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Originally Posted by coolclouds Thanks for this info TKMCE & Vineeth. I was under an impression that KeSRTC had only three B7Rs and some LF buses.
I traveled in white lightening express bus from Ernakulam to Trivandrum few times and they were installed with speed governor but never seen any Volvo those days.
Can you please share more information on the type of buses they had on these routes? |
Here goes my reminiscences about KeSRTC.
Unlike Kochi and Kozhikode where the private buses ruled as far as city service buses wee concerned, Trivandrum was for long (atleast into the 1980s) a nationalised route with regard to city services, When I was a kid the minimum fare was 20 Ps and 5 paisa was legal tender! Most of the trips were 20 , 30 or 40 Ps. There were upto 12 double deckers (the old routmaster ones) with popular routes being to Shangumugham and Sasthamangalam in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the city service buses were old "hand me down" ex FP and LSFP service buses. For long there were only two depots for city service- the Trivandrum City depot at East Fort and Pappanamcode. Later Vikas Bhavan was stated and even later Peroorkada depot was setup.
The suburban and long distance buses started from the Trivandrum Central depot which is still in the same place opposite the Trivandrum Central Railway station at Thampanoor. In the 70s and early 1980s most of the buses were "ordinary" services, and there were Fast Passenger (FP) and Limited Stop Fast Passenger (LSFP) buses. The upper class travel consisted of quite a few "Express" buses - the green coloured ones - but at that time they did not allow standees. There were a few Deluxe services to places like Palakkad and Kannur and the top of the line was a "Terraplane" service and a "non stop express" service betwen Trivandrum and Ernakulam. No computerisation then, advance reservations were all done the manual way (like the railways as well then) with tickets written in long hand against pre -designated quotas! There was also the coupon system for alloting vacant seats shortly before the time of departure.
Trivandrum even from the 1970s had late night services on the NH 47 and MC Road . The popular long distance routes at that time included the 5 AM Trivandrum Sulthan Battery Express via Kottayam and the 7 AM Trivandrum Payannur Express via Ernakulam. There was also an an early morning Trivandrum Moothakunnam ferry express which used to go via Fort Kochi and crossed over to Vypin on the Junkar (Car ferry). This service was extended to Kodungallur after the bridge at Moothakunnam was complete. In the 1980s an express service to Kasargode was added as well. The earliest bus on the Punalur Pathanamthitta route was the 5 AM FP to Moozhiyar via Ayoor, Anchal, Punalur, Pathanamthitta, Seetathode route.
With regard to inter state services at that time it was TTC (the current SETC) which ruled the roost especally in TVM. They had services every two hours to Chennai from 12 Noon right till 9 PM. But back to KeSRTC, there were a few Ernakulam Bangalore express services including one in the morning and 3-4 Trivandrum Kanyakumari services as well. Two of the latter services were extended to Ernakulam, one each through NH 47 and MC Road.
There was a short lived Super Deluxe service in the late 80s/early 90s from Ernakulam to Chennai. The bus and crew were of the Palakkad depot. The Changanacherry Velankanni service which started around the same time is one of the longest running inter state long distance routes of KeSRTC along with Ernakulam Bangalore.
Back to "Lightning Express", this route was started around 1990 or so. I remember ths because when the Alappuzha Kayamkulam rail line became open to traffic in 1992 this bus ran the risk of getting caught at a crossing near Vandanam in Alleppy as the approach road to the rail over bridge was not completed on time (same was the case on the Athani-Kochi airport road initially- in the very early days you got stuck at the level cross and many missed the flight). The bus used to depart Trivandrum around at 6 AM to reach Ernakulam around 10.30 , start back at 4.30 PM and reach by 9 PM. Service was quite popular especially with Trivandrum based advocates going to attend the high court in Ernakulam. The competition was Venad Express (no Janshatabdi then) which left at 5AM and took the long way around via Kottayam. The Lightning express was later extended to Trichur.
"Super Fast" services if I remember were introduced in the 1980s. Most of the longer trips were between Trivandrum and Trichur/Palghat via both NH47 and MC road. At that time there were not too many depots or sub depots. Between Trivandrum and Trichur on the NH 47 were Attingal, Kollam, Kaurnagapally, Kayamkulam, Harippad, Alappuzha, Cherthala , Ernakulam, Aluva, Anagmaly and Chalakkudi.
On the MC road between Trivandrum and Angamaly wre Kilimanoor, Kottarakkara, Adoor, Pandalam, Chengannur, Thiruvalla, Changanacherry, Kottayam, Moovatuupzha and Perumbavoor.
At that time the SFs and Express buses only used to stop at these depots so you didnt have these inumerable stop and start journeys at literally every street corner which is happening today especially in the case of Super Fasts. People who had to travel to enroute points used to take the FPs or LSFPs (there were plenty on routes like Trivandrum Kottayam and Trivandrum Kollam), so journey was much quicker.
My apologies for the long discourse but not many know about the time when KeSRTC did provide good service on both long and short distance routes. Their biggest failure was failing to catch up with the times in terms of upgrading equipment and also succumbing to political pressure and giving stoppages for Super Fast buses and Express at sub depots and operarting centres every where and a lot of those were opened in recent times. These stoppages increased journey times and drove away long distance passengers especially on interstate services to private operators.