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Old 9th March 2010, 11:51   #346
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Originally Posted by f1fan View Post
That's really bad
In the Mangalore-Bangalore travelling thread too, there are reports of Volvo buses breaking down.
Looks like maintenance of Volvo buses by KSRTC is going down.

Feel sad for the little infant in the snap. Also looking at the model, this doesnt look to be too old an Volvo. Looks like one version old compared to the current series.
The KSRTC Airavat bus you see in those pics is, in fact, from the M'lore depot itself (M'lore-B'lore-Tirupathi) . So, it can be forgiven for breaking down, this once, i guess.

Seriously, the road conditions in the B'lore-M'lore stretch is taking a toll on these buses, the expenses on KSRTC, and most importantly, the passengers, with the concerned road-maintenance authorities preferring to look the other way. The Airavat's are so much in demand on this route (about 16 schedules per day, one way) that the division is faced with recurring expenses on maintenance. It's forced to operate on bad roads, due to the govt's mandate to provide affordable 9read, cost-effective ticket price-wise) travelling solution with the shortest distance. The alternative Madikeri route was kind on these buses, but the additional distance covered for the same ticket fare meant mounting losses to the Depot. Oh, this is such a complex situation and all we can do is helplessly watch.
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Old 9th March 2010, 15:01   #347
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Originally Posted by naveenroy View Post
True, the Mangalore-Bangalore KSRTC Volvo buses are the worst. Travelled last weekend to Mangalore and back. ..
I also saw a few KSRTC Volvo's they have put all the old Volvo's in Mangalore route. I think this is because of bad road condition in Shiradi ghat.
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Old 9th March 2010, 16:38   #348
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Unfortunately Volvo did not engineer any apathy control into their buses.

Its so sad to see such beautiful machines breaking down and being laid to waste.
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Old 9th March 2010, 16:51   #349
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This weekend I took the all new Sea Bird Isuzu bus which was launched few days back between Bangalore and Manipal to my home town Mangalore.

Here's the positive side of the experience:

The first impression of the bus was good. Its Interior was excellent and it had 2 LCD TV's. Seats are comfortable like any other luxury bus. The bus was clean, drivers were looking decent. Isuzu has a rear engine and the ground clearance is pretty good.

I had low expectations for the Isuzu bus since it was Swaraj Mazda tie up, but the bus exceeded my expectations. Based on my earlier travel experience in most of the Luxury coaches like Mercedes, Volvo , Kinglong, Volvo multi axel and Luxury Tata and AL buses. Isuzu was on par with Volvo & Mercedes on many aspects.

I was surprised to see the speed it was doing. The bus was easily going more than 100 KMS. It has a amazing suspension which came as a surprise. Even Volvo doesn’t have such good suspension. The bus proved itself in the horrible Shiradi ghat road. The bus looks strong and the noise level and vibration level inside the bus is much lower. The bus was so comfortable that many people inside the bus were snoring. Pickup is a bit lower compared to Volvo and Merc. But Braking and power steering were also excellent. Don’t know how much it is priced but a real worth buy for bus owners.

The bus left at 11.15PM and reached Mangalore at 7.15 AM with more than 1 hour break. Almost a 7 Hours drive. Reason for long break will tell below.

Now comes the Negative side of the experience:

The bus was supposed to start from Ghandinagar at 10.45 PM but it started only at 11.15 PM. Reason the bus came late from Chennai and the same bus was routed to Mangalore. Though all passengers were there the bus started late since the driver didn’t had a place to sleep and was arguing with the office staff for allotting his seat to passengers. There were double drivers and the last row was allotted to driver to sleep at last. After that the agent shifted the last row passenger to other seats. It reached Rajainagar at 11.30 and again the other agent had allotted the last row seats to passengers. The driver got fed up and refused to travel, he said he can’t risk passengers life and had a heated argument with the agent. And guess what drivers didn’t even had dinner!!! and now he didn’t had a place to sleep.

The driver took his bag and got off the bus. Later however after the owner spoke to the driver, and he agreed to come inside the bus. The other driver was a old man in his 50's and he also told the agent that he can’t drive all alone till Manipal. And even more worse the same bus had to leave Manipal again at 10.00AM on its journey back. It’s really sad to see how the management was exploiting the poor drivers. After all they are also humans and need good rest and proper food. They are risking the life of passengers and drivers by making them work like this. So the bus left Bangalore at 11.45 PM once the other driver came back.

