Re: Intercity Bus travel reviews Did a quick trip to Bangalore over the last weekend of September. Outward journey on Thursday(September 27th) night was by a Bharathi Multi Axle Volvo, and the return was on the 30th by a VRL Volvo.
I had to stay at Bommanahalli, so at Rs 700/- and a drop at Bommanahalli (Bharati's last stop is at their Singasandra garage) , Bharati's multi - axle service worked out just fine. The boarding point was at Bharathi's Afzal - Gunj office at 10:00 pm. Apparently, Bharathi's multi-axle services to Chennai & Bangalore depart at almost the same time - there was a mix of Chennai & Bangalore bound PAX waiting at the office.
By around 10:05 pm, both the buses pulled up one after the other. It being a Thursday evening, there were hardly 10 people on board. Soon after I was seated, a chap came around selling chips and cold water. I declined, thinking that I would be served cold water on board. Well, bad luck - for Bharathi does not supply water on board - so I had to be content with a few sips of water from a co-passenger's bottle.
There was a humongous amount of parcel loading near Aram-Ghar junction - and after a long drawn out discussion between the crew and the parcel loaders over rates, we set out again. The next stop was near ORR junction, for a "bio-break" adjacent to the highway. Guess, Bharathi cares two hoots about its lady passengers otherwise it wouldn't have stopped along the highway. The crew promptly declared that the bus would run "non-stop' to Bangalore - that means the dinner break at Jadcherla or elsewhere, was missing.
The insipid Telugu Movie played on till about an hour after which the CD got stuck - most of the PAX had dozen off by then.
Got up in the morning to find out that we had reached Hebbal Junction - not bad, timings were being maintained. We then pulled over near Ananda Rao circle, where all the parcels were unloaded. Most of the PAX were headed towards Madiwala and beyond - very few of them had gotten off near Hebbal and Ananda Rao Circle.
After a 20 minute halt, we again set out towards Shantinagar side. At a hotel, we again halted for about 15 minutes as the crew had to pick up lots of breakfast for the staffers back at the garage - may be. We set out, and after a drop at Madiwala, I was dropped off near Bommanahalli bus stand by around 07:45 am.
The return journey was by a VRL Isuzu scheduled to depart Madiwala on a Sunday at 09:25 pm. Somewhere around 03:30 pm, I get a call from VRL saying that the 09:25 Isuzu was cancelled an I was being accommodated in their 08:45 pm Volvo service from Madiwala.
Fine, I reach Madiwala by 08: 30 pm - folks inside the VRL office were engrossed in the India Pak T20 match going on. The guy manning the counter was quite harried though - an he kept on asking me the bus service number, which I did not have. RedBus just sends you an SMS containing the PNR number, not the bus service number. Guess this is a gap that Red Bus should identify and correct.
Anyways, my VRL Volvo B7R pulled in on dot at 08:45 pm. The bus looked to be one of the earlier B7Rs, and had clearly seen a lot of action. The interiors were drab and dull looking and gave an impression that I was traveling inside a Government bus. The attitude of the staff was no better either - loads of attitude problems especially amongst the checking staff, and I felt amongst VRL, in general - the attitude of KSRTC staffers seemed much better in comparison. And by the way, VRL also does not provide water on board, so you would need to carry water.
Anyways, we left at around 09:00 pm and drove down to VRL's bus terminal at Ananda Rao Circle - a separate bus terminal for a private operator - looks ed very impressive to me. We pulled into one of the bays, and the driver promptly switches of the AC and the engine. Not quite sure how much VRL was saving by switching off the AC with PAX seated inside - definitely irresponsible.
At around 10:00 pm with over 80 % occupancy, we pulled off from the bus terminal, and made regular stops at Hebbal and Yelahanka, picking up booked PAX. One thing conspicuous by its absence, was parcel loading. Every operator (KSRTC and APSRTC included) did stop for parcels being loaded, but not VRL. Guess their logistics division takes care of all that.
We stop for dinner at someplace after Chikkaballapura, and giving us company was a Raichur bound Airavath, two buses from Jabbar ( A multi-axle, and a regular 2 * 2) , a Hyderabad bound KSRTC A/C sleeper, and an Akbar Volvo bus. Started after about 20 minutes, and I slept off.
All through the night, the guy was literally flooring the pedal - very aggressive driving, inspite of inclement conditions around - felt as if I was in a B9R.
After dropping a PAX near Aram Ghar junction the guy took the PVNR expressway, and I finally got off near Mehdipatnam by around 06;45 am and a took a bus home.
Not quite satisfied with both Bharathi and VRL - VRL in particular- they can do much better.
Last edited by PVS : 8th October 2012 at 23:12.
Reason: Corrected Spelling Mistakes
|