[GeeTee TSI]

I occasionally take the Airavat Club Class to travel to Calicut via Wayanad and it is a treat to watch the driver hustle the massive bus from behind his seat (seat#1 or #2). Thanks to the front overhang, the judgement of the driver to execute a sharp turn (including hairpin bends) are so counter intuitive to us car drivers but effortless all the same thanks to the power on tap and smooth drivetrain.

A few quirks which I have observed
* Seats #3 and #4, the left front row seats are reserved for the back up driver / conductor as a make shift bed. I use to find private Volvo bus drivers use only one of those seats making the other front row seat available to book

* While I agree the luggage in the 'belly' of the bus needs to be identifiable to the passenger, there has to be a better way than use of a chalk to scrawl that number over the luggage. I struggle to remove it and affects my OCD

* Thanks to my ring side view seat (front row), I noticed that the drivers changed positions without bring the bus to a full halt For all their skill, this is uncalled for and unsafe!

* While boarding points are fixed, the crew is considerate to stop at any point convenient to the passenger to alight. The conductor calls each passenger individually (and not the driver like some private players!) for enroute boarding. This begs for an app with realtime location tracking

* The bus always comes clean inside and out at the start of the trip but the complimentary water bottles are gone now (also the blankets, thankfully)

[dhrishikesh]

Hospitality at its absolute best !🙌
This is THE reason why KSRTC is preferred every time while traveling to / from Bengaluru to / from Maharashtra & other neighboring states.
30-Sep-2022, Friday :-
17:05 Bengaluru-Mumbai Airavat Club Class bus is full packed at Jalahalli Cross itself & at approx 21:20, bus is at Chitradurga for scheduled dinner halt at Mysore Cafe & it's pouring heavily outside.
Driver stops bus right in front of shed of restaurant; so that passengers hardly get wet due to heavy rains !
Hats off to dedication & amazing hospitality of crew members for passengers on their respective routes.
❤️
(Sorry for very late post).

[Omkar Mahale]

A BUS JOURNEY TO CHERISH FOREVER

A few days ago, after 3+ years, I did a bus journey. I traveled from Bangalore to Mangalore in KSRTC Airavat Club Class. It was a different route - via Mysore, Madikeri. It's the sole night bus service on this route from Bangalore.

Talking about the bus, the crew told me it was an 11 year old B9R manual. From inside and outside, it doesn't look very old, and definitely not when it's on the move because ksrtc has maintained it so well. The bus was fully booked by the way.



Talking about the journey, it starts from Mysore road satellite bus stand at night 21:30 and the scheduled time to reach Mangalore is morning 6:30. The bus left 10 min late from said starting point, glided smoothly through the Bangalore Mysore expressway and reached Mysore bus stand at 23:40 ( 136 km in 2 hrs ). After a 20 min halt, the bus started off towards Madikeri.
I completely dozed off when the bus had crossed Kushalnagar. The time must have been between 1:00 and 1:30. I woke up when the bus stopped at Puttur and the time was exactly 4:30. This was a big surprise for me, because I very rarely sleep when traveling by bus. I am an owl in this regard, as I usually stay awake throughout the entire night enjoying the journey, looking outside the window. The blankets that were provided were so clean and fragrant that I couldn't resist myself and literally slept like a baby, thus, the bus lives up to its tag line 'Sleep like a Baby'. The bus reached Mangalore at sharp 5:30, a mighty 1 hour before the scheduled time, making it an 8 hours journey for roughly 400 km. There was no rash driving by the crew. The bus never crossed 95 kph even on the expressway. The drive through the ghat sections was so smooth and fast, thanks to the manual transmission of the bus.

Rest stops :
There are no official rest stops on this route during the night journey, thanks to the absence of restaurants on the entire Mysore expressway. You can get something light to eat or use the washroom at Mysore bus stand as the bus stops there for a good 20 minutes. The bus stopped at Mani junction at 5 for a tea break for the crew. This is a junction where the highways from Madikeri and Hassan merge and it becomes one highway to Mangalore, due to which the buses from the usual Hassan Sakleshpur route too stopped here for a tea break, and I got to chance to check out few buses that stopped there.

Overall, it was a very comfortable journey. The crew were very welcoming and polite, the roads were very smooth. Except the issue with the lack of rest stops, everything was great. My respect for KSRTC just gets increasing with every next bus journey.

Now to you who is reading this article and anyone who is planning to do a bus journey from Bangalore to Mangalore, which one would you prefer ?

1. The usual Hassan Sakleshpur route, 360+ km, where the roads of more than one-third of the route are in their worst condition, thanks to the massive upgrade of the highway that is ongoing and would take at least another 2 to 3 years to complete. You will get a rest stop, but you would also need to endure a painful journey of atleast 8 to 9 hours.

Or

2. The journey that I experienced, a very comfortable and smooth one, spanning roughly 8 hours, covering around 400 km.

I hope you find this article very insightful, informative and interesting.

Cheers

[ghodlur]

My inlaws are scheduled to travel by the Ambari deluxe sleeper coach bus this thursday from Bangalore to Pune and have been alloted the second last sleeper lower berths (#15,16). Do these sleeper berths come on the rear tyres? If so are the road bumps felt for these seats? Does the Ambari have good suspensions? The bus is going to take 14 hrs to reach Pune from Yeshwantpur stop.