[binaiks]

Originally Posted by motorsan

Had a mind numbingly slow journey from Bangalore to Calicut via Karnataka RTC Volvo service on 30th December.

As per KSRTC website, the bus was scheduled for departure at 21:02 from Shanthinagar, with 21:45 pickup from Mysore Road bus stand. The arrival time in Calicut was shown as 05:30 hours the next day. Naively beliveing the website, I booked a seat with pickup from Mysore Road bus stand.

The bus reached Mysore Road bus stand around 22:00 hours, and left after 5 minutes or so. Overall delay of 20 minutes at start, which I thought was no big deal. The journey as such was event free. Blankets and water bottles were provided and I promptly slept off. At around 6 AM in the morning, I heard the crew announcing some place, which I assumed was Calicut. As I was preparing to get up, a quick look through the window made me realise that the bus was actually in Thalassery! At first I thought that the they rerouted the bus through Thalassery due to the traffic problems in Thamarassery churam. But as the bus ambled its way through NH66 towards Calicut, passengers were getting down in Mahe, Vadakara etc., and the conductor seemed very familiar with the places, which made me suspect this was their regular route. In the end reached Calicut at 08:30. I was too numb by then to even ask the crew why the bus came through Thalassery, so just got down and walked away.

Sorry to hear that. But, the KSRTC website itself says the bus goes via Mahe-Thalassery-Vadakara-Koilandy. The timings on the KSRTC website is generally way off - delays of 1-2 hours is 'normal' especially on Kerala routes.

[motorsan]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Sorry to hear that. But, the KSRTC website itself says the bus goes via Mahe-Thalassery-Vadakara-Koilandy. The timings on the KSRTC website is generally way off - delays of 1-2 hours is 'normal' especially on Kerala routes.

Thanks. In my haste, I had not noticed the route. I just checked the time of arrival at destination. I now see that clicking on the trip code (2102BNGKZK) will give you the full route with arrival times (unreliable) at each stop.

[mazda4life]

Did a quick round trip of Bangalore to Tirupati and didnt drive due to schedule constraints, took KSRTC club class and absolutely nothing to complain about. Prompt start and on time arrivals on both legs, couple of nitpicks
1. Hate movies on bus , wish they don't play movies
2. Instead of going directly to Tirupati bus stand , would be great if the buses went to Alipiri for people who want to climb by the footpath

All in all , makes eminent sense to use public transport for this pilgrimage

[rohitoasis]

25th Jan 2018. Had booked Hebron Travels from Chennai to Palakkad scheduled to reach my stop at Porur Toll around 9:15 PM. I reached an hour in advance and spent an hour. Around 9:08 PM i get a call that bus is avoiding the Porur toll and headed via the Kancheepuram road and i had to reach the new pick up spot in 5 minutes. And as expected in such horrid situations, Uber and Ola would not turn up one taxi at all. By good luck, i got lift in a bike from a good samaritan and reached within around 15 minutes in fear that the bus had left. I called up the driver again and asked him he had crossed. To my utter amazement he sounded cross at me and said he would eventually turn up. Another 10 minutes later they did finally turn up. But trust me, with this adventure, i am not very keen in booking in this Travels again.

[treadmark]

Originally Posted by rohitoasis

25th Jan 2018. Had booked Hebron Travels from Chennai to Palakkad scheduled to reach my stop at Porur Toll around 9:15 PM. I reached an hour in advance and spent an hour. Around 9:08 PM i get a call that bus is avoiding the Porur toll and headed via the Kancheepuram road and i had to reach the new pick up spot in 5 minutes. And as expected in such horrid situations, Uber and Ola would not turn up one taxi at all. By good luck, i got lift in a bike from a good samaritan and reached within around 15 minutes in fear that the bus had left. I called up the driver again and asked him he had crossed. To my utter amazement he sounded cross at me and said he would eventually turn up. Another 10 minutes later they did finally turn up. But trust me, with this adventure, i am not very keen in booking in this Travels again.

I had travelled with them twice and both were bad experiences, Hebron will be my last choice to travel to Thrissur from Chennai. Both the times they were late to drop me by more than 4 hours, on top of it they get into Coimbatore city to drop passengers where you can loose close to an hour easily. The first time I booked on Hebron based on my experience with then in Chennai ~ Bangalore route, the second one was due to non availability of
seat on my regular SRM / Kallada Suresh / Orange.

I'm still wondering what would have been the plight of passengers who booked from Perungalathur on that day?

Cheers!

