[tharian]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Folks
As regards the new white colour SETC buses from TN and the blue/cream combo TNSTC buses, are the chassis and engine supplied by Ashok Leyland. Reason I am asking this is I dont see any logo of the manufacturer in front of the bus.

Yes, they are Leyland's. Being TNSTC, chances are they will always be Leyland's.

Also the give away is the exhaust pipe which is now behind the front right wheel which the new AL models have.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Folks
As regards the new white colour SETC buses from TN and the blue/cream combo TNSTC buses, are the chassis and engine supplied by Ashok Leyland. Reason I am asking this is I dont see any logo of the manufacturer in front of the bus.

All of them are Ashok Leyland buses. The initial lot had 100 buses, all of them were 225hp SCR CRS engine, while the new lot is all 225hp iEGR Engine.

[Deepsp]

Received these images on WhatsApp today.
Post claims MSRTC is launching these Electric buses for intercity operations. They are named as 'Shivaai' continuing it's trend of names (Shivneri, Shivshahi).
Post also claims that MSRTC is inducting total 150 such buses in it's fleet of Electric intercity buses.
These images look genuine to me and if true, these will be first intercity electric buses run by any operator in India.

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by Deepsp

These images look genuine to me and if true, these will be first intercity electric buses run by any operator in India.

Images are genuine, but MSRTC is not the first but the fourth.
HTC (Himachal) was the first followed by Assam and JK. In fact Himachal ran the Rohtang route and dispelled every operators doubt about the ghat climbing ability.
MSRTC will be homing them at parel depot, and running them Dadar pune and Dadar Nashik.



Rahul

[Deepsp]

[quote=Rahul Rao;4652351]Images are genuine, but MSRTC is not the first but the fourth.

Thanks for that information Rahul ji.

Do you have any more information about these buses like Manufacturer, range, seating capacity, power?
As you mentioned their routes both are nearly 200 to 250 KMs, nearly 4 to 5 hours drive. What if there are massive traffic jams? What's the contingency plan?

[wheelguy]

[quote=Deepsp;4652428]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

Do you have any more information about these buses like Manufacturer, range, seating capacity, power?
As you mentioned their routes both are nearly 200 to 250 KMs, nearly 4 to 5 hours drive. What if there are massive traffic jams? What's the contingency plan?

Seating capacity is 43, other technical information is unknown, even the manufacturer name is not known.

Each bus costs around 1.5 to 2 crore rupees. They are planning to procure and deploy 150 more such buses in the near future for intercity purposes. It is going to cost around rupees 14 per kilometer.

The buses, on a single charge can run up to 300 kilometers. In case of battery drain in the midst of the journey or any other issues it is the responsibility of the contractor but not the MSRTC as the buses are on wet lease. Wet lease means, the buses are owned and maintained by a third party while operated by MSRTC without any capital expenditure.

Link

[Rahul Rao]

Links to whatever info I could gather on the net.
Guwahati

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f24ppPODKAI

Himachal https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/queen-o...project-31278/
https://www.financialexpress.com/aut...-days/1354593/
Jammu & Kashmir
https://www.financialexpress.com/aut...ially/1591130/
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/ja...ay/798614.html
J&K has installed charging points at their bio break points between Jammu & Srinagar.


Rahul

[sandeep959]

I recently took the Orange Travels(first time with them) from Vellore to Hyderabad. It was a Fri evening.
Boarding Pt: Vellore New Bus stand
Pick up time: 1820hrs
Pickup VAN came at: 1845hrs
Left at:1925hr
Final Pickup at Katpadi Rly Stn: 2010hrs.

We were shifted from the Van to the waiting buses after the Crossing the Border, in AP. Got into a waiting BB Sleeper, and traveled till Chittoor, where we were shifted to another bus, which was a Spl service because of Demand. Time now 2115hrs.

It was a Green Colour MG Built Ashley AC Sleeper. AP39T2282. Enroute to Chittoor, I preferred sitting in the Cabin, and asked the Crew about BB. They are happy with acceleration and ability to maintain high speeds BUT high cost of maintenance is bothering them. Driver said it's pretty much same as driving a Ashley as regards the handling.

We were just 10-12 people to board the spl Service. Left immediately, and at about 2200hrs stopped for dinner at a Non Descript place. I didn't have anything and polished off the Snacks given by Orange Travels.

We left at 2230hrs, and driver was constantly doing 80-85+, as I was tracking on GPS. I slept off at 2300hrs, and was woken up with shouts of Toilet break, at 0300hrs. Not wanting to break my sleep, I went off to sleep again and didn't even check which place it was.

The next Shout-out was at 0530hrs, and we were at Shamshabad I just couldn't believe.. and finally got dropped at Moosapet Y Junction at 0700hrs.
I was impressed with the cleanliness of the Veh and the crew were very Courteous. The Blankets were kept in a Plastic wrapped well and a bottle of water and Snacks were given. ₹1250 for Vellore-Hyd. I found it worthy.

[ask_017]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

Images are genuine, but MSRTC is not the first but the fourth.
HTC (Himachal) was the first followed by Assam and JK. In fact Himachal ran the Rohtang route and dispelled every operators doubt about the ghat climbing ability.
MSRTC will be homing them at parel depot, and running them Dadar pune and Dadar Nashik.



Rahul

[quote=Deepsp;4652428]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

Images are genuine, but MSRTC is not the first but the fourth.

Thanks for that information Rahul ji.

Do you have any more information about these buses like Manufacturer, range, seating capacity, power?
As you mentioned their routes both are nearly 200 to 250 KMs, nearly 4 to 5 hours drive. What if there are massive traffic jams? What's the contingency plan?

