[TKMCE]

Yes I remember "f1fan"- I think it was your advice when I asked here in T-BHP about choosing betwen Neeta and VRL which made me choose VRL. The 12 Noon Sion service is the same Borivali originating service which reaches Andheri at 11 AM. In fact since there was no traffic that day, the bus reached outskirts of Sion around around 1130 and then we had a conducted tour of the byelanes of Sion in Volvo comfort as there was no place to park near the VRL office. Also the replacement bus we got appeared to be a bus on "standby" duty. It was the crew of the "standby" bus which operated it to Bangalore and the original crew stayed behind with their broken down bus.

I was also impressed by the fact that the crews made sure that no baggage was left behind by mistake, checking both the luggage compartment below, the overhead racks and also the seat pockets inside the original bus . May be small things but thse indicate a high level of professionalism. Yes the attender did ask me for a tip and I might even have given it without asking if it was not for the fact that the attender also changed when the bus was changed. If it was the same guy who helped me with the bags at Andheri, I would have given it . And when I ignored the requests , there were no words about my magnanimity or rather the lack of it conveyed behind my back. Again crew uniforms may not be a big issue, but to me it is still an indicator of an organised set up.

In the end I still think it is better to go for the established players depending on the route . Mumbai Bangalore it is VRL and KaSRTC, Pune - Bangalore it is KaSRTC (keeping in mind the number of services which terminate at Swargate). while in Hyderabad Bangalore both APSRTC and KaSRTC seems to be equally good while in the Hyderabad Mumbai route it seems HKB and Orange who have good reviews. Earlier AP Tourism (not APSRTC) also used to run a cople of Volvos to Mumbai from Hyderabad (on seat only basis) but are these services still operating???

Between Bangalore and Chennai, many people here prefer RoadLink. I am very curious how they will handle breakdowns if touchwood it happens as they have a limited fleet.Ex Chennai Parveen is also fast developing a good reputation on their routes to Kerala and Bangalore while Kallada G4 seems to get a lot of good reviews on the Bangalore Kerala routes.

Ofcourse all these are purely my personal opinion and there can always be exceptions. Liik the one "venkyhere" had on KaSRTC Bangalore Ernakulam. I had the same experience once in the other direction - again the last departure from Ernakulam at 2035 (Volvo), The previous deartures 1828 and 2005 are Mercs. According to KaSRTC, their bus will depart the KeSRTC bus stand at Ernakulam go to Vyttiila and pick you up at Aluva 20 minutes after the departure from EKM. In practice it is anything from 45 minutes to 1 hour. But one day, the gentleman who was in charge of the 2035 managed to reach at 2100 in Aluva where I was to board (Fortunately I was in a super overcautious mood that day and had already reached well before time). Finally I reached Majestic at 6.30 AM just behind another Multi Axle Merc. Thought it was the 2030 service but was actually the 1828 !!! Might have been the same guy, but I dont think so as on that day he was certainly not rash and I did have a sound sleep! But when the crew announced a 20 min dinner break at Angamaly, it was indeed a 20 minute break and not a 40 minute one and the bus also did not go into Trichur town (the 1828 has a scheduled pickup at Trichur).

[vinu_h]

KSRTC, APSRTC services shifted - Effective January 6th, 2013.

The boarding points appear to have been decided based on the routes that the buses will be taking.

[TKMCE]

One of my family too the Multi Axle Volvo of Parveen Travels from Chenna to i Bangalore. The feedback was very good. Bus starts from Adayar at 10 PM, goes via CMBT and reached Madiwala by 4.30 AM. We earlier had an excellent experience with them when one of us accidently picked up the wrong bag while getting down and Parveen Adatar office as well as bus the crew were so co-operative that we could trace out the owner of the bag we picked up by mistake and got back our own bag which was still in the bus, in a couple of hours.


Parveen is now the operator of choice for us in the routes which thy operate. And they have been around for a long time in intercity bus operations, have seen them for mearly 20 years.

[Ashley2]

With regards to missing a bag, I had an incident with ARC Travels. This happened at Palani, my home town when I was heading from Chennai. As usual I woke up, only after driver telling, the bus has reached Palani. So in a hurry(It was going to Pollachi) I took my bag and came home. After reaching home I realized that, its not mine. Then I spoke to local office(Time was 0550). SInce they were checking some unloaded parcel, the person was available. He said the bus has already left. But he Immediately made a call to driver and asked have any one missed bag. Things were identified in few minutes and he has requested to stop the bus immediately. By now the bus was nearly 10 kms away from Palani and its almost 0625. Then I need to go there in my car. I felt very uncomfortable, as all the passengers were disturbed because of my carelessness. Somehow I rushed to that place and all the passengers were waiting outside and were starring at me. But when I saw the driver, he already have taken my bag and gave me immediately. I told him extremely sorry, but the driver was very happy to tell, that's not a big deal and told me not to worry.

