[indianvirus]

Wonderful write up, Vigsom!

It surely takes me down the memory lane, when I used to travel by buses around Gujarat some 10 years ago, and hence I have kind of soft corner for them. Speeds of Express buses were capped at 65 during those times.

GSRTC buses have come a long way since then, in terms of build and maintenance. It's good to see them doing 80-85 now. They even have air suspension as standard (if I am not wrong).

[porsche_guy]

Great thread, rated 5 stars

As a very frequent user of their Volvos, I must say it is a godsend. Especially the frequency in schedules makes life very easy and being a student, the affordable tickets are an added bonus. Tickets for my 150kms journey cost only ₹268 which is really decent I must say.

Their 9400s are based on the B8R chassis with air suspension and are maintained well for the most part. They even have USB chargers for each passenger so the journey is quite comfortable. The Volvo Sleepers are based on the same chassis but with a body built externally. On one casual chat with a driver, he had told me how they are required to train at Volvo's training facility in KA and that the tests (conducted in both theory and practical forms) were quite strict.

Additionally, I must stress the fact of how well they have been keeping up the bus stations as well. They are quite clean and have good amenities as well. The Baroda CBS has all sorts of things like a multiplex and a food court etc.

Hope they continue like this

[mugen_pinaki27]

Wow! The history of GSRTC is truly something to marvel at. Thank you @vigsom for sharing such an enlightening episode from your life.

[Aish_4761]

Very well described sir! Have been seeing and partially traveling in different GSRTC buses for quite some time now but, this was actually the first time I understood their categories. Volvo are hands down one of the best state buses I have sat in, across the entire country.
I feel the main reason attributing to GSRTC buses staying in good shape is the presence of well-paved highways throughout the state and their frequent service, letting them operate at their optimum. I can recall a funny incident when I boarded a bus from Susen circle without reading the board and asked the conductor for a ticket to Bharuch, to which everyone around me laughed, making me realize that this bus will divert from Por to an interior destination. This bus in particular was full to the brim with people standing and looked like it can fall apart anytime! Well, it was 2012, and never did I see something like that again.
I also traveled to Pune using their AC Sleeper service once and boy that AC was a chiller to a discomforting level. Since the solo driver was a middle-aged man, he was driving really slow and took an enormous number of stops, can't complain though, human after all. That, by far, is the longest it took me to reach Pune with the bus leaving Vadodara CBS at 8:50 PM and reaching Swargate at 11:15 AM.
As Mr. Goswami mentioned of the staff to be well behaved, true until you are in a car/two-wheeler seeing a giant bus tailgating you with high beams in full glory, which is the case with every bus out there, it seems!

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by JReacher13

- Karnataka STRC
- APSRTC

Thank You, @JReacher. I've been amazed at the transformation of Karnataka SRTC from one type of bus with canvas window blinds to the Ambaari Dream Class Volvo AC Sleeper today. I've used their Airavat Club Class once and Corona AC Sleeper once. My experience was good, but far from outstanding because of the time taken.
Yes, APSRTC is now going south now after seeing a phenomenal transformation; shows that sustaining good work takes more effort as doing it.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

- Very heavy traffic density plus slow buses add to agony of drivers
- nomenclature, for example if a bus has Sabarmati written on front windscreen, its origin is from Ahmedabad

Thank You for your observations, @aaggoswami. Every organization has bullies, and they behave that way because they carry negative impressions of the others; what you shared is no different. In all my journeys, though, I found the drivers to be rather accommodating to the generally indisciplined and impatient car drivers on the highways.

I always salute two categories of employees - state transport bus drivers and Railways loco pilots, because they work against their body clock and always need to be alert. The former have to face bad bad traffic most of the time.

nomenclature, for example if a bus has Sabarmati written on front windscreen, its origin is from Ahmedabad

Few more I can remember seeing are Sabar, Amul, Damanganga, Ashram.

Originally Posted by Duckdoc

- roof was leaking till it felt there was no difference between being inside or outside; without a murmur or complaint the passengers pulled out their umbrellas inside the running bus

Thank You @duckdoc. Leaking roofs are primarily because the roofs develop holes and are never inspected. Plus the joints at the roof edges start opening. Water can find its way in. I've personally experienced this in a SETC bus from Madurai in 2004 and had to put on my raincoat; also experienced an AC condensate leak in a KPN Volvo in 2014-15 in absolutely dry weather. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see zero leaks in a TNSTC bus in Nov-2021 when we faced torrential rains on one journey.