Kerala State RTC has been running electric buses (from Chinese makers BYD) between Trivandrum and Kochi for more than 6 months now. That is a distance of over 200 KM which takes more than 5 hours. The very first journey itself had a widely reported break down due to battery drainage. After the initial niggles were sorted out, it is running successfully now.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/stat...p-1943708.html

[Rahul Rao]

@ask_017
That means Maharashtra is the 5th not 4th or may be even further behind.
BYD city buses in Pune run a shift of about 150 km with battery drained to 40%. Top up charge during shift change gets it to about 80% second shift drains it down to just above 20%.
Pune runs the buses in Shift 1A and Shift 2B, or 1B and 2C 1A is 0515 to 1315, 1B is 0600 to 1400. Shift 2B is 1400 to 2200 and 2C is 1445 to 2345.


Rahul

[bvasista]

Since my family is out of town, I decided to do a trip to Thanjavur. Did not take my car but took SETC to and fro Chennai (Tamil Nadu state owned transport) for 10th Jan, 2020 weekend.

Many of my colleagues warned about using SETC and insisted me to book private travels, suggested a few good names too. Since I always preferred state owned buses, went ahead and booked a non AC sleeper berth costing about 590/- each side. Read stories of AC not working online, hence booked a normal bus. Still they warned me that SETC is not like Karnataka/Telangana services and wished me good luck.

Chennai to Thanjaur: 10th Jan
Probably due to Pongal festival rush, bus stand was filled with people and many buses were departing late. Koyambedu bus stand has a big display board in Tamil & English about the relevant platform numbers to each city. Since I could not find Thanjavur in that board, had difficulty in finding out the correct platform. TNSTC & SETC buses have different bus bays even though the destination is same city. Each bus bay section had a different enquiry counter. Apart from the service number listed on the ticket, there was one more number mentioned on each bus like C906 for my bus and the in-charge was announcing the bus number after signing on paper given by conductor. There were chaos at the counters since most of the buses were running late. Instead of 10.45 PM departure, by bus arrived at 11.50 and left Chennai at 12.15. Reached Thanjavur at around 8.30 AM instead of original 6.45 AM arrival.

Thanjavur to Chennai: 12th Jan
All SETC buses operate from old bus stand in Thanjaur. The bus started almost on time (10.15 PM instead of 10 PM) and reached Tambaram at 4.50 AM. Instead of bus reaching Koyambedu bus stand, till Pongal the buses would be ending at Tambaram itself which is a far of place from Koyambedu. I was okay with it since Tambaram is nearer to my place but people going to other parts of city might have had some difficulty.

Overall the buses were good. AC buses also were looking good. Got the conductor contact number through SMS an hour before the departure. My sleeper berth was similar to the ones in a normal sleeper class train and had a good sleep since I was completely tired so do not know how the driving was. I would certainly use SETC next time also if I want to but hopefully it should be not that late and a better enquiry system instead of people choking the counter.

There was Ashok Leyland symbol and Prakash builder symbol as well on the bus. Is it like this – Chasis built by Ashok Leyland and rest of it by Prakash?

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by bvasista

Many of my colleagues warned about using SETC ...
There was Ashok Leyland symbol and Prakash builder symbol as well on the bus. Is it like this – Chasis built by Ashok Leyland and rest of it by Prakash?

SETC has a good number of new buses - AC & Non-AC seater and sleeper coaches, all of them built on Ashok Leyland 12M chassis (not sure if any are built on Viking chassis). Though I am yet to try them myself, I have heard only good things about the buses - they're comfortable and the booking experience has also improved a lot.

The bus bodies are built by reputed body garages like SMK-Prakash and MG Alma, on AL chassis. The MG Leera coaches are droolworthy, IMO

[bvasista]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Though I am yet to try them myself, I have heard only good things about the buses - they're comfortable and the booking experience has also improved a lot.

The bus bodies are built by reputed body garages like SMK-Prakash and MG Alma, on AL chassis. The MG Leera coaches are droolworthy, IMO

Its true. The MG Leera AC coaches were looking great. Should definitely try it next time.

I have booked ticket online in www.tnstc.in website. The conductor number was shared before hand and he in turn was calling some of them who still did not turn up to board the bus. In my first attempt, the experience with SETC was good (apart from chaos & delay while going to Thanjavur) and definitely there are improvements to what my colleagues have told me.

I feel that one of the reasons why people here in Chennai still prefer private travels is that flexibility of boarding the bus at the place of their convenience instead of travelling to CMBT. While booking ticket online, I did not see any other pickup points other than CMBT.

TSRTC (Telangana)/APSRTC (Andhra Pradesh) which start from Hyderabad have a number of pickup points in the city.

[guru_max]

Originally Posted by silversteed

SETC has a good number of new buses - AC & Non-AC seater and sleeper coaches, all of them built on Ashok Leyland 12M chassis (not sure if any are built on Viking chassis). Though I am yet to try them myself, I have heard only good things about the buses - they're comfortable and the booking experience has also improved a lot.

All of them are 12 m as far as i know. As long as they don't enter every random town and wait to pickup passengers there, SETC would do fine. The buses are currently good, but we have to wait and see if the maintenance is any good for a few years at least.

[vivek95]

I am not sure which thread is appropriate to share this piece of news.

Prasanna Purple Travels ( popular private bus operator of Pune) has launched a 43 seater electric bus service between Mumbai and Pune starting today. There will be two services per day initially that would be augmented in due course of time. Honorable Transport minister Mr. Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the bus service yesterday.




Read full news here - https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/pu...w/74138111.cms


I have travelled multiple times in PURPLE Volvo B7R/B8R buses between Mumbai and Pune, the operator always has been top notch with punctuality and highly well maintained coaches. Purple is a major player on Pune--Mumbai, Pune--Nagpur and Pune--Goa routes.