleeper services are not encouraging for short distance passengers. Most STUs carry short distance passengers as well. While a seater bus can been used on long trips as well as short trips (most Volvos/Rajahamsas of KaSRTC are used for day time services in the Bangalore-Mysore section in addition to long trips at night), the sleeper buses have little opportunities for being cross-utilised.

On short routes (under 8 hours), KaSRTC buses make an additional day trip - for example, Bangalore-Chennai overnight buses return as a day service from Chennai (and vice-versa). By doing so, KaSRTC extracts more kms per day from their buses.

So why not go in for seater-cum-sleeper services like the ones OSRTC and the private operators run. And in these buses with the limited number of sleepers, I think they will fill up on all days.

binaiks, it's the same bus. And same driver too.

I would put my money on ARC and ABTX. For comfort, the Jahan 2+1 Semi-sleeper non A/C is also good, though their departure and arrival wouldn't be so punctual. I'm talking about B'lore - Chennai. Haven't experienced B'lore-Kerala trips

I remember reading somewhere that the Transport Department of Karnataka has stopped registering new "Sleeper cum Seater" buses. The bus has to be either an all Seater or an all Sleeper.

In the last 2 weeks, a friend travelled Bangalore-Manipal (2251 departure from Majestic) and Udupi-Bangalore (1245 departure from Udupi) on KSRTC Volvos.

The 1st broke down at 3am and they got a non-A/c replacement bus at 4am.

The A/c of the 2nd stopped working because "there was no coolant" at 4pm, they got a replacement only at 6pm.

All operators desperately need to have a good maintenance schedule for the Volvo fleet.

Amen to that.

ABT's buses are religiously maintained, they are punctual, the staff are courteous and they are the most accident-free service providers.

Had made a trip to Vijayawada on work last week. For return had booked myself the Sree Kaleswari Travels Volvo Multi Axle.



On reaching their office realized that it is not going to be a Volvo Multi Axle but an Izuzu which would be making the trip. The Isuzu was a brand new one with the plastic wraps still on in almost all the seats.

When we reached their main office near Benz circle we were informed that this bus has tax issues hence it would not go upto Chennai instead we would have to changed buses near Nellore. After couple of stops waiting for passengers who decided to board the bus on the way instead of reaching the office on time we finally reached somewhere near Kavali at around 4 in the morning to change over to the other bus which was a battered & bruised Mercedes. Ended up reaching Chennai at around 8.30 in the morning. That was my first trip on Kaleswari and is going to be the last trip as well. I dont want to do another "Looking London - Talking Tokyo" trip.

Strangely their website still claims a Volvo Multiaxle for the 10:15 PM departure.



Now for a feedback on Isuzu & Mercedes, both of which are a first time for me. It was nowhere as comfortable as the Volvos. The Isuzu seriously needs some torque. The sound insulation also was not so great. The only good thing about the bus is the overhead racks and a reasonably aggressive front design.

Here's one journey I'd cherish. I moved to Bangy from Chennai and had to transport the remaining belongings to my room here. So I'd gone to Chennai on 7th and reached Bangalore on 10th morn.

Onward journey was booked in National Travels non-A/C 2+1. We had one single seat on the LHS and a window seat on the RHS - both in the first row, just behind the driver cabin (That's how I was able to book in redBus due to availability issues). We got in and were requested to occupy the RHS seats. We obliged. The seats were very comfortable - Harita seats found in most good Volvo buses. Enough leg room, ample gap between the two seats, and mobile charging points right in front of us, with pouches. This seemed to be an exclusive luxury available only to seats 1 and 2 as none of the other seats had plug points. Boarded the bus at 22:45, though the sche. We were dropped in Egmore at 06:00hrs. Comfortable ride. No movies, so had a nice sleep. Traffic was thick on the highway, and the bus had entered Hosur to load parcel. Forgot to add that with all the parcel loaded on the top, the bus was almost as tall as a double decker bus :Shockked:

Since we have a lot of luggage, I booked a Volvo bus, considering the cavernous luggage compartment under the passenger deck. This time I went thru the reviews in redBus carefully, and chose Roadlink India Travels, as they had a 4.5- 5 star rating in all fronts - punctuality, bus quality and staff behavour. Our boarding point was Adyar, as it's the nearest to where I used to stay in Chennai. We reached there at 21:00hrs, and the bus was already there. After 10 minutes, the driver came and turned on the engine and AC. We loaded our luggage, and got in. Started at 21:30hrs as per schedule. Because there were many people getting in from different places on the way to CMBT, it had to wait for 5-10min at various places - people had the perception that a bus would always turn up late. Anyway, we were a bit late (according to the time given in redBus) by the time the bus got out of CMBT. 23:00hrs and we'd hit the highway. Very comfortable seats, no movie, clean interiors, AC vents with direction and flow control, well mannered driver, very low NVH levels - all in all, a very good ride. Hopped off at Madiwala at 04:10hrs. At night I'd observed the bus cruise at 85-90kmph (according to my GPS) for a considerable distance, until I slept off.

Highly recommend both these operators :thumbs up

Bangalore - Ernakulam KeSRTC

Travelled from Bangalore to Ernakulam by KeSRTC Thiruvalla super deluxe bus (6.15 Dep from Satellite). My boarding point was Bommanahalli. By 6.30, the conductor called on my cell and informed that the bus is little late. He also requested me to come to the bus stop before elevated highway so that we can take the elevated flyover to Electronic city.

Conductor again called at 7pm and informed that they will reach at 7.15. We boarded the bus at sharp 7.15pm and took the elevated highway. Stopped at Krishnagiri Uttahaih (?) at 8.30pm. The hotel seems to be an ok type though they renovated the toilets and tarred the parking ground. Finally the bus reached Kaloor at 5.15am with 35 mins break for dinner, 20 mins diesel halt at Palakkad.

Very comfortable journey and the staff were very good. The conductor was so good that no issues with dropping at a no stop place. He also helped a lady passenger who needed to go to Alwaye bus station. He went with the lady to an auto at about 75m distance, negotiated, noted auto reggn number and driver phone number before sending the lady.

7.15-Silk board, 11.05-Salem Byepass, 2.30-2.50 Palakkad, 5.15-Kaloor.

Make sure you give them the appropriate rating on redbus site for others' benefit.

How can less than 18 month Merc buses end up "battered and bruised"? Speaks volumes of their maintenance schedules.

Let his tribe increase. Good that you highlighted the good deeds, we always want to point the bad things but fail to acknowledge the good most times.

I tried giving feedback for the specific ticket id but strangely was informed I have already given my feedback for the ticket not sure how. Nevertheless sent a feedback separately with the transaction id etc detailing what happened. Have not got a reply yet so am not sure if redbus has taken it seriously. Would give them some time if nothing happens I would not use their services any more.

The windshield was cracked, with metal paste (the one applied while tinkering) applied on the passenger entry side to hold it together. My thigh support lever was missing. The bus was certainly not maintained well.

Quite a gentlemanly gesture from a bus conductor. I hope the guys on route buses in Kerala display atleast half of the courtesy shown by that conductor.

In Andhra many private operators used to offer sleeper services . The reason why it was withdrawn was because people started using the services for prostitution . Instead of renting rooms in unsafe hotels and due to fear of police raids ,people started using the sleeper buses . The sleeper buses had "family " accomodations I believe .