Originally Posted by msa.30789

BTW, it would be nice if you touch down on the following points of GSRTC:
1. Class of services in city transport in major cities of Gujarat.
2. Fleet strength of GSRTC giving breakdown of each class of service.
3. Important interstate destinations coveted by GSRTC.

Thank You @msa.30789.

1. City transport in major cities in GJ is now managed by the municipal corporations. There are AC and non-AC services, with a lot of them using a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) with dedicated tracks for buses for faster turnaround. Vadodara city doesn't have BRTS
2. From what I know, GSRTC has a fleet strength of close to 8000 buses that are maintained at their various workshops.
3. I have personally seen GSRTC buses headed to Borivali(Mumbai), Aurangabad, Pune, Jaipur and Kota. Fellow member @AlphaPetrolhead even mentions that services were there to Delhi and Bhopal. However, post pandemic, I'm not sure if these destinations are serviced.

Originally Posted by Tkm

The interior villages are connected to the nearby large city in a hub and spoke manner like airlines. They are the lifeline for all villages in Gujarat.

Completely agree with you, Doc. Thank You @Tkm.

Originally Posted by indianvirus

They even have air suspension as standard (if I am not wrong).

Thank You @indianvirus. I'm not sure about the air suspension part.

Originally Posted by porsche_guy

On one casual chat with a driver, he had told me how they are required to train at Volvo's training facility in KA and that the tests (conducted in both theory and practical forms) were quite strict.

Additionally, I must stress the fact of how well they have been keeping up the bus stations as well

Thank You @porsche_guy. Drivers need to train at Volvo's before taking the wheel. On the bus stations' upkeep, I found that Ahmedabad's Gita Mandir was beautifully done but sadly isn't as greatly kept as I'd expected it to be. I used the loo and found it okay, but needed to use a Breathing Air apparatus at GNFC Bus Station.

Originally Posted by mugen_pinaki27

The history of GSRTC is truly something to marvel at

Originally Posted by Aish_4761

- funny incident when I boarded a bus without reading the board and asked the conductor for a ticket to Bharuch, to which everyone around me laughed
- also traveled to Pune using their AC Sleeper service once and boy that AC was a chiller to a discomforting level, took an enormous number of stops

Thank You, @Aish_4761. Funny incident? A seasoned traveller I know boarded a wrong train at Chennai and got off at the next station. So your miss is pardonable. The enormous number of rest stops that your AC Sleeper took is a direct function of the temperature in the bus. Had the AC been set at 26 degrees.C, stops would have halved.
Pee =f(Tea, low ambient temperature).

[Gannu_1]

When I began my career at Surat in 2008, seldom did I rely on the GSRTC buses for commuting; I used to prefer trains. The buses looked rickety and did not look any different from the ones owned by most state owned transport corporations.

From 2017-18 onwards, I’ve been taking an AC seater from Palanpur to Ahmedabad Gita Mandir every month when I visit my family. Never had a complaint so far - rides are dirt cheap, frequency of buses, availability of seats, online booking feature, on-time arrival at the destination, a stop at Mehsana to empty your bladder.

Thanks for the write-up!

Originally Posted by Tkm

Madhya pradesh the neighbour has no state transport to speak of.

Wow! For a state as big as MP, that’s a big miss. Always learn something new - didn’t know this.

[dpat17]

Originally Posted by Tkm

Madhya pradesh the neighbour has no state transport to speak of. Proud to be in Gujarat

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Wow! For a state as big as MP, that’s a big miss. Always learn something new - didn’t know this.

Madhya Pradesh does have a state transport. I have seen many MP state transport buses plying the Bhopal-Indore-Shirdi route.

[jithin23]

Hey Vigsom,

You make even mundane topics sound interesting!! First was the train review and now GSRTC. I've never been to GJ but the way the public infra is built(as far as I've heard on seen through Google), it's miles ahead of KA(even Bangalore public infra is way below Average).

