[BLACNWYTE]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

Since you drive often in this route, how much time do you take, considering one break somewhere near Kayamkulam, which I guess is also the case with KeSRTC buses?

Is the running time officially available through some government source? Or can it be found out using a RTI to Kerala MVD?

This route gives different duration depending on the time you start, when I start at 5AM I reach Trivandrum at about 9 AM, with one small refreshment break mostly at Kayamkulam KTDC or Thonnakkal BP COCO pump (Just after Attingal town). Starting at around 6AM to 7AM will take me around 5 hrs and anything after 7AM will take 6-7 hrs for me. I usually travel with my wife and kid so the speed will be limited to under 70 kmph max (when and if I get there). I mostly don't do night trips unless it's absolutely necessary. Evening 4-8PM is peak traffic time in Ernakulam and it is a chore to get out of city limits. After 8PM its again sparse traffic so it will take about 4:30 hrs. My best time is about 4 hrs and worst is about 8 hrs (on one Thrivonam eve and before kollam bypass was open )

Regarding the timing of KeSRTC buses, I was told this, I am not sure if I am remembering it correctly but the duration was unrealistic since they also have to stop at all major depots not to mention numerous bus stops along the 220 km route. I don't know if the official document is available for public, btw, it should be. I think it will/should be available through RTI. The KeSRTC ticket booking portal shows the duration for EKM - TVM (via Alleppey) trip as around 5 hrs 30 mins, during peak hours which is impossible. I have used/ still use (pre-covid) KeSRTC buses for most of my long distance travels in Kerala and not once they have reached on time as advertised in the website.

[TSIboy]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

During the course of his drive, the bus driver was driving recklessly with multiple dangerous overtaking attempts. At one point, he attempted a very dangerous overtaking maneuver that steered us off the road and almost caused us to crash. It was only by God's grace that we were able to avoid a potentially fatal crash. I tried to overtake the bus, but he wouldn't yield, driving on the right side and not giving way even when space was available.

After a while, we overtook the above mentioned KSRTC bus and asked him to pull over. The process of overtaking was indeed rash, which is a mistake from my end. When both vehicles slowed down, the KSRTC driver accelerated and deliberately rammed the bus into the rear of our vehicle causing considerable damage. It was noted to be deliberate as just prior to this, both vehicles had come to a complete stop.

I’ve had my share brush offs with KSRTC’s too including one that send my brand new innova back to the workshop only half an hour after delivery. Another time when the driver blatantly told me there’s no point in arguing with him, the busses aren’t insured & I could either accept my loss or give a case against KSRTC. This was after he scratched/took out the entire left side of my car, trying to squeeze past me in a traffic jam.

This is the generic behavior of 99% of all the KSRTC drivers (even the private bus drivers) & unless you are in a truck or equally sized vehicle, it’s always you who have more to lose. The best solution is to let them overtake & problem solved. The road is not the place for ego clashes. Period.

[pgsagar]

GKR9900, I sympathise with your case. But, trust me, this gets you nowhere. These people are incorrigible. I have had fair share of my run-ins with such guys in the past, 99 per cent were commercial drivers. Luckily, it stayed at verbal duel and didn't escalate into flying fists. It's not worth it. Things can take very ugly turn. Even a verbal duel screws your mood for the day, affecting your appetite and your sleep. Not worth it. These guys have nothing personal against you. This is what they are. If you had let him pass, you could have watched him glued to the tail of another car, then next, then next, until he has passed them all. Beats me why they are in such a tearing hurry. I can't drive tiniest of a car through our inner-city dense traffic at a speed they drive these behemoths at.

