[aargee]

Originally Posted by binaiks

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

Sir, you've mistaken; I'm considering only the vehicles plying interstate & most importantly overnight journey; here Chennai-Trichy or Trivandrum-Kochi or even Chennai - Bengaluru kind of distance aren't considered. Perhaps like Chennai - Trivandrum, Hyderabad - Chennai, Bangalore - Bombay etc. And why do private players chose them? Simply because they're more profitable & have good returns & cannot afford to operate in loss.

Originally Posted by binaiks

I agree that Volvo is comfortable...comfort - so do BharatBenz buses

I'm yet to see one Bharat Benz plying in the above said route. Once I see them, pls be assured I'll make destination as an excuse

Originally Posted by binaiks

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).

B11R is the most fuel efficient bus; just the same 4-5 Kmpl on a 11 liter engine sir!! Plus there're many more factors to consider such as quality, longevity, safety, design, presence & so on; just having a tunnel vision doesn't help to see broader picture. As far as I'm concerned, I'm all after value; so if AL or Tata or Eicher starts providing best VFM, I'll soon switch my opinion too. Although Google says the cost of B11R (B9R is even lesser) is 90L exshowroom, adding about 30% more for registration, insurance & tax should certainly less than 1.25 Cr not upwards.

I think I'll stop here respecting your opinion while having my own facts. Peace

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by aargee

Sir, you've mistaken; I'm considering only the vehicles plying interstate & most importantly overnight journey; here Chennai-Trichy or Trivandrum-Kochi or even Chennai - Bengaluru kind of distance aren't considered. Perhaps like Chennai - Trivandrum, Hyderabad - Chennai, Bangalore - Bombay etc. And why do private players chose them? Simply because they're more profitable & have good returns & cannot afford to operate in loss.

This is certainly a case of tunnel vision here - check any of the routes you mentioned above, you'll find more Leylands than Volvos! Almost all hte sleeper coaches on these routes are Leyland. And why do private players choose them - because there are people biased to foreign brands, who demand these buses.

Take a look at the Bengaluru - Chennai route - which was once ruled by Volvos. Most operators have ditched them for Leyland sleepers. Why would they do that if Volvos were profitable and had good returns?

Originally Posted by aargee

I'm yet to see one Bharat Benz plying in the above said route. Once I see them, pls be assured I'll make destination as an excuse

Tell me which route you'd like to travel, I'll get you details of the operator who operates that route. There are BharatBenz sleepers running on the Bangalore-Chennai/Hyderabad/Ernakulam route, Chennai-Coimbatore/Ernakulam route as well.

Originally Posted by aargee

B11R is the most fuel efficient bus; just the same 4-5 Kmpl on a 11 liter engine sir!! Plus there're many more factors to consider such as quality, longevity, safety, design, presence & so on; just having a tunnel vision doesn't help to see broader picture. As far as I'm concerned, I'm all after value; so if AL or Tata or Eicher starts providing best VFM, I'll soon switch my opinion too. Although Google says the cost of B11R (B9R is even lesser) is 90L exshowroom, adding about 30% more for registration, insurance & tax should certainly less than 1.25 Cr not upwards.

Please tell this statement to a bus operator - he is very likely to return with his fuel bills to show how these buses sipped on diesel without any hesitance. Longevity - who says Leyland or Tata didn't have them? It is actually operators who replace them after 5 years and get newer ones - coz every passenger likes traveling on a new bus.

Coming to the cost - Irrespective of what google says, a B11R would make your bank account lighter by no less than 1.5 Crores. The tax paid on these vehicles are quite high - every state loves to charge luxury tax on them. On an average an interstate operator pays no less than Rs 3000/seat/quarter as tax to each state the bus goes. Do a calc and find out how much the operator pays to the state every day!

