[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by binaiks

In case of KeSRTC, you can opt to board anywhere, if you place falls on the route of the bus. All you need to do is, call up the conductor (whose number can be taken from the Enquiry or the Control Room), and tell where you'd be standing. They don't mind even if its not a regular point.

I think there are FEW of them who don't care their passengers. Me and my wife travelled once in KeSRTC Volvo from Bangalore to Kochi. The staff were rude and not ready to drop 4 passengers in front of Kaloor International Stadium at around 4am saying that their stop after Edappally is only Kaloor bus stand (we complained about this is a different story)

[coolclouds]

Found Bharati Travels Bangalore-Cochin Merc service on Redbus.in

Anyone traveled on this? As per Redbus, it departs Anand Rao circle at 7.30pm, Kalasipalayam at 8.30 and Madiwala at 9pm.

Good to see more operators to Kerala destinations.

[swiftdiesel]

I recently travelled in a KPN Volvo twin-axle from Coimbatore. From the very onset of the journey, the driver showed attitude. When I posed the usual question, "What time are we expected to reach Chennai?" His nonchalant arrogant reply was "Whenever it reaches, it's that time!" All through the journey this guy was grumbling at KPN management since he was the only driver/conductor/cleaner for the whole journey. Somewhere close to Mettur he stopped the bus at some remote location and took a jolly good nap. Probably, 30 minutes later or so, we resumed our journey. I was supposed to be at work the next day and this bloke took his own sweet time to reach Chennai! Finally, I got off at Kathipara at around 8:30 AM. When he came to unload my travel bag from the loading bay, he asked for a tip. I gave him a mouthful and threatened to report to authorities. Overall, absolute shoddy service! That will be my last KPN journey ever! Now, it's either ABT Travels (awesome!) or Conti Isuzu. Infact, I've become a fan of Isuzu's engine driveability.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by coolclouds

Found Bharati Travels Bangalore-Cochin Merc service on Redbus.in

Have not traveled in this bus. The service is from Bangalore to Changanassery via Ernakulam, Alappuzha. I saw the bus last night at Madivala.. will try to get some pics.

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by swiftdiesel

I recently travelled in a KPN Volvo twin-axle from Coimbatore. From the very onset of the journey, the driver showed attitude. When I posed the usual question, "What time are we expected to reach Chennai?" His nonchalant arrogant reply was "Whenever it reaches, it's that time!" All through the journey this guy was grumbling at KPN management since he was the only driver/conductor/cleaner for the whole journey. Somewhere close to Mettur he stopped the bus at some remote location and took a jolly good nap. Probably, 30 minutes later or so, we resumed our journey. I was supposed to be at work the next day and this bloke took his own sweet time to reach Chennai! Finally, I got off at Kathipara at around 8:30 AM. When he came to unload my travel bag from the loading bay, he asked for a tip. I gave him a mouthful and threatened to report to authorities. Overall, absolute shoddy service! That will be my last KPN journey ever! Now, it's either ABT Travels (awesome!) or Conti Isuzu. Infact, I've become a fan of Isuzu's engine driveability.

KPN absolutely sucks. Both the drivers and their management, to the core!

Recently, I was a little late(5~10 mins) for their bus, due to a bottleneck/traffic jam just few metres before the bus-stand. I somehow located my bus, amidst a zillion other KPNs and went to the door and indicated to the driver to open the door. This happened for more than a minute or so, and to my horror he started moving the bus towards the exit, I ran behind for sometime and then gave up. He indicated with his left hand for me to move away, last! Even the guys from the roadside eatery shops signalled to him to stop, but he just moved away!

Point is, the moron was lazy to come to the passenger side and open the door, cos KPN saves on cleaner money too. There is only one staff from KPN in a bus, and that is the driver.

I immediately ran to their office, their blunt reply was that they cannot do anything if the driver does so. They were unwilling to
1) Refund my ticket money
2) Put me on the next bus to the same destination(which was departing in 10 mins)
3) Put me on any bus so that I could swap buses at a place which is 45 mins away (where all KPN buses stop)

A moron who prints tickets there made this statement, " I can't do anything to people who talk rules" [translated]

I lost a sum of 1k on the tickets + taxi/auto fare, was totally stressed up, lost one bag of my luggage, lots of mental agony and spoilt my day/following days.

I then wantedly booked the same bus, on the next alternate day, knowing that the same driver would come for the trip.

I questioned him on the same and this was his reply. "10s of people would wave at me to stop the bus, but I can't". Ironically, my ticket was in the moron's pocket, cos the same was booked at the destination and sent along with him. I am sure he took in a passenger on his way, and happily handed over my ticket to him, with the ticket money in his pocket.

As what damage had to happen had already happened, I didn't want to argue with that idiot. Moron showed an attitude as if he's taking me on a free ride. Left that low life to rot in hell, and went to occupy my seat.

To sum it up, KPN driver makes a grave mistake, KPN management does nothing to negate it, both of them showed attitude, yeah, the wrong ones.

My sincere advice to fellow BHPians, avoid KPN at all costs. ABT/ARC are the best down south. Even government buses seem better after this bitter experience of mine. Keep KPN as your last option for God's sake!

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by swiftdiesel

I recently travelled in a KPN Volvo twin-axle from Coimbatore...

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

KPN absolutely sucks. Both the drivers and their management, to the core!