Normally we speak about the attitude of operator as such, when the crew do not behave gently. But I always have a opinion that, the level of gentle behaviour various from person to person, even though they were trained. But here the crew was one the genuine trained staff by ARC.

[TKMCE]

In Parveen's case also, I was thinking it was a one off (although in this case both the Adayar office of Parveen as well as the bus crew wree equally brilliant), but a few days back I came accross another incident where someone left behind a valuable camera whle getting down at Guindy on his journey from Madurai and his camera was safely retuned to him by the crew at the garage.

Speaking of customer service, I can never forget KPN. Chennai-Ernakulam Non AC bus ran out of diesel shortly before Trichur, or that was what the long suffering passengers on the bus were told (The bus had a puncture within an hour of starting from Chennai but which took 3 hours to fix and then had an unscheduled bus change at Coimbatore becaiuse the original bus did not have a permit to enter Kerala). Response from Customer service at Salem when contacted to check about alternate arrangements...:"Dont worry Sir,,, we will call the driver and get back to you why the bus ran out of diesel "A sad state of affairs for a company which along with the old TTC were once the pioneers in inter city bus travel... There was a time not too long ago when the first question many passengers asked if they had to go by bus was ... Is there a KPN service??? Sad to see them in such a state now.

[venki.bala]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

Speaking of customer service, I can never forget KPN. Chennai-Ernakulam Non AC bus ran out of diesel shortly before Trichur, or that was what the long suffering passengers on the bus were told (The bus had a puncture within an hour of starting from Chennai but which took 3 hours to fix and then had an unscheduled bus change at Coimbatore becaiuse the original bus did not have a permit to enter Kerala). Response from Customer service at Salem when contacted to check about alternate arrangements...:"Dont worry Sir,,, we will call the driver and get back to you why the bus ran out of diesel "A sad state of affairs for a company which along with the old TTC were once the pioneers in inter city bus travel... There was a time not too long ago when the first question many passengers asked if they had to go by bus was ... Is there a KPN service??? Sad to see them in such a state now.

Absolutely true. KPN service has gone down and their customer service center is horrible. last month my friend travelled from Salem to chennai and his bus got broke down near Attur or kallakurichi. They were forced to stay on road for close to 2 hours. They were repeatedly told that another bus is coming to pick them. He stopped a govt bus and reached Ulundurpet and went straight to KPN petrol pump where all the buses stopped and yelled at them like anything. then he was sent in another bus waiting there.

[addyhemmige]

I had a really crazy bus journey on KSRTC Rajahamsa last weekend.

I was in Hassan on Saturday and I was supposed to return to Bangalore the same day. Since this was a quick trip, I had not made any reservation and since it was a saturday also, I was hoping to get seats on either a Rajahamsa or a Volvo/Benz. Generally, the Airavats from Mangalore stop at Hassan if they have empty seats. The Mercedes Benz services running on Chikmagalur-Bangalore route stop at Hassan since it usually has reservations from there.

So, at around 3 pm I was waiting for the Chikmagalur-Bangalore Benz at the Hassan bus stand. Before that bus, another bus, a Mangalore-Chennai Rajahamsa arrived at the platform (Bus no KA 19 F 2859). This bus was not even half full, so I got in and got a good seat somewhere in the middle. The bus waited for about 15 minutes on the platform before it started the journey. Meanwhile the Benz had arrived and left. This particular bus had two drivers since it had to go all the way to Chennai.

Driver 1 drove from Mangalore to Hassan and Driver 2 took over for the Hassan-Bangalore leg. We started off and I was noticing that Driver 2 was struggling with the clutch. The bus was jerking badly. Once we hit the Hassan bypass, the driver started driving like crazy. The bus was swaying like a boat. He made a few close overtakes and I was wondering if we were so lucky to avoid an accident going by the way he was driving. Soon, the bus stopped at Udayapura for having lunch. He did not stop at Kamat but at the hotel just before that.

After the break, he suddenly became sane (too sane actually) and started driving very very slowly till we reached Channarayapatna. After Channarayapatna, he again went back to his earlier self and started driving crazily. This time he was even more mental with a few very close calls while overtaking. He pushed a couple of trucks off the road as well while overtaking and was weaving like he was riding a motorcycle. Then a few of us passengers thought that this was enough and stormed the cabin and forced him to stop the bus. We found out then that this fellow was drunk and he could barely keep his eyes open. The other driver took over and we (passengers) decided that we should hand this fellow over to the police at next town.