The point here is, its just a blind love to Volvo, and hatred to Indian brands. Indian Brands are very much capable of providing comfort, and TN-SETC went in the right direction as well - providing comfort and value to the passenger. Volvos have been bleeding STUs everywhere - the market leader, KSRTC included. Taxpayer money isn't to be spent on a white elephant (references to the Airavat is purely unintentional)

[G-BoleroBoy]

Originally Posted by aargee

I'm yet to see one Bharat Benz plying in the above said route. Once I see them, pls be assured I'll make destination as an excuse

Check for MR travels and BR travels plying from Ahmedabad to Bangalore. This is one example that I have seen

[Sridhar K]

Great read Vigsom sir. Was a fan of TTC in my younger days and you caught some of the traits of TTC - great seats, sedate driving... My father takes the Chennai-Kumbakonam SETC seater sleeper frequently and is in love with them for the precise reasons you mentioned. They could do better with them plying as bypass riders instead of going inside major towns thereby slowing them down.

I took to bus travel after a long time and was surprised to find every operator on Chennai-Bengaluru route switch to AL sleeper from Volvo/Merc/Scania which was the case a few years back. There are 50+ services running in Bengaluru-Chennai and almost 40+ are AL, 3 BB and a few volvos left. As I live in Chennai southern suburbs, I have watched the entire southbound omnibus set up move to AL sleepers (With a bit of BB/TML) and thought it is probably a TN thing until I saw the outbounds from Bengaluru which also seems to have shifted to Indian buses. After some trips on AL sleepers and then on the latest/greatest AMBARI UTSAV B11R, I am going to stick to AL sleepers for their awesome ride quality over B11R sleepers.

Earlier, only ABT was running 200+ HP AL buses whilst most others had 185 hp 12Ms whose drivers used to switch the ACs off in between for faster overtakes. Now, most Indian buses have comfortable A/Cs, great ride quality, decent pick up, good noise insulation (Prakash/Veera/SRM built bodies) are able to do 90 kmph comfortably. Guess most have upgraded to 225 hp versions. There are enough you tube vloggers capturing the rides on various operators.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by vigsom

The SETC AC Seater-Sleeper makes for a good mode of travel in the night, when one isn't too bogged down by the time taken. Both the crew never exceeded 85kmph, and did not indulge in swerving maneuvers. This is actually good especially if one wants to take this service as a sleeper in the night

Quoting from my review of this service, I decided to try the AC Sleeper, at night. The bus this time was an MG Leera coach which had a brown interior, similar to what I saw in the KSRTC Ambaari Dream Class. What was strikingly different was a) the seats, and b) design and placement of the AC vents. I got myself a single berth in the 4th row, which was technically in the rear part of the bus.

The ride

Enough has been said about the horrible state of roads between Trichy and Namakkal. This bus took the route till Kulitalai, then crossed the Kaveri and merged with the regular route at Musiri. Car users - don't even consider the Namakkal Trichy regular route for at least 12 months.

The bus was swift, but the effect of the bad road till Namakkal was felt at the berth. If I ever tried to sleep sideways, I'd be rudely jolted. Sleep with face facing up and all was well. Once past Namakkal, the ride was smooth. I did open my eyes quite a few times, but I did sleep for close to 5.5 hours. Ambient temperature control was very good and just right. Didn't need a blanket. The bus left Trichy at 9pm and was in Shanthinagar BLR by 4:45am, which was very good timing considering that the bus went to the Salem Bus Stand too. This was a clear 1 hour faster than a day travel by the same bus on the same route.

The front of the MG Leera coach - almost untouched


Cabin view


The single berth - placed my bag on the rack and I had ample space to stretch - even more than in 2AC in a train. Headroom is restricted though


The adjustable rotaryAC vent - move the small knob in the center to increase or decrease air flow. Air flow could be adjusted to almost zero


Sitting high up with almost zero outside noise infiltrating into the cabin

[Dr.Procastinate]

The current crop of SETC buses do feel a lot more upmarket than the previous ones, especially now with the wider availability of air-conditioned ones. The question is, will they remain the same after a couple of years or will they go the same route as the low-floored Tata and AL buses which have become all-but-extinct owing to poor(read:nearly non-existent) maintenance?

And about the Al and Volvo discussion, of late, I have been seeing a dearth of new Volvo or Scania buses (atleast sleeper coaches) with private operators here in TN. Mostly the newer ones are either AL or BharatBenz.