[binaiks]

Originally Posted by CGB

They didnt have better seats. They are the same seats found in MTC buses. Travelling in them gives more saddle sore than my D390 Upright seating position and hard seats makes me think i'm sitting in a wooden stool. Only convenience is AC.

Comfort is surely subjective. But the seats in the Volvos that TNSTC used were similar to the ones TNSTC uses in their long distance buses. They were far more comfortable than the FRP seats used in MTC buses.

[bhaskar.guru]

Originally Posted by CGB

Yes those same JNNURM Volvo 8400's. Those services are now from chennai-vellore, chennai-pondy, chennai-kanchipuram

Also, I guess TNSTC is the only transport corporation in the entire south India which doesn't have any Volvo's for the inter-city travel apart from the above mentioned JNNURM Volvo city buses being used. Speed limiter set to 80kmph takes so much time for the buses going very south bound into the state, and people are now opting for private operators.



True. And Tamil Nadu is the only state in south india which doesn't even have ONE volve in their fleet for intercity travel. They must learn from the adjoining states.

I can imagine the plight of people sitting on those seats in these buses and travelling for a long time from Chennai to the mentioned places. Too cumbersome I assume.

And it is the only state which doesn't have it's bus service connecting the adjoining state capitals to its capital, with the exception of Blr of course.

Their website sucks big time.

Guess all the govt money goes into the freebies for the vote bank than to do a course correction in these trivial matters.

Originally Posted by CGB

They didnt have better seats. They are the same seats found in MTC buses. Travelling in them gives more saddle sore than my D390 Upright seating position and hard seats makes me think i'm sitting in a wooden stool. Only convenience is AC.

I don't think they would have those plastic seats, I've seen them with the cushioned single seats like you have in the mofussil luxury buses or in the new Volvos.

[tharian]

Saw this Isuzu parked below the metro station on Old Madras road.
Not sure if had broken down.

[bhaskar.guru]

Originally Posted by tharian

Saw this Isuzu parked below the metro station on Old Madras road.
Not sure if had broken down.

Is this in Bangalore?

[tharian]

Originally Posted by bhaskar.guru

Is this in Bangalore?

Yes,. Bangalore registered as well. No markings regarding which bus company it is.
Most probably a bus that runs from Chennai or Tirupati.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Attachment 1533804

Took the same bus last weekend and the distance was covered in just 6hours and 15 minutes thanks to a rockstar driver.

On my return leg , I tried a new non AC service of SETC called Rockfort Rider.

Despite traffic issues after Singaperumalkoil , this Ashok Leyland steed did Trichy- Chennai CMBT in just about 5hrs 56 minutes with an entry into Vilupuram.The driver was full on "josh" right from the start and the ride did feel truly express.

This service has just been started and I hope it doesn't fade into obscurity due to poor patronage.

There is a similar jet service called Malligai to Madurai on route A137

[MadiMaama]

This is a review of the journey I undertook yesterday from Hyderabad to Bangalore.

The Independence Day weekend meant I could go home and I booked a TSRTC Garuda Plus bus that would leave from MGBS at 9pm. The fare was around 1300. I reached the platform by 8 and saw the Khammam Bangalore service which was a Volvo B11R. On the adjacent platforms were the Bangalore bound Diamond Class Airavata Scania coach and the Puttaparthi bound APSRTC semi Luxury bus. I waited till 8:45 for the bus to pull in from Neredmet and I saw 2 more TSRTC Garuda Plus from BHEL Bangalore and one more Hyderabad Bangalore service move out, both B11Rs. Also a Mercedes Airavata Club Class and two Ambari buses for Bangalore also left. I was expecting a Volvo again but to my pleasant surprise, it was a Scania Metro link.

The luggage was put in the boot and I went to my seat 5W. The blankets were already on the seat and it was clean, and soft. At 9:05pm we left MGBS a few minutes after the BHEL Bangalore bus left. We got caught in a traffic jam at the bus station itself due to the extra buses running for the Krishna Pushkaram. My bus had around 15 passengers who had booked in advance and another 5 people boarded to Kurnool. It was a similar story in all buses. We left the city by 22:30 and made pace. At 23:15, a break was taken and then it was a smooth run till Bangalore. I had a good sleep and at 5:30, I woke up to find that we were near KIAL. The bus reached KBS by 6:30

The drivers were smooth, no honking and did a stellar job. The bus was good, clean and I felt a tad better than the Volvo. The drivers managed to overtake the Khammam Bangalore service as well though we left an hour later. The bus then moved to Electronic City for its final destination while I boarded a 221D BMTC Suvarna colored green bus to reach home by 7:15

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Even back in my college days, Trichy-Madras used to take 6-6.5 hrs (2100 Central bus stand - 0330 at Teynampet), this was when Mamandur-Irumbuliyur was the only 4-laned section. But then, the city traffic was non existent then. TVLS (which I frequented then) started at Chintadripet at 2000 and past Tambaram by 2100 inspite of stops.