Sorry to hear your experiences, swiftdiesel and DRIV3R. I've travelled in KPN only once, from Chennai to Coimbatore. The bus departed from CMBT at 23:45hrs in place of 21:30hrs. They were supposed to drop me at Gandhipuram at 05:00hrs, but it happened only after 08:00hrs. There was a driver and a cleaner, and they stopped for a good half an hour at some place before Avinashi, even though all passengers were complaining.

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

My sincere advice to fellow BHPians, avoid KPN at all costs. ABT/ARC are the best down south. Even government buses seem better after this bitter experience of mine. Keep KPN as your last option for God's sake!

Originally Posted by swiftdiesel

Overall, absolute shoddy service! That will be my last KPN journey ever! Now, it's either ABT Travels (awesome!) or Conti Isuzu. Infact, I've become a fan of Isuzu's engine driveability.

Never travel in KPN. They are worse than some of the corrupt govt employees. ABTX Travels, ARC Tours, Conti travels are the best options. I would suggest Parveen Travels too, if you are ready for a slower journey.

IMO, ARC and ABTX are the best available. Better creature comforts (water bottles, comfy seats) than Conti's Isuzu.

[Superleggera]

That is really shocking. Even the Govt. Bus driver would stop in such cases.
I have observed that the attitude of KPN support staff has gone from bad to worse. In last 30 days I have travelled from CBE to BLR twice and both times I have seen fights between the passengers and support staff.

Some time back in 2002, I was travelling from Chennai to Trichy by KPN and missed my bus due to heavy traffic. They were kind enough to put me in another bus without any extra cost. I think those days are gone…
If KPN continues on this attitude, I think there won’t be in the service for long..

[DRIV3R]

And ironically, the bus started 40 minutes late on the day I boarded the bus, to which the driver and the time keeper had no reply!

Plus, the bus had a breakdown at around 1.30 PM, and we resumed our journey at 3.30 PM. (Fuel pump air lock/ failure)

[ajman28]

The point here which I strongly feel is that kpn has got it into their head that they are the best out there and they are doing a great favour to the community with their service. The problem is that only the regular commuters know the actual standard of kpn vs the competition. I agree they were the best at one point of time, but no longer. The advantage which they have is their brand name and the big network. Anyway with the sort of service we find over the last 1-2 years, things are not going fine for kpn. My personal favourites are ARC & ABT too. The very last option is kpn.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by Superleggera

....
If KPN continues on this attitude, I think there won’t be in the service for long..

Originally Posted by ajman28

.... The problem is that only the regular commuters know the actual standard of kpn vs the competition. I agree they were the best at one point of time, but no longer....

Having watched this industry for more than a decade what I can comment is nothing like KPN will be out of market soon. Reason is the problems we are speaking are mostly 1-1 in some route with some drivers only. Of course this is more than sufficient to spread the word of mouth. But still its a long way to go.
The major plus of KPN is they were a early bird to connect majority of cities in tamilnadu with chennai and Blore. They were one of the early operator to bring Volvo's to Tier II cities like Pollachi,Dindugal, palani ever since 2003. But still as ajmal quoted they have not en-cashed this advantage and they are moving backward!

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by Ashley2

Reason is the problems we are speaking are mostly 1-1 in some route with some drivers only.

Bad experiences are always 1-1 only. KPN, as a whole is getting a lot of bad repute, of late. Websites like consumercomplaints.in, mouthshut are full of complaints on KPN.

But yes, as you said, there is a long way to go to change the opinion of the masses. KPN has a well established false brand image.

[sbkumar]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

Bad experiences are always 1-1 only. KPN, as a whole is getting a lot of bad repute, of late. Websites like consumercomplaints.in, mouthshut are full of complaints on KPN.

But yes, as you said, there is a long way to go to change the opinion of the masses. KPN has a well established false brand image.

It's not so much a question of changing opinion, it's just the lack of alternatives that still works in favor of them. Any guy who has traveled at least a couple of times in KPN would have seen/experienced their pathetic service. Once there are more options like ABT and ARC, more people would move on. I know some of my friends have switched to even SRS and Parveen for the cities to which they connect now.

KPN still has the largest fleet and coverage and they might continue to dominate for more time, but their control is coming down definitely.

The other day, the driver of the bus I was traveling refused to let a passenger board because there was no print out of the online ticket. This was at the Kovilpatty bye-pass KPN office. The passenger who must have been in some hurry thought that he could get the ticket printed from the KPN office as KPN allows that if you have the pin. The KPN office at that location had a problem with internet connection that day and they could not get the print out. The debate went for around 30 mins between the passenger, the driver and the local office agent and finally somehow agreed to take him aboard ! I almost lost my patience and was about give them an earful when the driver agreed to take him in. I am sure there is hardly a trip that they do without such issues.

[Torqy]

Need help!

I might be travelling Bangalore - Mumbai by bus. Which bus to take if i have to get down near Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon (E)?

Last time i took VRL (2.30 pm) and he dropped me in front of the Exhibition Center.
Do all buses go that way?

-- Torqy

[AkMar]

Any bus going to Borivali will drop you there. As far as KSRTC is concerned, the following services go to Borivali:
12.05, 17.01, 21.35

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by AkMar

Any bus going to Borivali will drop you there. As far as KSRTC is concerned, the following services go to Borivali:
12.05, 17.01, 21.35

Thanks Akmar. Can the KSTRC bus be boarded from Goregaon during return trip...or do i have to go to their specific pickup points?

-- Torqy