[cdrajeevkumar]

Hello Vigsom,

Nice thread..! Just fast "rewinded" me to me my earlier days when I would do Blr - Mum - Blr by road (By bus). It started off during 1999 when I would prefer to take the VRL buses (Tata Build). They were compact, Non-AC, had a functional VCR & about 3 movies later we would be in Mumbai.

Fast Forward to 2006 - I happened to see the Airavat Volvo service of Karnataka SRTC during one of the stopover by VRL at their hubs (Incidentally, VRL used to have multiple stops enroute to Mumbai). It was a class apart & i made it a point to book my return journey (Mum - Blr) on Airavat. At that time, the sleeper class wasnt introduced yet so I had the time of my life, getting a Semi-Sleeper seat behind the driver (Seat No 3, Aisle). Till the night stop, the curtains wouldn't be drawn & it was simply breathtaking on the expressway, Khandala Ghats & the noisy Pune traffic

Just as advertised on the side of the Airavat (a baby in a pram blissfully sleeping), I had a good night sleep after reclining the seat to maximum possible stretch!. The dawn was an awesome sight (Somewhere near Chitradurga) where I could see the multiple wind mills chugging in action and the rising sun between the blades..! The drop off was at Navrang (after a pit stop somewhere close to Tumkur) and I would be fresh as a daisy, with a smile on my face, flagging a 3-wheeler to ferry me home..!! Nice memories of this travel for close to 7 years before I shifted to travel by air.!

Tried services like Sharma, National and KSRTC but KSRTC stood apart for their sensible driving (especially at night). During trips to South, it would be KPN, Sharma & Kesineni. For a while used APSRTC but was disappointed.

Overall, the travel by bus has been memorable & cant wait to do the stretch again (if patience permits)

Thanks for this lovely thread that made me take a trip down the memory lane. Hope to contribute more as days go by

[RGK]

Originally Posted by GTO

How are these buses generally driven? How safe are they?

One of the routes with frequent long-distance bus service is from Chennai to the south (It is bit different due to car population now). The long-distance bus drivers are really experts in their fields. I have yet to witness someone honking or braking abruptly ( I have been travelling for more than 20 years).

When the night time movie show was ended (at around 1 in the morning), the driver of Conti Travels was travelling through a town where people were streaming out onto the streets from the theater. The driver took great care not to honk and drove slowly for about a kilometre. Why should you have honked at least once, I asked him. The passengers are asleep at this time, he retorted.

@ Vigsom - Great thread. Bus travel has been transformed by Volvo sleepers. In actuality, the air suspension was the first one in the late 1990s.

[mvadg]

I don't know why I couldn't find this on their website, but the helpful people at KSRTC sent me this
LIST OF ALL AMBAARI DREAM CLASS ROUTES

[SR-71]

There was time when the interstate buses plied by TN government was the preferred choice where possible across all the 4 southern states. I am not sure which transport minister of Karnataka needs to be credited with KSRTC's growth, but with the advent of luxury coaches like Volvo, KSRTC upped the game. Today, they seem to be a preferred choice of bus service even above the private players owing to their reliability and disciplined drivers. On the couple of occasions I had to take a bus to Chennai in the past, I used KSRTC's Volvo service and it was a fuss free and safe travel.

Among the Southern states' government backed transporters, KSRTC leads the pack followed by the Andhra Pradesh + Telangana's government buses. Even the Kerala's RTC has started plying luxury coaches. TN's transportation division has completely lost the plot it seems.

[vharihar]

KaSRTC is the best, and by a huge margin. Their online booking interace is smooth (compared to TN SETC and KeSRTC atleast). Their service is top class. Lastly, their level of computerization is far ahead than other state SRTCs. So much so that after their bus leaves the terminus, they send out an automated SMS to passengers boarding midway, about the license plate# of bus and mobile# of staff in bus, to help locate the bus on midway stops. This service is made available to all classes of service (even the lowest, called Vaibhav or Sarige or something, I forget, viz. the red and white bus)

If traveling by bus, I go out of the way to try booking KaSRTC first.

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Thank You @mvadg; the windscreen was of 2019, so I am assuming the bus was built either in 2019 or early 2020. This one had already done 4.06,000 kms.

The first lot of this particular model of MG StarZ was supposed to be registered on 24 March 2020. Due to Pandemic the ready buses were stuck in Belgaum, Hubli and Dharwad depots, and finally registered and put into operation in Oct 2020. They may have been out of operation again during the second pandemic, leading to the low mileage.
KSRTC runs all their long distance buses 1000 km a day, doing the 15 Lakh km (half life) in 4 Yrs when the buses get renovated, re painted and re upholstered.

