[aargee]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Likes

• Classy on the outside - barring a few scars, the exterior was stock
• Clean window panes; surprising for a 4 year old bus. The pics I took are testimony to these clean window panes
• Engine barely audible inside if the cabin door is closed
• Super clean interiors
• Easy to maintain upholstery
• Soft blankets available in the cockpit, maybe intended for the night passengers (I'd not use these though)
• 31 seats and 15 berths in a 1+2 combination – seats on the lower level and berths above
• Berths are neither too firm nor too soft – just right
• Seats well upholstered and designed for comfort even for travel to the moon!
• Seats' recline was outstanding and legroom was adequate
• Head cushions at each berth to prevent the head from impacting plastic panels when getting up or lying down
• Neat blue curtains to separate the berths from the aisle; there is a separator curtain at every double berth too
• Rack at each berth with a dedicated slot to place water bottle, and ample space to even put a small suitcase in
• Emergency exit at the rear – on the right

Dislikes

• Bottle holder straps on seats had disappeared, courtesy vandals
• Drinking water not provided (not a dislike, but just calling this out)

Hello Sir - No matter what SETC does, I've vowed never ever to board their bus again for one simple reason - TN govt despises Volvo for some reason; ok understandable about the grudge against Volvo, but Scania? Mercedes? Why? Why stick with Leyland & Prakash's body all the time?

I refuse to travel on SETC until they switch to Volvo/Scania/Mercedes in their respective routes. The only benefit of SETC is cost: ultra low cost; what's stopping them from adding couple of modern day buses along with regular long distance routes?

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by aargee

Hello Sir - No matter what SETC does, I've vowed never ever to board their bus again for one simple reason - TN govt despises Volvo for some reason; ok understandable about the grudge against Volvo, but Scania? Mercedes? Why? Why stick with Leyland & Prakash's body all the time?

I refuse to travel on SETC until they switch to Volvo/Scania/Mercedes in their respective routes. The only benefit of SETC is cost: ultra low cost; what's stopping them from adding couple of modern day buses along with regular long distance routes?

As long as the ride quality is good, the seats are comfortable and the NVH is low, does it really matter if the bus is a Volvo, Mercedes, Scania or Tata/AL with Prakash built cabin?

Just for reference, the new KaSTRC Ambari Utsav is the state-of-the-art Volvo B11R with all bells and whistles. But it falls behind the KaSRTC Ambari Dream class Volvo on cabin comfort and ride quality. There are many people who are disappointed with the ride quality of the Utsav class.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

As long as the ride quality is good, the seats are comfortable and the NVH is low, does it really matter if the bus is a Volvo, Mercedes, Scania or Tata/AL with Prakash built cabin?

Time matters next to cost for us when we take public transport. And when it comes to Scania/Merc/Volvo (SMV), we're quite happy with the NVH & comfort they offer. We feel the monstrous torque of SMV buses are way too superior to Make in India buses, atleast for now.

[sudhir_vag]

Originally Posted by vigsom

The dark horse did surprisingly well in transporting me safely and comfortably!!

Well written review OP. They can slowly start doing away with mandatory bus stop checks. Yeah it can't be done immediately but if they provide consistent service and with increased patronage this can be done.

And with regard to not buying Scania/Volvo/Mercedes(SVM) Reduced to just V now considering the fact that neither of the other two has Bs6 offerings. The major reason i would say would be the ticket cost per km. Already AC sleeper is around 2rs per KM and multi axles need to be placed more to at-least cover running costs. Yeah but who knows if they give consistent service people may opt for these service and they may became viable in future.

But at-least for me I find SMK/Veera built AL sleepers to be atleast as comfortable if not more than the Volvo sleepers.

[svsantosh]

Originally Posted by aargee

...TN govt despises Volvo for some reason... Why stick with Leyland & Prakash's body all the time?

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-T...-to-Tata-buses

Simple, it all comes to tax revenue, trade lobbyists and vote bank politics. It is not just Volvo (or Scania or Merc). You will not find one TATA bus in Tamilnadu govt owned transport services. Have you ever noticed it?

One past govt tried a hand with very very few TATA buses, the system killed them systematically and branded TATA as not fit to carry TN population. Weird right! Reason given was the govt workshops were not able to converse with TATA engineers for reasons you know why.

Thank God northern states did not have this tunnel vision and have a decent spread of TATA/Leyland and a decent spread of V/M/S brands too.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by svsantosh

Simple, it all comes to tax revenue...TATA/Leyland and a decent spread of V/M/S brands too.