Looks like GSRTC is on par with the Southern states RTC's(Road Transport Corporations) except TN. TN's intercity buses still have some more room to go. KA and AP have the best bus connectivity in South and are really comfy as well. Except the express ones.

[coolmel]

I recently traveled in a GSRTC AC sleeper from Ahmedabad Nehru Nagar to Dwarka & back in the same bus. Was an overnight journey and was an Ashok Leyland bus. It was dirty, not sanitised, beds lacked comfort. What made the journey worse was the tarmac. Post Rajkot was plain hell. BTW I really liked the Rajkot BusPort. Commendable! The suspension did not make it any better. But for that price(Forgot how much but was reasonable) it turned out alright. We booked expecting a Volvo but didn't get the same! Just sharing my 2 cents since related to GSRTC.

Gujarat does have good roads but they need to ramp up all stations especially the washrooms which are pitiful mostly everywhere! I had some bad nature calls during my trip and should've done it in the open then at the station's washrooms. Food offerings can be improved as well!

[Truck_Monk]

Faboulous Thread Vigsom. Your thread made me nostalgic and took me back to the journey I did in GSRTC back in 2016 from Rajkot to Ahmedabad.
GJ is one of my favourites and it's highways are getting much better day by day. It is simply a pleasure to be in that beautiful part of Bharat.
Cheers.

[Sach_511]

Same transformation happened in DTC, from rickety DTC buses to AC low floor buses, they have come a long way. Very soon DTC buses would accept a metro card as well.

[ishan12]

This post brings back fond memories of my college days. I was studying in Pune and would travel to family in Gujarat on holidays. I would take the private sleeper buses from Pune to Surat and then in the morning the Gujarat transport buses from Surat to Vyara/ Songarh for the last leg of the journey. This was back in 2007-2011.

Coming from Maharashtra, I was pleasantly surprised at how well kept and maintained the GJ government buses were. The clean bus stands and frequent buses even for the remote routes was such a welcome sight. However, during the same time in MH there were already Volvos part of the MSRTC fleet while GJ didn't have any such luxury buses. Glad to see that they have added them now.

The same is true even for the government hospitals in GJ. I was extremely surprised at the facilities in Ahmedabad civil hospital when a family member had to be admitted due to covid. Facilities and care totally at par with any of the good private hospitals. We were charged absolutely nothing for 10 days. We didn't even have to buy medicines. Infact they gave us a bag full of medicines to be had for the next 15 days post discharge
Our family just like others was really apprehensive about the facilities there as is the case with the sorry state of most government hospitals in the country. But that was the only hospital with beds available at that time and what a pleasant surprise it was.
GJ is by far is my favorite state in India in all aspects.

[ninjatalli]

What a wonderful thread. Born/brought up in Gujarat (Vadodara) with memories of not-so-great road transport options, this is a pleasant surprise.

Back in mid-2000s, I used to do a lot of Mumbai - Vadodara bus rides as well as Ahmedabad - Vadodara bus rides.

The former (mostly private players) would be great thanks to excellent road network, but what really sucked was the poor state of rest areas and toilet options enroute. Given the much better state of Vadodara CBS, I was hoping things had improved across the state on that matter; not sure if you were able to evaluate that.

The latter used to be an excellent non-ac service from Gita Mandir to Vadodara (multiple stop / drop points), decently fast, with buses every half an hour and short 2 hour rides at max.

Any views/experience of doing inter-state bus ride on any of the govt bus options recently?

[jigar1791@gmail]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Few more I can remember seeing are Sabar, Amul, Damanganga, Ashram.

Few more to add - Shatrunjay (શેત્રુંજય), Banaskantha (બનાસકાંઠા). GSRTC names it's buses either based on the region/depot or the serviceable areas. Eg - buses from Bhavnagar division, with localities like Surendranagar, Botad, Palitana, Mahuva etc will most likeky have Shatrunjay named on it's windscreen.
Maybe, a method developed to identify the origin depot/serviceable region of a bus.

I have personally seen GSRTC buses headed to Borivali(Mumbai), Aurangabad, Pune, Jaipur and Kota.

