[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

We in India are so used to many services subsidized to nonsensical levels that we are still struggling to understand what is free market pricing.

You do not expect the same off peak bargain rate available in the middle of the monsoon in Goa for the same hotel room on Dec 31!!!

Well, purely my personal opinion, but I dont see any harm in hike in pricing during weekends or holidays. This happens worldwide across sectors - hotels, airfares, even premium buses (Olivea for instance, sells day time tickets at 1200 whereas night tickets on weekends can go as high as 2000) or even trains abroad where weekends / evenings are always higher than weekdays... I have seen as much as a 3.0x difference in prices for train tickets in UK / Europe between weekdays / weekends or mornings / evenings.

And this is slowly penetrating into buses in India too... For instance, you will get a VRL Multi Axle leaving Chennai at 2 PM for INR 400 whereas the night departure will cost you ~INR 700... Similarly, with other operators too.

[TKMCE]

I dont know about ABC or ARC but KPN is another operator who doesnt jack fares on peak days and while it may be great for travllers, it doesnt make economic sense. The Bangalore Trivandrum Multi Axle which I was to take recently was cancelled due to low pasenger loads and even the next bus to which all the cancelled passengers were put was still not full. In the end finally many services of these operstors will be pulled out saying they are un profitable which doesnt help anyone concerned.

[gold class]

New Services to Kerala

SRS started their Non A/C Semisleeper coach to Kottarakara(Via Muvathupuzha,Kottayam).
Parveen To launch Snooze Bus to EKM along with Multi Axle Benz to TVM(Via Ngvil)

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by gold class

New Services to Kerala
Parveen To launch Snooze Bus to EKM

They introduced this service already from Chennai. In fact I have availed this service many times. Are they going to introduce an additional bus? The current one is going via Vellore - Krishnagiri - Coimbatore - Palakkad - Trichur - Eranakulam.

BTW you didn't mention the starting point of the service.

[gold class]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

They introduced this service already from Chennai. In fact I have availed this service many times. Are they going to introduce an additional bus? The current one is going via Vellore - Krishnagiri - Coimbatore - Palakkad - Trichur - Eranakulam.

BTW you didn't mention the starting point of the service.

SRS-Bangalore-Kottarakara
Parveen-Bangalore-Ernakulam(Snooze Bus)
Parveen-Bangalore-Trivandrum(Benz-Multi Axle- Via Nagerkovil)
Kallada -Bangalore-Trivandrum(Multi Axle 9:00 AM Dep From both Ends-Via Nagerkovil)
SRM - Bangalore-Pathanamthitta/Kottarakara(Not yet decided the destination) and also they will be replacing the TVM-BLR multi axles with I-Shift Volvos.

[rohseq]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

There are no A/c sleeper buses on the Mumbai-Mangalore stretch at all.

For a brief while (guess late '05), there was indeed a Canara Pinto Volvo sleeper and a 1*2 Volvo but that was there for hardly a few months.

Canara Pinto Travels is launching the first Luxury AC Sleeper Service under a new sub brand which will either be "Night Star" or "Purnima" from Mumbai to Mangalore Via Pune Kholapur Belgaum and Udipi.

The launch has not yet taken place and infrastructure is being setup.

The chassis is the latest 240 HP 12 Meter Leyland with Voith Retarder brakes and an excellent imported air suspension system. Trial runs have shown the vehicle to overtake Volvo's on single stretches. Of course on gradients there will be a slight drag due to the reduced torque of the engine, but by and large they will be definite value for money.

The Bodies are currently being build with personal supervision from the new management. The sleeper berths have been limited to just 32 with 6ft long berths to make them comfortable. Configuration is in 2x1 with ample thought given to providing privacy to women and older passengers.

Canara Pinto Travels have also launched their new Volvo services under a new paint scheme branding featuring a beautiful side logo from Mumbai to Mangalore and are currently upgrading their entire Passenger Interaction Protocol.

Lots to look forwards to in the near future.

[coolclouds]

So many new services these days especially on Bangalore - Trivandrum route. Is there so much takers these days? Came to know from a reliable travel agent in Bangalore that even SRM is not profitable with TVM-EKM-BLR route. Considering the investment and low week day occupancy, how do the small operators survive?

I traveled in some services where the ticket amount collected is not sufficient to pay the toll !

[TKMCE]

Originally Posted by coolclouds

So many new services these days especially on Bangalore - Trivandrum route. Is there so much takers these days? Came to know from a reliable travel agent in Bangalore that even SRM is not profitable with TVM-EKM-BLR route. Considering the investment and low week day occupancy, how do the small operators survive?

