[PGNarain]

My daily commute by car from my Home in Navi Mumbai to my Office in BKC was proving to be a nightmare. Some days were smooth but more often than not, most days turned out to be bad, especially in the evening.

Stretches on SCLR and the Ghatkopar - Mankhurd Link road are perennially jammed and the Ghatkopar - Mankhurd Link road additionally suffers from unruly traffic and pedestrians.

Travelling by trains was ruled out sometime back because I had had enough of transitting through Kurla station!!

At this time a colleague of mine showed me that she was commuting using CityFlo and that she was very satisfied with their services. And so for the past one week I have switched from my car to Cityflo bus services.

Some links - http://articles.economictimes.indiat...la-bus-service

After Ola and Uber disrupted the taxibooking market, a new set of startups is looking to transform how you commute by bus, forcing investors to take notice.

another link - http://yourstory.com/2015/10/cityflo/

With Cityflo, Mumbaikars have been saying bye-bye to sweaty, overcrowded public transport and embracing luxury at no extra cost.

[PGNarain]

Downloaded the app and booking process is very simple and straightforward. Some screenshots:

Starting the app


Loading Wallet - payment gateway is citrus


Perusing routes


Selecting route


Selecting start and end stops


Bus timings and seat availability


Confirmation


Bus Pass


... And that is it, you are done!

Listing some initial impressions:

Pros:
- Very user friendly app and extremely easy to book
- Till now, service has been on time and they actually stick to the displayed schedules - almost. Mornings - buses are on time or at the most 1-2/3 minutes delayed. Evening - 5 to 10mins delays. Transit times have been more or less spot on or less.
- Bus is AC, clean, driver is uniformed and courteous.
- Occupancy is usually 60-70% for the times I travel so I can stretch out on a seat or at the back.
- Though stops are exactly displayed, drop off points are flexible. I get off right in front of my office which is about 200mtr from the designated drop-off point. Not so with the pick up points.
- Cheaper than running a car. Other than fuel and usual wear and tear - my car has been bumped and scratched 2-3 times in the kurla traffic.

Cons:
- Not much right now, but even though the bus is comfortable - the seats are a tad small for my large frame.
- Have caught the driver talking on the phone on occasion and running lights at other times.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Commercial Vehicle Section. Thanks for sharing!

[1.2TSI7DSG]

Thanks a lot for the information.

My wife's office is going to shift to Airoli, Navi Mumbai soon. We were discussing about alternate modes of transport to & fro her office other than her office bus.

This app will help her out on the issue and provide her more flexibility to commute to her office.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by PGNarain

- Bus is AC, clean, driver is uniformed and courteous.
- Occupancy is usually 60-70% for the times I travel so I can stretch out on a seat or at the back.
- Not much right now, but even though the bus is comfortable - the seats are a tad small for my large frame.

Could you please post some pics of the bus, its interiors, etc.?
And how do the fares compare with the BEST/KDMT/NMMT etc?

[Dodge_Viper]

I had put in a suggestion for Vashi-Andheri bus. They added it in few months (must be because of lot of suggestions would have come in). But the major grouse is the time. It is good for 9-6 job people. Not for IT majdurs . Hopefully they will start a late shift buses soon.

Originally Posted by silversteed

Could you please post some pics of the bus, its interiors, etc.?
And how do the fares compare with the BEST/KDMT/NMMT etc?

NMMT fare is 100 from Vashi till Jogeshwari. Add 30 bucks for auto till near metro. Cityflo fare is 65 from Vashi-Andheri and I better not start on those "world class" BEST Cerita buses.

[Bh.P]

Is it legal in Mumbai to run private bus fleets. I think some states do not allow it legally, though there are buses which do so by flouting the rules.

Also, this gets me thinking, why can't the government bus corporations come up with a similar app and set apart some buses to only serve the app customers (at a slight premium?). I am sure in cities like Bangalore, there will be quite a few who would use the service during peak hours.

[TheARUN]

Originally Posted by Bh.P

Is it legal in Mumbai to run private bus fleets. I think some states do not allow it legally, though there are buses which do so by flouting the rules.

What I guess is happening right now is that the Operators are using the vehicle as a Contract Carriage. However, from the looks of it, the bus functions like a Stage Carriage, i.e plys a fixed route. Its a grey area at the moment since the Bus might ply different routes on different days and the Customers get into a contract with the operator through the App

[PGNarain]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Could you please post some pics of the bus, its interiors, etc.?
And how do the fares compare with the BEST/KDMT/NMMT etc?

Will post some pics later - don''t have any interior pics with me! The buses types vary according to the load that particular route carries. So, I see some routes from BKC operating with mini buses and full sized buses, whereas for the Navi Mumbai - BKC we get the Force Tempo Travellers!

You have to understand that being public transport, the service does come with some pitfalls of public transport in India. For example - yesterday I posted this review and on the way home had a bad experience. The seats on the bus I took yesterday were ALL wet or at the least really damp!! the quick fix were seat covers that we could spread out over the seat.

Though I have never had such an issue till date but it is still early days and I still find it convenient and intend to keep using it!

Not sure - but understand the these services are actually cheaper than the AC Bus Fares by BEST and NMMT. Moreover - you can reserve seats in advance, so no standing and number of stops is limited, so commuting time is reduced. Today morning I took only 40 mins from Belapur to my office!

[GKMahajan]

Interesting!
Nice to see this happening!!

I think instead of doing the odd/even rule type of implementation, they should go in for something like this on a real mass scale.

I am lazy! I have chosen a flat which is 2 km from my office - after joining the job!

But, I know, this is not a luxury available to a majority of people.

Let us see if mother nature takes over and this system develops due to a kind of cascading chain reaction.

Girish Mahajan

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by TheARUN

What I guess is happening right now is that the Operators are using the vehicle as a Contract Carriage. However, from the looks of it, the bus functions like a Stage Carriage, i.e plys a fixed route. Its a grey area at the moment since the Bus might ply different routes on different days and the Customers get into a contract with the operator through the App

Originally Posted by Bh.P

Is it legal in Mumbai to run private bus fleets. I think some states do not allow it legally, though there are buses which do so by flouting the rules.
....

They can be registered as "Private Service Vehicle" and can operate. In case of PSV they can be operated within the city and that's how the staff and Institutional buses are operated. They will pay a fixed tax per quarter irrespective of the route they operate.
But still this is a kind of neither illegal nor legal as its best use of available rule within its limits.

[invidious]

I guess it is a case a bending the law to the maximum permissible limit without breaking it. It is a cool idea - will download the app and try it out.

[punekar]

Originally Posted by invidious

I guess it is a case a bending the law to the maximum permissible limit without breaking it. It is a cool idea - will download the app and try it out.

I downloaded the CityFlo app. I don't see any Andheri routes at all. I wanted to try out their Andheri (E) to Thane route.

Is the service still ON? I heard news about their buses getting impounded.

[PGNarain]

Hi Punekar,

Cityflo is very much going on, though they did suffer a setback during which they had reduced their services and routes. They are still operating but currently only on 5 routes as of today.

Perhaps you can try another bus aggregator - ZipGo, who offer similar services.

[bhaskar.guru]

Wow, this is actually nice. Didn't know this kind of a service existed. Let me check if they have something for hyderabad.