The bus took the Magadi road to reach Kunigal. On the way they were bringing down a tree for road widening in Magadi road again some 15 mins lost. After some time the old driver was waking up the cleaner, but instead we all woke up. The driver said he was feeling sleepy and he told the cleaner to wake up the other driver. But the other driver refused since he didn’t even had dinner and it was 2.00AM.

Hearing this my heart beat doubled. Since the driver told Kamath hotel was another 80Kms away. Last week one of my relative met with a accident while he was travelling in Manjunath Roadlines where the driver felt sleepy and it went off road. I didn’t get sleep till it reached Kamath hotel at 3.00AM. All the Mangalore buses had gone and ours was the last bus to leave at 3.30AM.

After that the other driver took over the bus. He over took 2 Volvo’s and he was zooming like a airplane and it reached Siradi ghat at 4.30AM and by 5.30AM the bus had covered the horrible ghat. The driver took all the frustration on the bus I feel. The suspension was good so the bus came easily down on the horrible road. By 7.15AM it reached Mangalore.

Overall the Isuzu bus is very good, but Sea Bird Management is just horrible who are least bothered on passenger and driver safety.

Pics of Isuzu bus are in my Album below

Picasa Web Albums - Kadri007 - India Bus
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Old 9th March 2010, 17:16   #350
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teamveevee View Post
We know our driving conditions, our drivers habits, why then these STC go for Volvos? Is not the maintenance of Volvos done by Volvo itself.
By the way, i have seen many Volvo breakdowns in Bombay-Pune expressway also. It is a common sight these days i guess.
Its the same story on the Mumbai-Pune route. Neeta and other bus providers have really old buses ( i.e. some of them are first gen Volvo buses) which from the looks of it are not even maintained properly.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dkamath View Post
The KSRTC Airavat bus you see in those pics is, in fact, from the M'lore depot itself (M'lore-B'lore-Tirupathi) . So, it can be forgiven for breaking down, this once, i guess.

Seriously, the road conditions in the B'lore-M'lore stretch is taking a toll on these buses, the expenses on KSRTC, and most importantly, the passengers, with the concerned road-maintenance authorities preferring to look the other way. The Airavat's are so much in demand on this route (about 16 schedules per day, one way) that the division is faced with recurring expenses on maintenance. It's forced to operate on bad roads, due to the govt's mandate to provide affordable 9read, cost-effective ticket price-wise) travelling solution with the shortest distance. The alternative Madikeri route was kind on these buses, but the additional distance covered for the same ticket fare meant mounting losses to the Depot. Oh, this is such a complex situation and all we can do is helplessly watch.
Its really sad to see the plight of these majestic beasts. If KSTRC buys Volvo's in hordes, they better take good care of it.
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Old 9th March 2010, 17:58   #351
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Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth View Post
The service between Villupuram and Chennai is once every 2 hours. The service apparently took 3 hours to reach Koyambedu from Villupuram.
Attachment 281498
Dinamani has carried the story on the Volvo service between Vellore & Hosur from Chennai. So its certain these buses are plying, Chennai Vellore service is once in 2 hours again.
Attachment 281497
Traveled on these buses to Vellore once and Tindivanam once. It was really bad. These drivers keep the A/c compressor switched off for more than half of the time. The blower runs all the time. While coming from Vellore they dont come until Kathipara. They go via Maduravoyal to Koyambedu. This is really inconvenient. I would never travel in these buses again. Its so stuffythat a sunny Chennai afternoon weather seems better option than being inside one of these buses.
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Old 9th March 2010, 19:55   #352
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Originally Posted by Archish View Post
Traveled on these buses to Vellore once and Tindivanam once.
How much was the cost?
I am still wondering why these Intra City buses are plying between cities that too upto 160 kms. Many features like Auto Transmissions, Rear Camera etc are provided keeping in mind the Intra City application. But they are now in the list of " Not so useful feature list".

