[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by vineethvazhayil

Just back from a return trip to Bangalore from Chennai. Wanted to avoid the inconvenience of heading to Koyambedu to get into a bus.
====
Overall, I may pick this route and bus options again for the convenience in pickup and drop points I get!

I have travelled by Seabird from Bangalore (Madiwala) to Chennai couple of times and have the same experience. Well driven with minimal honking and braking, and drops you at Central by 5 AM. But yeah, interiors badly need some cleaning and refurbishment !!

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by vinair

I have had a terrible experience travelling in one such a bus from Eranakulam to Bangalore once (was a last minute booking!). I in any which ways hate these hi-tech buses (love the simple built, non claustrophobic interiors in a bus) and in this one, I got the middle seat with no view of the outside view!! 9 - 10 hours was like going through hell!!

Originally Posted by speedsatya

How could this bus even pass the RTO safety rules?

I am happy that people explore all options to make more money.
But this was little too much.

There is no such RTO safety rules. During registration it will be done on a similar manner to sleeper and seater. But this option is not available now and can either be a sleeper or seater only.

[coolclouds]

Saw a KeSRTC Bangalore - Ernakulam Super Express today leaving Madiwala at 8.15pm. Looks like it is a new service. Any feedback on this service?

[urzdeepu]

Here is the brand new 9400 of Golden Travels running between Kannur and Tiruvanathapuram as a night service. The bus was just a week old and hardly clocked 3500kms. Just loved its livery a lot.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by urzdeepu

Here is the brand new 9400 of Golden Travels running between Kannur and Tiruvanathapuram as a night service. The bus was just a week old and hardly clocked 3500kms. Just loved its livery a lot.

As per their website, the bus leaves at 6.45, may be too early for a TVM service. The fare mentioned is Rs. 650. I doubt how many takers will be there for this service especially on weekdays.

[TKMCE]

I have to travel between Mumbai and Bangalore. Since I need to arrive very early in the morning, my first preferenece (KSRTC- Airavath) is ruled out as they do not arrive before 10 AM. From Redbus, the only choices seem to be between VRL and Neeta, both having Multi Axle services leaving arond 10 AM from Borivali and an early (6AM) arrival at Bangalore.

Any advice from anyone who has travlled this route on these operators??? I am a fairly frequent traveller on Neeta but only to Pune which I found OK but have not travelled on their long hauls. Only experirence with VRL was more than 10 years back on a Pune Bangalore NON AC bus - the only good thing I remember of that trip was they did not wait for bus to fill up nor did they hang around at intermediate towns .


By the way train is ruled out as the quickest is 24 hours!!! Plus I need the convenience to board from the W Exp highway. With recent troubles at " the five star airline" airfares are going sky high and this is a personal trip and while I am not expecting an experience like "fly the good times" or "fly like a Maharajah" , I would still like to have a comfortable journey for the 1000 bucks I pay to the bus guy.


Any feedback welcome.

[rk206]

I would recommend VRL over Neeta to Bangalore for the simple reason that
a. I have found VRL service to be better
b. VRL Timekeeping to be better

I think within Karnataka border, VRL is quite unmatched.

Cheers

[motorpsycho]

I regularly travel by VRL from Pune to Hubli and vice versa . Their service has been unmatched till date when it comes to timings and I have observed many times the cleaner is always at hand to help the elder passengers. I prefer VRL as they have multiple pick up and drop points.

MP

[gururaj r]

I travelled by Neeta a few months back. It took them a good 5 hours from Mumbai to Pune and thereafter the journey was ok including the timings. Stopover at Lonavala, change of crew, bedsheets etc happens after Pune. They stop at all places to pick people to Pune including the start of the expressway. I found this irritating at its best. Any time VRL would be good and dependable.

[TKMCE]

Thanks all, I will go for VRL. Checked with their agent at Andheri and they say I will reach by 6Am if I take their 11 AM trip from Andheri which seems fair enough since you escape the worst of BOM and BLR traffic at this time.

Neeta also have identical timings but even for BOM-Pune, their service at both at the Andheri office and inside the buses is nothing to write home about. Their buses are also hit and miss - some very good buses and some ramshacke ones as well.

[f1fan]

I would say, travel through VRL with your eyes closed. I and my family have travelled on the same route ( 12:00 Noon Sion - Bangalore) a lot of times. We have reached BLR on all occasions before 6:00 AM, the worst being 6:30 AM.
Noticed that they generally maintain time, dont take on any extra passengers i.e. if the bus is half empty, it will travel half empty and generally the buses are maintained nicely.