[ike]

Originally Posted by treadmark

Hebron will be my last choice to travel to Thrissur from Chennai

Till recently, I used to travel to thrissur from chennai every week and I was a regular on the Hebron that departs at 21.30. This remains my first choice because they have a van pick up from my office in perungudi. While they do go to coimbatore, they have dropped me at thrissur at reasonable times almost all the time. I have not travelled since August since my family has moved here now.

[dailydriver]

I had an opportunity to commute using the KSRTC Airavata Club Class service from Chikkamagaluru to Bengaluru.

The Ugly



Look at the condition of the seat base.

The Bad

The journey took almost six and half hours. This, despite the wait at the toll gates never exceeding 3-4 minutes. Also, the driver didn't distribute the water bottles until someone asked for it at Hassan.

The Good


The bus offered free WiFi facility. No more cursing the patchy mobile network on highways.

If one is travelling alone and unwilling to drive, this is a good option. If you have company, driving your own car makes much more sense.

[treadmark]

Originally Posted by ike

Till recently, I used to travel to thrissur from chennai every week and I was a regular on the Hebron that departs at 21.30. This remains my first choice because they have a van pick up from my office in perungudi. While they do go to coimbatore, they have dropped me at thrissur at reasonable times almost all the time. I have not travelled since August since my family has moved here now.

May be I was at a wrong day on both the occasions.

Even I had travelled extensively (almost on all weekends) between 2010 and 2012. SRM Volvo multi axle was introduced around that time to Thiruvalla. This used to be my sole choice only for the reason punctuality. Even at those times when it was not 4 laned for more than half of the stretch, for a start at 8 from Perungalathur they drop me at Thrissur between 4:30 and 5. Same is the case on return expect for the dinner stop at Alathur and for some reason they go to Pollachi for a pickup after Palakkad.

Again I had to travel weekly between 2016 and mid 2017. SRM took a back seat not because of punctuality but the bus quality, they were still running the age old pairs. Hence switched between Orange Scania / Evacay Scania and Kallada Suresh Volvo all with a pickup at Perungalathur between 7:30 and 8:00 PM. I prefer this timing because you can have a late night dinner and the movie they play will get over by the time you need to sleep.
Need to be careful while choosing Kallada Suresh because they end up scheduling special services on weekends which will be a miss on timing most of the days, hence I'll leave this to the agent guys at Perungalathur / Mannuthy to choose wisely.
For late departures from Perungalathur I even had a chance to travel with Kallada G4 Scania for 5 to 6 times (though they mention Scania Volvo iShift was on service twice). Surprisingly they were the quickest of all the lot in the recent time, for a pickup between 9:30 and 10:00 they had dropped me around 5 in Thrissur all the time (no dinner break). Beware all the time the ride was harsh like in a roller coaster hence even G4 became last choice.
I'm not sure whether these buses have services or may be more services now due to demand.
I had always sticked to semi sleeper and hence no idea about sleeper services.

Now you know why I had mentioned entering Coimbatore as a pain for long distance travellers; instead like other travels Hebron can easily drop them in byepass and provide a Van drop to city.

Cheers!

[rohitoasis]

Originally Posted by ike

they have dropped me at thrissur at reasonable times almost all the time. I have not travelled since August since my family has moved here now.

You are partly right. Hebron used to be my first choice till the Mid of Last year as well, till they nearly got me fired from work once. On this opportunity i was supposed to travel to Coimbatore and pick up an overseas customer who had landed from US the previous day (I know it was shoddy planning on my end not going on the previous day or flying to Coimbatore, but i trusted the punctuality till that day). I reach my pick up point at Porur toll half an hour in advance to see the same bus that is supposed to be picking me up in half an hour heading from Coimbatore to Chennai an hour late. I think they are now in an endeavour to optimise the utilization of their fleet and losing out on punctuality. I reached Coimbatore 3 hours late that day. 5 subsequent journeys to Coimbatore/Palakkad were all delayed and Hebron who used to send a post travel feedback religiously stopped sending those mails as well.

Originally Posted by treadmark

Hence switched between Orange Scania / Evacay Scania and Kallada Suresh Volvo all with a pickup at Perungalathur between 7:30 and 8:00 PM. I prefer this timing because you can have a late night dinner and the movie they play will get over by the time you need to sleep.

I too am absolutely in love with Evacay and their promptness now. Landed today morning from Coimbatore in the Evacay Scania 12 minutes before their committed time. Even better is when i come from Palakkad, typically i seem to be the only person from Palakkad in this service and instead of waiting for the bus in the junction, they stop just before the flyover exactly in front of my house. I need to try the Orange service.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

I had an opportunity to commute using the KSRTC Airavata Club Class service from Chikkamagaluru to Bengaluru.

