[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

Went to Hyderabad on Friday by the SRM Multi Axle. The bus had only 6 passengers, despite that the bus left after a delay of about 30 minutes at Chennai Koyambedu, the delay was on account of a passenger who was insistent on booking luggage along with him. The drivers did not want to carry luggage as the feared issues at the Checkpost. Finally the passenger was shifted onto Bharathi with his luggage.

By sheer coincidence we were stopped by the Sales tax team who let us off after realizing the bus carried almost nothing in terms of passengers & luggage. While going I was feeling the ride was not very comfortable, I thought the road condition was bad. In the morning the driver was wanting to take it to the service center because he felt the bus was wobbling a bit and jumping, good to hear the driver thinking pro actively about checking problems rather than go back to Chennai and inform his office about it. I feel SRM is a good option now on the Chennai - Hyderabad and Chennai - Vizag routes. Now for the best part at Rs.775/- for Chennai - Hyderabad SRM is the lowest among Multi Axle rates.

With KPN & SRM now running Multi Axles on the Chennai - Hyderabad route, Parveen getting ready to introduce the first Mercedes Multi Axle on the route shortly, this sector is seeing some much needed competition to churn things around.

SRM is one of the preferred operator in South, specially focusing on customers than luggage. They are too good in TVM-Blr route as well.

[lurker]

Just got news that Kallada Volvo B9R (Ktym-BGL) hit a tanker lorry yesterday and all passengers in that Kallada were killed. Can anyone confirm this ?

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by coolclouds

SRM is one of the preferred operator in South, specially focusing on customers than luggage. They are too good in TVM-Blr route as well.

Very true, it is quite an irony that SRM is one of the operators for whom this is not the mainstay, compare this with KPN who might perish if they do not retain control over the business considering they have very few other business to sustain them.

Incidentally I noticed that the drivers of SRM where drinking water mixed with Glucose, a first time for me. Has anyone else noticed something similar? The team which drove the SRM bus to Hyderabad including the cleaner were quite serious about the job which they do.

I had mentioned about their online site showing only 28 tickets available for the onward journey and none for the return journey quite contrary to the actual situation they immediately took up with their office to check if someone was blocking the tickets unnecessarily. Compare this to the drivers of KPN who are least bothered of what was happening around them.

May be the SRM drivers are better cared off I suppose.

Originally Posted by lurker

Just got news that Kallada Volvo B9R (Ktym-BGL) hit a tanker lorry yesterday and all passengers in that Kallada were killed. Can anyone confirm this ?

Kalaignar News says the drivers of both the vehicles were burnt to death while 18 are injured not sure how badly they are injured, the accident they are mentioning has happened in Coimbatore bypass.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

Kalaignar News says the drivers of both the vehicles were burnt to death while 18 are injured not sure how badly they are injured, the accident they are mentioning has happened in Coimbatore bypass.

As per news, drivers of both vehicles died in this accident. They mentioned that the bus was from Pathanamthitta.

[kavu75]

Originally Posted by lurker

Just got news that Kallada Volvo B9R (Ktym-BGL) hit a tanker lorry yesterday and all passengers in that Kallada were killed. Can anyone confirm this ?

Some wrong news are spreading about the causality.
Yeah, there was an accident happened to Kallada bus near Coimbatore(Bus from Pathanamthitta to Bangalore). Both the lorry and bus catches the fire
Bus driver and one more person died in the accident. All the passengers are escaped before fire spreads. I heard this in Asianet news today morning.

[pypkmsrikanth]

May the souls of the two drivers rest in peace. I hope it is not one more case of the B9R driver taking it easy with cruise control mode.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

I hope it is not one more case of the B9R driver taking it easy with cruise control mode.

Let it not be!

Considering the straight stretches of L&T highway, one of the driver may have made a terrible mistake to get into this accident.

Edit: Was it a Kallada group or Suresh Kallada bus?

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by MaserQ

I have since written to redbus, asking them for a refund. Let us see what comes of it.