I have travelled with NEETA and Sharma a couple of times. On both occasions Neeta (MUM-BLR) and SHARMA (BLR - MUM), the buses were late by atleast one hour (Neeta was late by an hour and the SHARMA one was late by a good 2.5 hours late). Buses being late might be a one off case but and I have noticed that they took in a lot of additional passengers (the ones that just stand on the highway and hitch rides for a discounted price) en-route which I generally dis-like.

[coolclouds]

Did Bangalore - Chennai yesterday night. Booked on VRL sleeper 10.45 dep from Madiwala @ Rs. 400. Even Multi axle buses also were charging same fare, I opted for a berth and good sleep. Bus reached Madiwala at 10.30 and departed at 10.45 sharp. The bus was relatively old but the drive was very comfortable. Got down near Central at 5.15am.

The bus had two staff and I was able to sleep very comfortably in a bus after a long time. Thanks for a very responsible driving.

[libranof1987]

Did a Bangalore - Goa this weekend (sat night - tuesday morning).

Since the plan was last minute, we got reservations only on Paulo Travels. The booking was done thru' redbus and it mentioned that this particular bus (departing from Madiwala from 2130) had bad punctuality ratings. Went ahead nevertheless. The bus came around 2145 and left immediately after the passengers had boarded. Went around the town a l'il more and finally stopped for 45min at the Paulo Travels office for loading cargo/passenger list check etc.

It was the older version of B7R; the panel above the seats had air gaps, the lights were not coming on.
Blankets : charged at Rs. 70/-! (they were sold but of course who'd actually take home that lousy stuff)
Water : not available

There was no ACC in the bus; thru' out the journey, the a/c was full blast. Either that or was switched off completely when some passengers complained that it was too cold. Probably a trick to get passengers buy blankets.

The bus stopped twice in the night for ~30min at nondescript places. The driver was regularly at ~110 km/hr. We reached Panaji at 10am.

Decided the the return would be on KSRTC. The regular multi-axle bus was full so was booked on a special service Volvo B7R departing at 1829 from Panaji.

The bus departed by 1845 and the whole thing was comfortable - blankets, water, staff etc. KSRTC sure knows how to spoil you!

The overal journey was comfortable. The driver was within 90 km/hr for a good part of the journey. We reached Majestic at 7am.

Something that struck me : every time the bus was on a descent, the driver used the retarder brake along with regular braking. Each time he enabled the retarded brake, the Handbrake sign came on on the console. I don't think this is standard practice on a Volvo (have seen Sumo drivers constantly engage the Handbrake in Uttarakhand).

Bad maintenance?

[silversteed]

I travelled from Bangalore to Palakkad in the 1944-BLR-EKM KaSRTC Airavat Club Class (Merc Multi-axle), on Thursday. The bus left St.John's Hospital junction at 20:20hrs (late by 20min). It was maintained well. Clean seats, and a clean blanket. A water bottle was also provided. But the driver was lugging the engine all along. Because of this, the bus was sounding more like a Tata rattletrap. The max speed was 80kmph, and for the better part of the trip, it was hovering in the 60-70kmph range. The scheduled time of arrival at Palakkad was 0259hrs according to the website, but the bus reached Palakkad only at 04:15hrs. When I enquired with the crew, they said the usual time was around 4 o'clock, and the information in the website is wrong.

Originally Posted by coolclouds

The bus was relatively old but the drive was very comfortable ... very responsible driving.

+1 to that. My experiences with VRL have been good in that route

[jp1]

Last week i booked on VRL from Chennai to Bangalore on a multi axle Volvo starting from chennai around 3pm for Rs 400. Bus was very well maintained and had a comfortable journey. it reached Madiwala around 9.30pm with one halt somewhere after Vellore and it had a driver and an assistant.

Originally Posted by coolclouds

Did Bangalore - Chennai yesterday night. Booked on VRL sleeper 10.45 dep from Madiwala @ Rs. 400. Even Multi axle buses also were charging same fare, I opted for a berth and good sleep. Bus reached Madiwala at 10.30 and departed at 10.45 sharp. The bus was relatively old but the drive was very comfortable. Got down near Central at 5.15am.

The bus had two staff and I was able to sleep very comfortably in a bus after a long time. Thanks for a very responsible driving.