Originally Posted by vigsom

Cruising rpm at 80kmph is approx 1100rpm. Note the white line just behind the i-shift lever - that line when aligned with the respective marking eg. R,N,A,M means the gearbox is in that slot. The bus would be driven primarily in M in a certain gear and would be moved to A only if the driver felt the engine was lugging eg. in the plains, once the bus reached no.12 gear, the gear would be slotted in M to drive as long as possible in top gear. Only if the rpm dropped below 1000 would the lever be moved back to A. I think this is aimed at maximising fuel efficiency.

The drivers usually keep a light foot and the automatic upshifts to 12th gear at 65 kph 900Rpm. If bus is left in A the automatic starts its downshift program as soon as driver picks the foot of the throttle and engine braking will slow the vehicle down. In M it will downshift only if engine starts lugging 600 Rpm, and upshift at redline RPM, otherwise listen to driver command. Turbo starts giving a noticable boost from about 800 Rpm, so drivers like to keep engine above 900 Rpm, instead of using the manual shifter buttons they just pull to Auto for a down shift and to Manual to hold the gears.

Rahul

[Sidban85]

I have to travel Bangalore > Hyderabad next month and back, for a few weeks.
Will train or bus be more comfortable? From HSR to Hitech City?

[Akshay6988]

Thank you for sharing this !! I've had pleasure of traveling with KaSRTC many times when I was working in Mysore. I've used the Airavat bus from Pune to Mysore, VRL buses and SRS travels buses. The Airavat buses are just a notch above all other service providers. As someone posted above, their entire system is computerized so there's no panick at all. Drivers are disciplined, buses are clean and a good place to be for a overnight travel. One or two times I boarded Flybus from Bangalore to Mysore, those things just fly over the road. I couldn't feel a thing in entire journey, slept like a log !! The staff woke me up as the bus approached my dropping point. The only issue with these overnight buses is the restrooms at their stops !!

[jkrishnakj]

Originally Posted by Sidban85

I have to travel Bangalore > Hyderabad next month and back, for a few weeks.
Will train or bus be more comfortable? From HSR to Hitech City?

I do Blr-Hyd atleast once a month. If I’m not driving, I almost always take the Rajdhani express train. I’ve never tried the bus. I prefer trains for comfort. Board the train at 745 pm, eat a light dinner and a solid sleep for 7 hours is what I do.

If you love bus rides, I’m sure the roads won’t disappoint. Good roads throughout, and if the bus is anywhere like the Airavat or equivalent, the ride should be comfortable

[superbad]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Key takeaways

1. Never dismiss travel by RTC transport as “undoable”; one might be pleasantly surprised
2. Rest stops during road trips in common transport can be unnervingly long, but the great experience more than makes up for an additional 2-3 hours spent
3. Road trips have their share of disappointments and delays – lack of a washroom on board is a negative, and even if there was one, it would not help since most people don’t know how to keep it clean. Also those who can't hold on for too long shouldn't take long road journeys by bus
4. It is important to choose the right mode if travelling by road eg. in this case, the Volvo AC sleeper was the right mode while the Airavat Club Class seater might have been a tad difficult for a 1000km journey.

I must thank Karnataka SRTC and the crew of Parasuram, Thalavar and the third gentleman (whose name I forgot to check) for making the ride of my life so memorable!

I'm curious, isn't a flight more convenient than an 18 hour bus ride? I'm guessing the tickets for this bus easily costed Rs 2500+. A mum-blr flight would cost slightly more but you save atleast 12 hours including Airport transit & waiting times. Imho unless one specifically wanted a bus experience, there's no point in taking this over a flight.

[ftp1234]

Thank you sir for sharing. I had traveled BLR-MUM-BLR route in Airaavat semi-sleeper 7-8 years ago. Just that seating for 17 hours wasn't that comfortable. Nevertheless, the KSRTC driver's professionalism, safety and punctuality was always perfect. At that time, with frequent trips, couple of drivers actually started recognising me. But recently I got to travel in Ambaari dream class from BLR-Pune and it was a memorable experience. We were having a school reunion in Lonavala and flights have become way too expensive and chose Ambaari (earlier the cheaper flights - just about 1 or 1.5K more didn't justify 13-17 hours travel to PUNE/MUM, but now flight fares have just doubled in last 2-3 months). On the return journey, Ambaari was fully booked and I wanted to reach Bangalore early morning - did not want to wait for the Ambaari coming from Mumbai. So I chose the B9R based sleeper from VRL. If you reverse all the positive points mentioned in your Ambaari, it would become a VRL sleeper review. Badly maintained bus, upper berth near window has a curve, so I couldn't sit upright, my head banged the ceiling unless I sat around 70deg angle towards the aisle. Stairs to climb to upper berth were not comfy (worse than old style railway berth stairs). Not clean. And to top it all, the Volvo driver gave constant demo of how he could use power steering (he drove like the idiot black Creta you showed in the demo).
Conclusion: Ambaari is the best! (Yes, need to be awake at night for rest-room stop if you can't hold for more than 3-4 hours, as they don't wake up sleeping passengers. Pro tip: Put an alarm for 5 hours after driver changes after dinner. Because he changes again for new driver and they take a 5 min gents restroom stop at highway-side)