Originally Posted by coolclouds

I don't know how easy is to get a refund from Redbus in such situation.

redBus is messing up things many times these days. I had an experience of having to take another bus, because redBus did not confirm my booking with the operator. The operator contact person somehow arranged a similarly priced berth in a sleeper bus from another operator, in place of the Isuzu bus I'd booked. The refund took me about 2 weeks time, after calls to their customer support no (39412345) every day, and heated mails every alternate day.

EDIT:
I travelled to Chennai from Bangalore by a Roadlink India Volvo 9400 on 1st September, for Rs.380. The bus departed from Madiwala at 23:15hrs, after a delay of 15min, and reached Guindy at 03:55hrs - 3 hours and 40min, one of the shortest travel times. Because of such a short travel time, I purposefully avoided Roadlink India for my return trip, and took a Jahan National Travels non-AC bus (2+1), that left Chennai Central at 22:44hrs (a delay of 14min) and dropped me at Madiwala at 05:35hrs - ~7 hours of continuous sleep ;-)

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by silversteed

EDIT:
I travelled to Chennai from Bangalore by a Roadlink India Volvo 9400 on 1st September, for Rs.380. The bus departed from Madiwala at 23:15hrs, after a delay of 15min, and reached Guindy at 03:55hrs - 3 hours and 40min, one of the shortest travel times.

360 kms in 3.4hrs? you meant 4hrs 40mins(15-11=4 ) Was he doing 90kmph average? He must have maxxed out many a times in order to get a 100kmph average. Did you not find his driving rash? he cannot have driven it sanely.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

360 kms in 3.4hrs? you meant 4hrs 40mins(15-11=4)

Yes, that was an oversight - a typo. Thanks for correcting [quote]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

Was he doing 90kmph average? He must have maxxed out many a times in order to get a 100kmph average. Did you not find his driving rash? he cannot have driven it sanely.

I was dead (almost, after a tiring day) for the better portion of the trip. Didn't find the driving rash, though I observed (for whatever period i was awake) that the bus was driven on the left lane, and really fast.

[speedsatya]

Isnt the LT road a 4 lane highway with dividers in between !! The fact that both drivers were charred indicates a head on crash.

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by silversteed

I travelled to Chennai from Bangalore by a Roadlink India Volvo 9400 on 1st September, for Rs.380. The bus departed from Madiwala at 23:15hrs, after a delay of 15min, and reached Guindy at 03:55hrs - 3 hours and 40min, one of the shortest travel times. Because of such a short travel time, I purposefully avoided Roadlink India for my return trip, and took a Jahan National Travels non-AC bus (2+1), that left Chennai Central at 22:44hrs (a delay of 14min) and dropped me at Madiwala at 05:35hrs - ~7 hours of continuous sleep ;-)

During my trip to Bangalore last month I had booked my return trip by Bangalore mail. The ticket was RAC till the charts were prepared. The train started late and by the time the TTE confirmed my berth after the stoppage at Bangalore Cant. station it was beyond 11.30 PM. Ended up sleeping sometime after that only to be woken up by the attendant at 4:15 in the morning informing us the train has already reached Chennai Central.

Overnight travel to Bangalore is becoming an issue because you start late and reach very early irrespective of the mode of travel.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

Isnt the LT road a 4 lane highway with dividers in between !! The fact that both drivers were charred indicates a head on crash.

This L&T highway is a two lane road without divider.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

Isnt the LT road a 4 lane highway with dividers in between !! The fact that both drivers were charred indicates a head on crash.

Originally Posted by coolclouds

This L&T highway is a two lane road without divider.

Without divider, and a real good surface. This is in stark contrast to the roads before and after the toll road, so most drivers simply go pedal to metal on this stretch, making it very dangerous.

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

Overnight travel to Bangalore is becoming an issue because you start late and reach very early irrespective of the mode of travel.

Not entirely true, because some bus operators simply delay it, by taking extended breaks, or, for loading and unloading parcel, waiting at boarding points, etc. One example is Sangita travels.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Without divider, and a real good surface. This is in stark contrast to the roads before and after the toll road, so most drivers simply go pedal to metal on this stretch, making it very dangerous.

Though the road is in good shape, its an empty stretch without adequate lighting for night travel. Also the reflectors/marks do not exist at several places.