As we moved slowly towards the next town, we spotted a police patrol van on the road side and asked the driver to stop the bus. As soon as the bus slowed down, this drunk driver, who was standing near the door, somehow managed to open the door and jump off. This was near a village and this fellow ran into the village without looking back. The police then said that they will catch him and asked us to continue on our journey. I don't know if they did catch him, but we managed to reach Bangalore at 8.30 pm, around 5 and a half hours after we started from Hassan.

This was the scariest journey ever in a bus for me. I hope such acts are not repeated by any other drivers especially when they have the lives of 50 odd people in their hands

[PVS]

Thats really scary addyhemmige -a drunk driver on board a Government bus, that too a Ka.SRTC! You and the other PAX should have seriously considered lodging a written complaint with Ka.S.R.T.C, for having put your lives in danger!

[anvancy]

I have been traveling a lot on the Hyderabad Pune route for almost 1.5yrs now.

The big players on the route are ofcourse Orange HKB NTR Express Keseneni and slightly not in limelight Garuda.

All the above are "preferred" by families and Keseneni HKB and Orange are famous among IT goers due to suitable timings and good pickup locations.

Jabbar Omer and others majorly fall in the last moment bus category atleast to me.

I have been traveling by Keseneni ever since I shifted to Hyderabad.Till the day before diesel price hike, K were providing water bottles.the day the price shot up,they stopped it. But besides that I find the operator pretty comfortable.At times they drive kind of rash but majorly they are smooth in driving. Drivers are majorly neutral but its the attendants that either can make your journey good or bad.I have seen attendants not caring for passengers and those who do. They even have a system where majorly on Fridays or important holidays a certain crew attends the bus service.sort of pros.Other days its a mixture of crew.But on important fridays its the specific crew.

the VL 118 always stops at Mahendra Paradise for dinner and bio call breaks. I never ate at Mahendra Paradise so dont know the quality of food.Though the tea stall charges a premium since according to him he is located in middle of nowhere.At dinner points a frequent scene to witness is some drivers close the door of the bus.So all the passengers are stranded outside.not good.

I have been dropped at Jahangir Hospital in the range of 5:45 to 6:30 always no matter what.

The case of the bus diverting at Indapur is to make up time and fuel efficiency since the road is virtually not used by anybody and is free of traffic.Only once the bus was diverted to Pandharpur and unknowingly we arrived in Pune very early.Indapur is a compulsory switch point for drivers.

I only traveled once by HKB and I did not enjoy it. the crew was rude.even departing Hyderabad at 7pm we arrived Pune at 7.30am.Dinner stop was horrible even from loo break point of view.

I have heard good for Orange but 1200 for Pune is overkill according to me.

HKB NTR Express and Keseneni offer for 950.And if you are fanatic about bus services like chips and bottles then choose orange or HKB. I vouch for Keseneni.

For any Hitec/Gachibowli travellers,a tip is to catch the Pune/Mum 117 at Miyapur just after Talkie town chowk.The bus has ample place to actually stop.At Chandanagar drivers are always in a hurry.Also if you like Tera Naal Love Hogaya you are in for a treat since I watched it like 8-10times.

Any questions ill be glad to answer for Hyderabad Pune route.

Anvancy

[TKMCE]

With Pune expanding so much as an IT hub, most of the HYD-BOM services are now tailored towards catering to Pune customers. A far cry from the time even 8-10 years back when trying to get to HYD was a pain from Pune. As a result reaching early at BOM is now very difficult as even the earliest services aim to reach Pune at 5 or so so that the BOM pax suffers.

Same used to be the case earlier for Chennai Kochi where most services used to cater to Coimbatore primarily and Kochi almost as an after thought!!! Fortunately this is changing now primarily due to players like SRM and Kallada who are seeing the potential in the Kerala market. Again the growth of Chennai as an IT hub over the last decade or so and the multifold increase of Keralites working in Chennai has contributed to better services between the two cities.

[dhandapanik]

Hindusthan AC Sleeper Bangalore-Pollachi review:

My onward journey to Bangalore from Coimbatore was in Hindusthan Travels Multi axle. All my last five trips from Coimbatore to Bangalore was with same operator. So nothing specific about it. Let me share the return journey experience.