Your post makes me nostalgic . I don't recollect taking a Bus from Belur or Chikmagalur for Bangalore since 2003 and hence the last one I actually may have traveled on this route would be either Rajahamsa or Karnatataka Sarige .

The Bad[/u]

The journey took almost six and half hours. This, despite the wait at the toll gates never exceeding 3-4 minutes.

This I think is usual and the biggest surprise is the fact that the buses take almost same time as before to reach Bangalore when roads were 2 lane (Single carriageway), CR Patna & Kunigal didn't have bypass; Talks a lot on how toll booths and increase in traffic has still not drastically improved the travel times but at the same time today, one cannot imagine driving on this route if it was still 2 lane as it would then take 7-8 hours!

Whenever my uncle travels by bus from Chikkamagaluru, he says 5.5-6 Hours is pretty normal and its fast when it takes 5 hours . Talk about days a decade back and it still took the same time! I recall the early morning Bus from Chikkamagaluru that we used to board at Belur circle that arrived sharp at 0500 and was at Nelemangala at 0915 (Thats 4H15M) including entering Hassan, CR Patna and Kunigal Bus stops (2 here as you know).

If one is travelling alone and unwilling to drive, this is a good option. If you have company, driving your own car makes much more sense.

You said it and I guess that is the reason why we never took bus ever since we started to drive home on this route. In fact, apart from the time saver that it is by your own car, economically it works out cheaper than bus when we are 4 of us. You can directly reach home and take a break after 3 hours .

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Your post makes me nostalgic.

That makes two of us!

These days, I don't travel by bus unless it is for official purposes wherein I would have to furnish tickets to claim allowances. However, I have fond memories of travelling in the rickety, pre-Suvarna Karnataka Sarige buses on half ticket, quickly getting down at Beluru to buy mixture and groundnuts, enjoying slices of cucumber at Chennarayapatna, Soppu Kadle at Bellur Cross and chips at Kunigal .

7-8 hours!

I got off at Rajajinagar, so the bus would have taken another 15-20 minutes to reach Majestic . Whenever they have to travel without me, my family members prefer to board the 4 AM Karnataka Sarige service. Bypassing all towns, the bus reaches Majestic by 8.45, enabling them to catch their office shuttle and reach Manyata Tech Park in time for the morning login. Another good option is the Vaibhav service that starts at 4.45 AM and is in Majestic by 9.45, much before Government offices open. Of late, Chikkamagalureans have started taking a bus to Hassan and catching the 6.30 AM Intercity Express (train) from there.

[coolclouds]

Angamaly - Bangalore
Evacay Bus

Date of travel: 31 Jan 2018
Scheduled Departure: 22:00 Hrs
Actual : 21:56 Hrs

(Madiwala) Scheduled arrival: 06.30 Hrs
Actual: 05.40 Hrs

Currently one of the best in bus quality and service. Felt like the legroom is low compared to others, may be just a feeling.

Bangalore to Angamaly
Kerala RTC Scania
(St. Johns) Scheduled arrival: 17:25 Hrs
Actual: 18:05 Hrs

Angamaly
Scheduled arrival: 02.00 Hrs
Actual: 02:45 Hrs


Just curious to know where is Padikkal travels now! Did they stop their service?

[mazda4life]

Did a Navi Mumbai- Bangalore journey by SRS Scania semi sleeper bus. The original bus got cancelled and my travel timing got advanced by an hour And had to scramble to catch it. No proper explanation on the cancellation👎. Travel itself was ok with multiple stops enroute and got dropped at Nagasandra near Peenya at 6 am to catch a metro to Jayanagar, but a bad start to the morning as the metro wasn't starting till 8 AM.
Took a bus to majestic and then unto Jayanagar. A not so good experience with SRS with the only silver lining being early arrival to Bangalore.

[greenhorn]

Has anyone done Trivandrum Chennai Recently?
i have been informed that there is some roadwork happening, and the buses are delayed significantly (>4 hours)
Is this true?

[prkiran]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

Has anyone done Trivandrum Chennai Recently?
i have been informed that there is some roadwork happening, and the buses are delayed significantly (>4 hours)
Is this true?

Very likely. Had driven down in the last week of December. Nagercoil to Trivandrum stretch was a nightmare with flyover constructions and traffic diversions through nonexistent roads. There are some stretches where the road is not even wide enough to accommodate two buses.