Sir, I take your point, but not Quora; especially the point he says AL buses last for 20 years versus Volvo lasting for 6 years!! Even if Volvo lasts for 6 years, AL buses, especially govt buses are replaced every 10 years mandatorily with the stricter emission norms playing spoilt every 4-5 years, 20 years is hard to believe.

BTW, looks like I'm wrong; TTDC indeed seems to have Volvo buses (but not SETC, hopefully someday)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjC5s2d_aLo

So...I'll be looking forward to travel in one of them with destination as an excuse

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by aargee

Time matters next to cost for us when we take public transport.

Agreed! And for that, the nonsensical speed limitation should be removed first. I doubt the huge private bus lobby would ever let that happen.

I used to travel Madurai-Madras in 7.5-8 hours in the 2-lane NH45 days (when 9.5-10 hours was a norm) on AL buses

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by svsantosh

Simple, it all comes to tax revenue, trade lobbyists and vote bank politics. It is not just Volvo (or Scania or Merc). You will not find one TATA bus in Tamilnadu govt owned transport services. Have you ever noticed it?

There are PLENTY of TATA buses in TNSTC & MTC. SETC is an exclusive Leyland territory though.

[HappyWheels]

Thanks for this review.

Have recently started traveling by bus to Trichy from Bangalore. Used Red Bus and with private carriers. Last couple of trips were with Sri Renu travels and they are clean and on time.

Did try to use the government service, but usually ended up with not wanting to risk with an unknown and stuck to private carriers.

For some reason there are no private Volvo / Merc in this BNG TPJ sector, that I came across, except for KSRTC ones.

As for the road works from Namakkal to Musiri, on my drives over last 2 weeks was warned about this and took the Namakkal - Thuraiyur route which skips these road works sectors. This detour did not add any additional hours to my travel time.

[DocwithFiesta]

Originally Posted by svsantosh

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-T...-to-Tata-buses
It is not just Volvo (or Scania or Merc). You will not find one TATA bus in Tamilnadu govt owned transport services. Have you ever noticed it?

I don't want to get in internal matters of the government, but for some reason MTC did not/ could not maintain the Volvo buses properly and let them run without maintenance until they eventually broke down and were taken off the roads, while the regular non-AC buses(mostly Ashok Leyland) were repaired/repainted over and over and over again. Remember the long, low floor Tata-Marcopolo and Ashok Leyland air suspension buses- those were also taken off the roads after being abused to death without any maintenance whatsoever. I travelled extensively in these MTC buses for about 2-3 years from 2017-2019, and I would feel bad for the Marcopolo buses, every time I was in one. What I personally feel is, anything with air suspension, will not be maintained

Puducherry transport still maintains and operates their Volvo buses- and those buses are an entirely different thing altogether- supereme acceleration, supreme comfort, floaty like a boat- no other bus manufacturer can ever match these traits of Volvo buses. You would want to travel in one instead of taking your car- that is the level of comfort the Volvos offer.
Inside Puducherry Volvo


Coming to long distance travels- I have travelled in SETC AC buses (both sleeper and non sleeper ones), SETC non-AC buses, TNSTC buses(old and new both), and Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Scania buses.
SETC AC sleeper


The TNSTC buses are decently comfortable: public transport in Tamil Nadu, in general, is good.
TNSTC regular bus(new)



TNSTC regular bus (old)


The old SETC buses with air suspension were much more comfortable than the ones that are operational now(the white ones). That being said, the white SETC buses are not bad either- ride is good, cabin insulation is great, they do move pretty fast: just that you miss the floaty, ultra-comfortable ride.


Among Volvo, Scania and Mercedes-Benz- Scania buses are superior here. If I remember right, Scania was caught in some kind of scam and since stopped selling buses in India. Mercedes-Benz buses are louder inside the cabin than the Volvo counterparts and are not really as comfortable as the Volvos.

On a lighter note, travelling in buses do give you opportunities to click special cars like this Range Rover Vogue SV Autobiography.

[DocwithFiesta]

How unfortunate is this?




Link to the news:
https://m-timesofindia-com.cdn.amppr...2F99545184.cms

[aargee]

I don't know the authenticity of this news, but I'm not surprised. Despite that, I'm optimistic about the future of TNSTC and SETC. I believe they'll make the necessary changes to stay competitive and bring us good times ahead.