BTW, TNSTC - Coimbatore division is operating FE SLF buses between Coimbatore - Palani (104 kms),Coimbatore - Pollachi (40kms).
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Old 11th March 2010, 11:55   #353
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Hi
Can anyone help me with the best A/c-Non A/c service (arriving Bangalore by about 6-7am) between Hyderabad and Bangalore pls?
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Old 11th March 2010, 12:18   #354
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Try out Sharma Volvo Multi Axel. Their service is good.
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Old 11th March 2010, 13:21   #355
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Originally Posted by kadri007 View Post
Try out Sharma Volvo Multi Axel. Their service is good.
I tried it online but the service is full on 16th :(
Any other operator?
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Old 11th March 2010, 14:22   #356
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Originally Posted by coolclouds View Post
I tried it online but the service is full on 16th :(
Any other operator?
I have a few links of bus operators in my site, just try if you can get something.

Bus (Yeshwanth Live)
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Old 11th March 2010, 16:24   #357
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Originally Posted by coolclouds View Post
Hi
Can anyone help me with the best A/c-Non A/c service (arriving Bangalore by about 6-7am) between Hyderabad and Bangalore pls?
Try Kesineni travels. I've heard some good reviews from a friend who used to travel regularly.
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Old 11th March 2010, 16:44   #358
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Originally Posted by kadri007 View Post
I also saw a few KSRTC Volvo's they have put all the old Volvo's in Mangalore route. I think this is because of bad road condition in Shiradi ghat.
That's correct. Sometime last year, i saw all brand new Airavat's to M'lore at the Majestic bust terminal (all registered with the FA-85XX series). My happiness was short lived. Later realized that it was probably their first trip to M'lore, and almost all of them have been put into service into the Pune, Mumbai routes, and got back the old ones from these routes, in return, to the B'lore route.
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Old 12th March 2010, 14:28   #359
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This is for anyone traveling between goa-bangalore , avoid Seabird travels if you can - take the KSRTC rajhamsa/airavath or the kadamba bus (these are usually available last minute and their service is really good)!

They are really unprofessional and their employees (in the bangalore office) are very rude to talk to. The following are my observations (with respect to their bangalore gandhinagar office):
  1. The guy at the parcel counters shout rudely at you in kannada if you ask him _anything_ in hindi/english - didnt try speaking to him in kannada as i don't know to speak proper kannada!
  2. The Conductor(?) who usually appears to be <20 years of age speaks very rudely and cannot speak hindi/english properly
  3. The staff mostly speaks very rudely to passengers as if they're doing a big favor for you !
  4. They make more money from running the parcel service - they overload the buses with lots of luggage - so much that on one occasion the leaf spring mounting on the chassis broke!
  5. They are never on time - they take an eternity to load and unload their "parcels" at every major stop.
  6. If you are using their courier service - god save you- "fragile" and "handle with care" stickers are not honored. you package will be dropped from the roof of the bus to the road below - i saw them drop a box of bottles with some liquid which had huge "fragile glass" stickers on it !
  7. I've seen drivers yelling at passengers when they come a minute late after the dinner break - but they'll waste an hour or so at margao bus stand unloading their "cargo"
Overall pathetic travel agency its a frustrating experience travelling on a seabird bus, this was the last straw that did it for me :
- they actually offloaded some foreign tourists(who bought the tickets for the same bus!) and told them to go by the next bus, in order to adjust some local guys who were booked from some travel agency !

Overall pathetic service and horrible staff - I would not travel again through this travel agency nor would ever recoommend them.

Last edited by Mpower : 17th March 2010 at 21:27.
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Old 12th March 2010, 14:41   #360
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Originally Posted by techn0l0gist View Post
Overall pathetic service and horrible staff - I would not travel again through this travel agency nor would ever recoommend them.
Aww.. sucks man. Thats one horrible group of people.

I remember my friend too travelling by this bus had an argument with the driver and they dropped him off in Hubli at 7 am in the morning.

My friend though got back to Panjim and hammered the driver/cleaner/ticketing agent in Panaji. A police complaint was filed and all three were cooling their heels in the police station.

You should have complained when you got to Goa.

These are apne galli mein sher people, they will try all these stunts when in Karnataka. Unfortunately you wont get any support in Bangalore to deal with these scum.
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