Not just Kerala, I am sure story is the same in every state. In my state too, I see these guys driving with foot on accelerator and hand on horn. Forget braking, they don't even take their foot off accelerator, even for dense traffic ahead. Miraculously, traffic parts like biblical red sea and the bus just charges through. Instantly, traffic closes again for your car and no one budges an inch for you. It's a frigging miracle. What gets my goat is, we have a bus-stop every 500 to 700 metre. So, he overtakes you then stops, then catches up with you in no-time and overtakes you again only to stop again. All this hurry looks so stupid. And, on 4-lane highway, I see these guys overtaking each other in a way that looks like a race. Neither of the two yields and as a result, both buses end up running side by side for long distance, holding up traffic behind.

I will ask you what no one has. What was your dad's reaction? I'm sure you must have gotten an earful from him for pulling off this feat. You can't take on a commercial driver and win. They are not exactly gentlemen kind. And, what was that sudden braking in front of a heavy vehicles? These vehicles don't stop on a dime. Look up brake-check videos on youtube. It's called brake-checking when a smaller vehicles cuts off a large vehicles, comes right in front and hits brakes. Heavy vehicles would just plough into you. Anyway, just try and out it behind you and move on. I'm sure next time you see such a thing, you would not lose your cool.

[dgoyle]

I am glad you got away without a scuffle.
No one should attempt teaching road manners to other drivers. Delhi was afflicted by a similar malaise with Red and Blue lines buses. The color change was done to appease the public. They had an extremely rude and arrogant road behavior in the city.
We should lodge complaints. Overtime it works.

[Thanos-VV]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

This 4 hrs 30 mins is absolutely crazy. Since you drive often in this route, how much time do you take, considering one break somewhere near Kayamkulam, which I guess is also the case with KeSRTC buses?

Is the running time officially available through some government source? Or can it be found out using a RTI to Kerala MVD?

Spike

On an early morning start from trivandrum and being within speed limit, it will take 5 hrs without any stop. And for a public carriage, it will be for sure 6 hrs. And if this 4 hrs 30 mins is still the expected running time, i am sure none of the KSRTC drivers will be able to meet it in any of their trips.

During normal hours, it will be anywhere more than 7 hrs for sure.

[Bibendum90949]

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Experience is the best teacher, I'm sure you would be a more matured driver the next time you're behind the wheels.

I've been driving on Kerala roads since couple of decades. Here are few of my avoid-at-any-cost lists

* KSRTC or any state owned buses
* Auto rickshaws
* All yellow board taxis
* Volvos
* Fish and Vegetable trucks
* Fuel tankers
* Tipper Trucks/ Dump trucks
* Private buses especially the ones on Kochi - Thrissur sector.
* Any youngster on a 2 wheeler who rides asif there's no tomorrow.
* Tractors with loaded trailers
* Mopeds especially in TN state highways.
* Ambulances, for obvious reasons.

Guess i've covered most the vehicle types on the road.

[--gKrish--]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

This 4 hrs 30 mins is absolutely crazy. Since you drive often in this route, how much time do you take, considering one break somewhere near Kayamkulam, which I guess is also the case with KeSRTC buses?

In 2018, I boarded a KSRTC super deluxe from Kochi to Trivandrum. They reached Kochi hub an hour late (around 11:30pm) but reached Trivandrum almost half an hour before the schedule. Even including a 10 minute break, the journey took less than 4 hours (~3.5 hours if I remember correctly). My friend was checking the GPS speed in his phone from time to time and it was showing above 80kmph most of the time.

I was okay with the speeds they were doing in straight sections but the number of risky overtakes (sometimes with headlights off) and driving other people of the road made me decide that if I get home alive, I'm not boarding one of these again.

It was my first trip in a bus after a gap of almost 10 years but it was a harrowing experience and from then on, all my trips were in a car or train+uber. Once I stayed an extra day at a company guesthouse, just to catch a train the next day and avoid the bus. Just imagine this, overtaking a fuel tanker truck doing good speeds at a narrow blind corner where hardly two heavy vehicles can pass and then switching the headlight off halfway through the turn.

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

Thank you everyone for the response. Although I created this thread so that other fellow users can learn from my experience, I learnt a few things from us team-bhpians too. Feeling much better after going through all the responses.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. It's always better not to mess with them.

