Re: Public Bus Torture - In Mumbai & Delhi BEST buses have always had a special place in my heart. I used it extensively
1. Route 253 - Goregaon to Mithibai - 1993-94
2. Route 253 - Goregaon to Andheri Station - 1994-2008
3. Route 415 - Andheri Station to SEEPZ - 1998 - 2008
And countless other routes that make me nostalgic as I try remember them. I have a lot of fond memories e.g. sitting on the top deck front seats of the double decker from Juhu beach back home, and always alighting at the circle near home (and almost never at the official stop). Even hanging on the footboard was fun (and scary).
In addition to the ubiquitous double deckers, i used to often use the older generation busses as in the pic below.
They had the best design for a city bus. Just about enough leg space, seat widths optimized to best fit 2-3 rows of standing passengers, with the conductor weaving in and out from front to back to issue tickets. Almost always I used to sit in the second last row (just behind the boarding steps). What good days those were.
I moved to Bangalore around a decade back, and how have things changed. While I distinctly remember staying away from a BEST bus when driving a car, I used to challenge friends (specially those from outside Bombay) to show a BEST bus that was broken down. BEST used to have truly best busses, fantastic maintenance, and was even known to sell of slightly older busses to private/public players (not sure how true this is). I could almost bet that if you would see a BEST bus on the side of the road broken down it would ONLY be a case of a punctured tyre.
Now of course I understand things have completely changed. And it is really sad to see. With share-a-rickshaw concept so prevalent in Bombay, I myself use the bus very rarely. Sad to see the pride of Bombay, decaying. |