A couple of weeks back, Hindusthan has added a new 12M AC Sleeper bus in Bangalore-Pollachi route. I normally avoid taking Sleeper coaches and Since we got a new route to Pollachi from Hindusthan, i thought of trying this out. All set and booked the L1 seat for my 4-Jan Journey. This was an offiial trip and my trip got extended for one more week. So i thought of trying out the new ultra deluxe coaches of SETC in Bangalore-Coimbatore route by cancelling this guy. I had some late evening meetings and hence decided to continue in the same bus. This is my AC Sleeper coach journey after some 3 yrs.

Scheduled departure time at Madiwala is 10.45 PM and i have reached Madiwala by 10.30 PM. Saw the Coimbatore bound AC Sleeper waiting there. Our bus reached Madiwala by 10.40 PM and was waiting for coimbatore bus to depart so that we will get some space. Finally CBE guy departed by 10.45 PM and soon after this Pollachi bus arrived. KA51 B 717, A Prakash built AC Sleeper turned out for the Pollachi trip today and i have seen this guy resting in Pollachi couple of times.

Interiors were neatly done and really loved this prakash built guy. Front driver cabin area had red finish and the same red finish was used in passenger area too. The LED lights added below the lower berth area added so much of beauty to the interiors.

We departed from Madiwala by 10.50 PM and Out of 31 berths, 3 remained vacant. It took the BETL and reached Electronics city by 11.15. Before reaching TN border, we overtook couple of Airawat CC and they were bound to Chennai and Coimbatore(57 F 283) and all of a sudden ABT(2653) overtook us with a good speed. At this moment, we were doing around 85KMPH. It took around 10 min to cross check post.

Went to sleep after crossing the check post and suddenly around 3.45 AM heard an irritating sound from cleaner guy shouting at erode, erode. Few people got down here and we continued our journey. Few of them got down in Perumanallur and this cleaner guy shouted with loud voice in almost all stops. The stoppages we had are Tirupur New BS, Pushpa Theater, Railway Station(5.00 AM), Old BS, Palladam etc., Had some sleep after passing Palladam and my place is located in Udumalpet-Pollachi highway and while going in ABT, i used to get down there directly. Just a hint to the ABT driver is enough and he will stop there and call us. But i was so tired to got up in between. Reached Pollachi by 6.30 AM. We were late by half an hour.

The only worst part of the journey is the cleaner guy switching on the lights and shouting at each and every stops. Other than this, i found the journey is good. Will i take this guy again? I would say it is 50-50. Even now, my first choice is in this route is none other than my favourite ABT.

Interiors:


KA51 B 717, The bus which i used:

[girishglg]

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

This was the scariest journey ever in a bus for me. I hope such acts are not repeated by any other drivers especially when they have the lives of 50 odd people in their hands

This is atrocious. Till date had a feeling that KSRTC drivers were one of the safest and alcohol free. Even saw breath analyzers used in KSRTC bus stand at Shantinagar just before the departures by depot authorities.

Since this was from other destination such measures might not be used or even the driver would have had it enroute. But as said you should report this incident to KSRTC so that such bad specimens are suspended. It may actually affect some one else's life if continued.

You can post your feedback in their website-
http://www.ksrtc.in/site/feedback

[TKMCE]

On the topic of Hindusthan Travels, they have started their first route to Kerala with a Volvo Multi Axle on Chennai Trivandrum.

Also Kallada now appears to have a second day servce as well- Bangalore Irinjalakuda in addition to the Bangalore Kochi day service.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by girishglg

This is atrocious. Till date had a feeling that KSRTC drivers were one of the safest and alcohol free. Even saw breath analyzers used in KSRTC bus stand at Shantinagar just before the departures by depot authorities.

A few years back, a KSRTC Rajahamsa in which I was traveling was actually stopped at Bellur Cross in the middle of the night for a breath analyzer test. I don't know if they still continue to do such random checks.

Thanks for the link. AFAIK, a few co-passengers of that bus did complain to the authorities. I'm not sure what action was taken though.

[dhandapanik]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

On the topic of Hindusthan Travels, they have started their first route to Kerala with a Volvo Multi Axle on Chennai Trivandrum.

Also Kallada now appears to have a second day servce as well- Bangalore Irinjalakuda in addition to the Bangalore Kochi day service.

It was started from 1-Jan-13. They have 6 b9rs and following are their routes.
1. Chennai-Coimbatore
2. Coimbatore-Bangalore
3. Chennai-Trivandrum.

Actually, they had two services daily each in Chennai-Coimbatore and Coimbatore-Chennai route(In total 4 buses were used). They cancelled one pair in this route and moved that to Chennai-Trivandrum service.

Similarly they have also started new AC Sleeper services in Chennai-Erode via Tiruchengode and Coimbatore-Pondicherry via Erode, Cuddalore.