[Fuldagap]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Introduction

This is a review cum travel experience on my longest roadway ride this far

Excellent excellent post this is. It has been almost 10 years now that I used an Airavat Club class. Ambari must have been introduced in the later years because I don't remember it. Airavat used to be way ahead of league at that time. Your post, pictures and detailed experience suggest that they have thoroughly maintained if not bettered their standards.

Thanks a ton for the great pictures and videos!

The first time I travelled in an Airavat class was from Chennai to Belgaum via Bangalore in probably 2013. It was mesmerising to say the least. The staff was extremely professional, humble and may I say cool. My first drive in a Scania was also in the Airavat class.
The ride used to be extremely comfortable and as a person who prefers buses to trains, it was always a charm using them. Have used other state transport Volvos, Mercedes and Scanias but KSRTC is definitely different.

I remember reading on TBHP itself, posted by some member; " staff of KSRTC Airavat Club Class treat the buses as aircrafts". It was not further from the truth.

[RaviGowda]

Thanks Vigsom for the great review. You beat me to first Even, I travelled To & Fro in the Same bus in the first week of June and had thought to share it on the forum sometime. But, I would say you have written it very well with detailed information and videos. I’ll just share my 1 way experience here as it may help people looking forward to travel. Please do not opt for the last seat, It is shorter than the other seats so you cannot stretch full and sit comfortably. Also, seat is just behind the engine area and you experience engine sound and vibrations through the journey. But while coming back had booked the middle seats and experience was just perfect for such a long journey by road.

[NTO]

Hello Vigsom, thank you for sharing this wonderful report of your travel. Enjoyed reading it and felt as if I was travelling with you in the bus.

Originally Posted by vigsom

priced at a very competitive INR1987. I went ahead with the booking

I read your post on the day it appeared on our homepage but couldn't get to this until now. With the price of the ticket you have mentioned, I felt that Karnataka SRTC would've made a loss with this trip and I wanted to do a Revenue calculation for the trip and took the exercise as follows.

Fixed Contribution Margin


Overheads and Salaries


Income and expense sheet



Do note, I have not taken Insurance of the bus into account and there can be many more avenues of expense like accidents, Breakdown and Repairs etc. This got me intrigued and did some additional research. This is where I figured that there are also other source revenue like cargo, courier shipments etc. for a passenger carrier. In addition to this, they make majority of their money over the weekends and holidays. Despite losses for such trips, the other revenues, weekends and holidays put together effectively make a bus operator earn around 20 - 30 lac in a year, for a route like Mumbai - Bengaluru. Felt excited and interesting while going over the calculations and the research process and thought of sharing with other BHPians.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by superbad

I'm curious, isn't a flight more convenient than an 18 hour bus ride? A mum-blr flight would cost slightly more

Thank You @superbad. A flight is certainly more convenient than a bus or train ride. I'd mentioned right at the beginning that this was all about the experience. Also, the days of a flight costing marginally more than a luxury coach or an AC 2Tier train is all history. Average flight tickets for a 2 hour flight is now ₹7,000 unless one buys the ticket, say, one month ahead when it is available for ₹4,500 or thereabouts.

Originally Posted by ftp1234

Just that seating for 17 hours wasn't that comfortable

Good points there, @ftp1234. I had the option of taking an Airavat Club Class from Borivali but didn't dare 'coz I was sure I'd not be able to sleep at all in those recliners.

Originally Posted by Fuldagap

Ambari must have been introduced in the later years

Thank You, @Fuldagap. Yes, Ambaari came later, I reckon in mid-2019. The older KSRTC Corona AC Sleeper would also be called Ambaari, but the Dream Class is leagues ahead.

Originally Posted by RaviGowda

You beat me to first.

Thank You, @RaviGowda. I'd urge you to pen a separate review or add to this for benefit of users. Completely endorse what you've mentioned about the last row. It gives a claustrophobic feeling too.

Originally Posted by NTO

Karnataka SRTC would've made a loss with this trip

Thank You, @NTO. Those were great calculations, and I've always known transport corporations to never be money spinners except when running those passenger buses which would take 56 seats and about 30 standees. Anyways, with ruling fuel prices and a non-comensurate rise in fares, it is a losing proposition. Your numbers around D and C salaries is a revelation. I was thinking it would be something like ₹8 lacs tops per year.