GSRTC's Mumbai - Ahmedabad/Rajkot/Bhuj Volvo seater/sleeper services are amongst the best on these routes. Convenient timings (late evening departures from Mumbai Central/Borivali/Mulund and early morning arrival into Ahmedabad - Geeta Mandir bus stand) around 80% occupancy and 3-4 breaks enroute. Being a Govt. bus, you don't have to worry about being dropped on the outskirts of A'bad or Rajkot and then wait for smaller vans to take you in the city!

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Any views/experience of doing inter-state bus ride on any of the govt bus options recently?

On the lucrative Mumbai - Pune route, MSRTC has an excellent fleet of Volvo (christened as Shivneri services) on Borivli/Thane - Pune/Solapur/Nashik routes and Scania (known as Ashwamedh) on Dadar - Pune services.
Far better in terms of timings, convenient pick-ups and drops and time-tabled services, unlike dominant private operators who wait for forever to fill their buses before departing either Mumbai/Pune. It once took me about 6 hours in a Neeta Volvo from Pune (Shivaji Nagar) to Borivali, Mumbai.
Shivneri takes around 4-4.5 hours at max on the same route.
MSRTC also has a fleet of AC seater/sleeper services - Shivshahi to serve major cities and towns in MH. But what I've heard is - these Shivshahi services are mostly outsourced (wet-leased?) to private operators. Not sure though.

Strange enough, I haven't seen MSRTC's Volvos serving important cities in GJ, MP, Goa(?), KA, AP and Telangana. While GSRTC/APSRTC/KSRTC/TSRTC and Kadamba (Goa), all serve Mumbai using their Volvos or Scanis, MSRTC doesn't have any Vovlo services to compete with other STCs on routes from Mumbai to these neighboring state capitals .

[saisree]

Nice thread, rated it 5*.

Originally Posted by vigsom

How it all started
While I have resided in many cities and towns across states in India, the first time I stepped into a public transport bus was in the mid-70s in what used to be called the Pallavan Transport Corporation(PTC) in Chennai. This is now re-christened Metropolitan Transport Corporation(MTC).

Have beautiful memories of these Pallavan Transport. Those green and white colored ones. They used to charge 60 Paise from Saidapet to Tambaram a distance of 18 Kms. One memory that stands out is, the gear road broke at the bottom, when the bus crossed the Guindy bus stand and was entering the Nehru round about. Driver threw the gear rod near the route board and continued the journey up to Tambaram.

After moving back south in the 80s, I was amazed to see how well transport in TN was managed via the various zonal corporations named after kings, and the state express transport corporation named Thiruvalluvar Transport Corporation(TTC).

TTC were the uber cool buses then. They used to have a switch for every row to indicate driver to stop, for us to alight the bus. Tall push back seats in 2+2 configuration.

Almost all the RTC's started changing around mid of 1990's and start of 2000. Being at the border of AP state, Chittoor, we used to get both TN and KaSRTC buses along with our own APSRTC buses to travel to Tirupati. We used to wait for ASTC (Annai Sathya Transport Corporation) based out of Dharmapuri. They were super fast and long riders. Used to complete the 70 KM journey between Chittoor and Tirupati in 1 hr 10 minutes.

TNSTC
Around 1994 TN consolidated all the corporations and the superior TTC was changed to JJTC. (Jai Jayalalitha Transport Corporation). When all the buses where red and blues, it was the first time, the entire front of the bus is loaded with tons of chrome and JJTC embossed in a triangular plaque. It used to glitter and had a majestic look. The Chennai - Bangalore rider had a huge fan following. Later it was transformed to RJTC (Rajiv Gandhi Transport Corporation) and finally settled as SETC.

Trivia- the then Governor of TN Fathima Beevi, was so impressed by JJTC buses and had one bus run between Chennai and Pattanamthitta her birth place.

APSRTC

They were the slow riders when compared to TNSTC and KaSRTC until 1994. When the Chandra Babu Naidu government came and he then being referred as Hi-Tech CM, turned the tables around for APSRTC. Vihangam class built by Azad came in response to the JJTC. This is now renamed as . Metro Liners, Metro Express, Veera buses where zooming in the capital. Average speeds were increased. After the bifurcation of the AP state into Telangana and AP, APSRTC lost the Guinness records for the largest fleet of buses under one name.

As of today, KaSRTC leads the pack with more classes of fleet and convenience. Which includes the Bus ticket Reservation system.