I have had few bad experiences with them but here's one that almost yielded some result.

A KSRTC hit my wife's car and the ORVM was broken (this was at Vytilla junction were it's a bottle neck now). She stopped in front of the bus and asked the driver to step down. He didn't move an inch. Took his photo, I joined her and went straight to the police station.



See how relaxed he was.



On telling that it was KSRTC who caused the damage, they started grinning (or should I say laughing) and advised us to forget about the incident as we wouldn't get anything from them. The cop suggested us to report the incident to the depot in-charge. Met the guy, shared the photo and luckily the dude (driver) was there. Called him, asked about the incident and he proudly accepted it. Asked us to write a complaint which he said would be forwarded (Yes, we knew it would be forwarded to the dustbin).

Wasted couple of hours for this but atleast there was some satisfaction since we were able to inform the authorities.

[Rshrey22]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

Now this is one incident that I wish I could have avoided. And it's one of those experiences that one wouldn't want to share, but if there was a place to share it, team-bhp would be it.

On 06-07-2020, my father and I were returning from Aluva to Perumbavoor via Aluva-Perumbavoor road in our Hyundai Elantra. A KSRTC (Kerala state road transport corporation) bus was driving behind us. During the course of his drive, the bus driver was driving recklessly with multiple dangerous overtaking attempts. At one point, he attempted a very dangerous overtaking maneuver that steered us off the road and almost caused us to crash. It was only by God's grace that we were able to avoid a potentially fatal crash. I tried to overtake the bus, but he wouldn't yield, driving on the right side and not giving way even when space was available.

I do understand that the actions on my part were irresponsible as well and is bound to be condemned. I should have noted the number and reported to the near by bus depot. The heat of the moment caused me to seek instant justice and it ended up being a loss to our mind and wallet. Also, we are a family who absolutely pampers our cars and a damage that is caused as a consequence of such an action is very hard to digest as well. But posting this here in team bhp so that others can learn from my experience.

Being a resident of Delhi, buses here are quite slow due to CNG based operation and mostly easy to overtake but things change to almost opposite whenever I hit any highway on the outskirts of delhi, HRTC or UPRTC being diesel run are very fast and can run side by side your car on triple digit speeds easily for all day.

And the way the drivers drive on road basically making their buses float in all directions on the road is a purely horrifying sight to see. You never know when you can get involved in a dangerous situation with a blink of an eye.

Whenever I see a bus ahead of me, I reduce my speed to let it pass for atleast a few kms or make a very careful overtaking manoeuvre maintaining as much distance as possible.

And when I see bus in my rearview mirror, I consider it my duty to give way.

Best avoid them as much as you can, reduce speed or maintain distance. Never get in a fight as situation goes only downhill from there.

Sorry for your loss!

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[Acharya]

Originally Posted by Govardhansupra

overtake other buses and collect more people. To be honest, I enjoy the fast driving, but little do I realize the dangers of their driving. Give them the keys to an F1 car or a supercar, and they will easily smoke Micheal Schumacher.

Perhaps people consider rash driving akin to race driving, to make stakements like this. I have heard similar comments on autowallahs as well.
The skills a F1 driver requires are rather closer to astronauts, than to rash bus drivers. Amount of G forces that F1 driver experience can subdue a normal human being.

On this enthusiast' platform, we must not carry such notions about F1 drivers & compare them to rogues on our streets.

https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator...es-report-says

[Govardhansupra]

Originally Posted by Acharya

On this enthusiast' platform, we must not carry such notions about F1 drivers & compare them to rogues on our streets.

I actually wanted that to be taken on a hilarious note. Did not know that there was also another aspect for my statement. Now when I re-read my statement, I understand my mistake, and also feel that I have offended F1 drivers/racers. Hence I would like to apologise here, Sorry
Thanks Acharya sir!!!