I traveled in some services where the ticket amount collected is not sufficient to pay the toll !

Most of the people are not to Trivandrum but to Nagercoil, Marthandam etc. Mostly when these buses reach TVM there will be 10-12 people only.

Cargo plays a major part, especially for KPN.

Small operators sell I guess short haul on week days. I have seen some Trivandrum Chennai/Bangalore weekday trips picking up passengers from Madurai at the middle of the night.

Finally- many combine/cancel at the last minute. When I travelled last time I knew for sure one of the KPN trips would be cancelled (they have 3 volvos in one hour gaps) and they did. On the same day if their website is to be beleived, the Sharma Multi Axle on BLR-TVM via Ernakulam was showing one seat booked even at 4 PM on the day of departure!!! Do not know whether that one operated.

I would suggest on a weekday, just turn up at the boarding point and board whichever bus is going to leave. It is a waste of time otherwise.

Most of the SMALL operators have now disappeared between Kochi and Bangalore. SPS and Padikkal are I think the only operators with single trips on the route.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

Most of the SMALL operators have now disappeared between Kochi and Bangalore. SPS and Padikkal are I think the only operators with single trips on the route.

Greyhound (Ashirwad) also now operates only one service to Bangalore. They had several services in the 90s prior to Kallada.

Guess Yathra has only one service of their own and remaining are Viji Yathra.

[sbkumar]

It's true. Most of the operators cancel/merge their services on weekdays. I recently had a bad experience with SRS. I had booked on their A/C Sleeper from NGL to Bangalore. They had cancelled and moved me on to a Volvo. They somehow missed to inform me about the change and I found about it only the last minute.I had to re-book last minute on KPN sleeper and lose the money on the SRS ticket. The first bad experience with SRS.

[avira_tk]

I got back today on a Sona Travels Isuzu, should have realised something was wrong when I got the return tickets without much trouble. Kerala- BLR is usually a pain on Sundays. The window seat (right side)was terrible, hardly any luggage space overhead and leg space and shoulder room was restricted, the floor was curved on the right side and the pillar jutting inwards meant I had to sleep in a really uncomfortable position.

Please avoid this bus (5:45PM at Ettumanoor) if you can find a Volvo. The Isuzu is just like any Tata or AL bus, just a little less noisy.

[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by sbkumar

It's true. Most of the operators cancel/merge their services on weekdays. I recently had a bad experience with SRS. I had booked on their A/C Sleeper from NGL to Bangalore. They had cancelled and moved me on to a Volvo. They somehow missed to inform me about the change and I found about it only the last minute.I had to re-book last minute on KPN sleeper and lose the money on the SRS ticket. The first bad experience with SRS.

I had a miserable experience on SRS traveling from trivandrum to Bangalore via Nagercoil on their Multi Axle Volvo - please see post # 1515 on this forum... You probably were lucky you did not travel on the SRS Volvo on this sector

[sbkumar]

Originally Posted by aroonanand

I had a miserable experience on SRS traveling from trivandrum to Bangalore via Nagercoil on their Multi Axle Volvo - please see post # 1515 on this forum... You probably were lucky you did not travel on the SRS Volvo on this sector

I did respond to your post - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commer...ml#post2706288

It's quite an irony that I had given a positive feedback on them

[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by sbkumar

I did respond to your post - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commer...ml#post2706288

It's quite an irony that I had given a positive feedback on them

Looks like they had a plan to prove you wrong, and they did it eventually !!!! But yeah, on a serious note, I can imagine getting the change intimation at the last minute would have certainly not been the best experience !

[libranof1987]

I did a B'lore - Manipal - B'lore last weekend by KSRTC Airavat.

B'lore - Manipal was on the 2209 bus which eventually left at 2230. The bus was in decent condition although only 1 reading-lamp per pair of seat worked and that too on alternating rows! The conductor said, that's how it is.

The driver drove well and was doing mostly ~85 km/hr. I didn't realize any major halt; doubt he stopped for anything except a small road-side pee break. We reached Manipal by 0630.

Manipal - B'lore was on the 2044 bus which left around 2100. This was the Karkala route. The bus condition was decent and the lamps worked! But, the driver was TERRIBLE to say the least; he was exceptionally rash with his acceleration and braking. Worst part, I feel he even knocked someone down on the winding roads after Karkala; could even have brushed against a rock or something hence no passenger confronted him. Overall terrible experience. We reached B'lore at 6am.

---

Some, I saw a Volvo belonging to Rajesh travels doing B'lore - Manipal. Surprisingly, it had a DL-reg. That brought me to a doubt - do interstate bus operators have to pay road tax of the other state?