Summer Shock: TNSTC To Remove ACs From Its Buses
With people sweltering under the brazen heat of the summer season, the Tamil Nadu State Transport Commission (TNSTC) has decided to remove ACs from its buses.

And the rationale given for the move by the government is that the maintenance cost of ACs is ‘too costly’.

Last year, the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) another state-owned organization altered seven years old AC Buses to Non-AC services. Now TNSTC of Kumbakonam is also following their footsteps. TNSTC authorities said that they are forced to do this because passengers had started to complain about the inefficiency of ACs. The resulting poor ventilation caused great discomfort to the passengers due to shutting down of all doors and window.

When Sathapriyan Kamaraj, the Founder of TNSTC Enthusiasts, a group promoting public transport was asked about this issue, he was quoted saying in a report that given the government has not procured any new AC buses in the past two and half years, it is unfortunate that even the existing ones are being converted to non-A/C buses.

The TNSTC Officials also claimed that in the absence of Annual Maintenance Contract with the manufacturer, the engineers and mechanics at the depot are forced to use reserved funds to fix this issue. To avoid this, they made these A/C buses to Non-A/C ones, so that they could be plied on roads instead of abandoning them altogether.

Sources:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...campaign=cppst

https://thecommunemag.com/summer-sho...rom-its-buses/

On a little unrelated note: Tamil Nadu government to procure 1,771 non-AC buses under the capital assistance of Germany’s KfW!! Why Germany? Why not Volvo? Or atleast why not capital assistance from our own nation?

Source: https://www.dtnext.in/tamilnadu/2022...1-non-ac-buses

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by aargee

On a little unrelated note: Tamil Nadu government to procure 1,771 non-AC buses under the capital assistance of Germany’s KfW!! Why Germany? Why not Volvo? Or atleast why not capital assistance from our own nation?

Cannot really understand this fixation for Volvo. Indian Manufacturers like Ashok Leyland produce vehicles that compete with Volvo in terms of Comfort - its the prejudiced notion that only Volvo is comfortable, that causes the bias here.

Regarding funding from KfW - that was a specific project floated by the Govt of Tamilnadu for modernization of public transportation fleet. Kerala too uses KfW funding - for introducing water transport in Kochi. There were talks of using KfW funding for introducing better public transport in Kochi as well. These are projects floated by individual state governments.

The Union Government is going ahead with a mega project of introducing electric buses for intra & intercity transport. Many states have participated in the project, and states like Kerala are to get over 1100buses under this project.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Cannot really understand this fixation for Volvo. Indian Manufacturers like Ashok Leyland produce vehicles that compete with Volvo in terms of Comfort - its the prejudiced notion that only Volvo is comfortable, that causes the bias here

Let's say I'm prejudiced too for a moment & agree with you that I'm biased that Volvo is the comfortable while Marcopolo & AL are not comfortable.

Let's take a step back & look at the private players fleets: VRL, Parveen, Orange, Kallada, KPN, Sharma, Orange, Jabbar, Kesineni are some of the prominent & largest ones I see on road. Even if I'm biased due to RAS, pls try to see which brand of buses these players have largest in number from AL, Tata, Eicher, Volvo, Scania & Mercedes buses. Tks

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by aargee

Let's say I'm prejudiced too for a moment & agree with you that I'm biased that Volvo is the comfortable while Marcopolo & AL are not comfortable.

Let's take a step back & look at the private players fleets: VRL, Parveen, Orange, Kallada, KPN, Sharma, Orange, Jabbar, Kesineni are some of the prominent & largest ones I see on road. Even if I'm biased due to RAS, pls try to see which brand of buses these players have largest in number from AL, Tata, Eicher, Volvo, Scania & Mercedes buses. Tks

Return to the same operators, and try to find out their percentage of Volvo vs Leyland. All of them have a substantial fleet of Leyland buses. Majority of the fleet of VRL comprises of Ashok Leyland buses - their Volvo fleet is roughly 1/4th (or less) their entire fleet.

I agree that Volvo is comfortable - but it is not that ONLY Volvo (or its competition) is comfortable. Ashok Leyland buses with full air suspension provide the same level of comfort - so do BharatBenz buses.

Tamil Nadu STUs are extremely value oriented. Volvo buses do not offer the same value that a Leyland offers - you spend upwards of 1.5cr on a Volvo bus, that returns a fuel efficiency in the range of 2.5-4kmpl. You get three Leyland buses for the same price, and each one of them returns upwards of 4.5kmpl (TN STUs are known to extract over 5.5kmpl).