[ArjunPadmakumar]

Sadly,This attitude is shown by contract drivers and government vehicle driver across the country especially so in Kerala.The Ksrtc folks are almost entirely like this because the union interferes if he gets in trouble and bails him out!(This is especially true in the non-premium buses running inter-districts, read Fast passenger and super-fasts).Ksrtc drivers within the city and inter-state drivers are usually much more civilized.So the best thing to do when faced with these hooligans is avoid a confrontation.I have spoken to some of these folks and from what I got to know, they don't have anything personal, its just they expect the lesser drivers to give them way!
Don't know where they got this mentality. A proper counselling should be given to them from time to time, but unfortunately the folks running the organisation are an even more miserable lot, giving them unrealistic timings for example.Then there are the buses themselves!Absolutely unrefined automobiles that are usually equally spectacularly ill-maintained!
Private buses,especially Volvo Multi-axles by a particularly notorious group are an even bigger menace on the roads of the state.

Just reflect that you are lucky to drive a much better vehicle,take a breath/or a break and move on!

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. It's always better not to mess with them.

I have had few bad experiences with them but here's one that almost yielded some result.

A KSRTC hit my wife's car and the ORVM was broken (this was at Vytilla junction were it's a bottle neck now). She stopped in front of the bus and asked the driver to step down. He didn't move an inch. Took his photo, I joined her and went straight to the police station.

I dont know if this helps but this is an Vaikom depot FP bus running either Vaikom-Kozhikode or Vaikom-Vytilla-TVM. When Tomin J Thachankary was the MD of Ksrtc, such complaints were actually addressed. Now unfortunately it isn't the case.Sad state of affairs!

[Thanos-VV]

I can understand all the comments about letting it go when it comes to a confrontation with these drivers. Yes, when they are bullying you from behind by honking / flashing lights, you can try to avoid to be in harm's way by just letting them overtake.

But in Kerala where many part of the NH and SH are two-way undivided carriage, what to do when you have these Aanavandi's right in front of you on a bend that too on full speed and headlights on (and with their left indicator blinking). Nothing other than praying to God to do some magic and save you. This is a very severe problem and caused many grievous injuries and deaths. Situation may or may not be different in other states but in Kerala it is a nuisance especially among these long distance buses.

Having said that, in no way i am saying we need to waylaid them or teach them a lesson. But where-ever possible it is better to let them know that they are doing a mistake (sometimes as a passenger in the same bus, i have told the driver and of course that didn't change anything but still). At least that way i get a peace of mind.

[vishnu.t91]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

....
I do understand that the actions on my part were irresponsible as well and is bound to be condemned. I should have noted the number and reported to the near by bus depot. The heat of the moment caused me to seek instant justice and it ended up being a loss to our mind and wallet. Also, we are a family who absolutely pampers our cars and a damage that is caused as a consequence of such an action is very hard to digest as well. But posting this here in team bhp so that others can learn from my experience.

KSRTC driving is reckless, especially the super fast buses in Kochi - Trivandrum route. They drive as if they are wearing some shade that filters out all the small vehicles on the road.

It is best to invest in a good dash cam. Dual channel dash cams are available that will record front and rear footages. Dash cams are not that much popular in India. IMO, it's one very useful accessory that we could fit in our car, that's worth the money we spend for it.

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[dark.knight]

Rickshaw drivers, government bus drivers, traffic police and khaki police are all bromancers, one will never, ever let the other down under any circumstance. Bus drivers are the road alpha, they have the full right to go high speed and bulldoze and trample anything in sight.

Always let them go, breathe and get home safe. It's sad to see a Soviet era spot welded box of junk purposefully destroy a beautiful Elantra but that is the breaks and we've to move ahead. Absolutely no point complaining to their brothers in arms, is my opinion.

Also we shouldn't call them aanaivandis, those creatures are quite slow, gentle and very poised, unlike the psychopaths manning that breadbox on wheels.