But this was in days when SETC were not speed locked nor was there this much traffic. Last year T. Nagar-Paranur took a full 2 hrs starting at 1545, it was 70 mins when I did in 2011.

I travelled plenty of times during the mid 80's from Tuticorin to Chennai. Those were the prime days of Tiruvalluvar (TTC) - present day SETC, which is not even a shadow of it's previous iteration. The buses were a joy to ride, giving tough competition to the omnibuses. In fact we booked by omnibus only if no seats were available by TTC!

There were no four lane roads those days and the buses were not speed limited. I used to board at 5.30 PM at either end, and reached the destination sharp at 5.30 AM the next day.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by MadiMaama

... I reached the platform by 8 and saw the Khammam Bangalore service which was a Volvo B11R. On the adjacent platforms were the Bangalore bound Diamond Class Airavata Scania coach and the Puttaparthi bound APSRTC semi Luxury bus. I waited till 8:45 for the bus to pull in from Neredmet and I saw 2 more TSRTC Garuda Plus from BHEL Bangalore and one more Hyderabad Bangalore service move out, both B11Rs. Also a Mercedes Airavata Club Class and two Ambari buses for Bangalore also left. I was expecting a Volvo again but to my pleasant surprise, it was a Scania Metro link.

AFAIK, Khammam and BHEL buses are not B11Rs. They are all B9Rs.

[vivekkp]

This is regarding the travel i undertook from Bangalore to Kumta and back on August 12'th. Took Shreekumar travels Non AC sleeper for Bangalore - Kumta. Bus was good and comfy. The departure time from Gandhinagar was 8.15 PM but the traffic police had blocked entry to all private buses to majestic from Aug 11th - 15'th on account of extended weekend. Shreekumar travels had called us and told much earlier itself that the boarding point would be Rajajinagar metro station instead. They took the Bangalore-Tumkur-Haveri-Sirsi-Kumta route. The bus was right on time and reached Kumta at morning 5.30. Stopped for dinner at some Veg restaurant in Tumkur at around 10.30. The washrooms were clean.

The return journey was also in Shreekumar travels AC sleeper bus. Left Kumta right on time at 9.30 PM and reached Yeshwanthpur at morning 6. As it was a AC service they provided with blankets which were clean. Took the same route while coming back also. Never felt the bus was over speeding or honking unnecessarily. Also while returning the bus didnt stop anywhere for dinner. Very happy with the quality of the bus and punctuality.

[rdeivan]

Originally Posted by vigsom

I believe the same route , now codenamed "Nanjil" targets Chennai-Nagercoil in less than12 hrs.

Originally Posted by narayans80

During those days (when NH45 was a 2-lane highway) Ulundurpet-Trichy section experienced gridlocks during peak seasons (summer vacations, Diwali days) when the trails cross each other.

Lovely memories. We used to have the old TTC 180 series plying between Chennai and Tirunelveli - 'Vasantham', 'MinnaL', 'Nanjil', etc. There used to be similar series from the erstwhile KTC, NTC, etc as well - 'Nellai Super', 'Thisaimara Paravai', etc.

Always preferred the first row when there were no curtains or separate cabins for drivers and with lights from the in-coming traffic on the faces most of the time! Forget driving or overtaking, travelling all night on two-lane highways (with no dividers!) was an experience in itself.

Some fancy names are still retained by SETC, but the souls were lost long back! :(

[CGB]

Originally Posted by rdeivan

Some fancy names are still retained by SETC, but the souls were lost long back! :(

Very true. I have been to trichy from chennai twice (read only twice) in SETC. One is heading to trivandrum and another to marthandam. Both were so good that they reached trichy in short of 6 hours.

Only downside is the crowd and the way side hotels where they park for breaks. Try out the new AC SETC services as far as they are new. They do good speeds and pretty comfortable too.

Anyone travelled in TAT travels Scania to madurai which starts from 9:45AM in chennai? What time it takes to reach madurai?

[bhandary]

Last week, me and my colleague had booked the journey 2 days in advance for travel from Bangalore to Trivandrum on the portal of Kallada Tours and Travels through their Mercedes Benz A/C sleeper bus. During booking we noticed that the bus was fully empty and seeing this expressed my apprehension about booking in an empty bus. Kallada did not disappoint us and called us just 4 hrs before the departure that their bus had a breakdown and the tour is cancelled (actual reason could have been a near empty bus). They offered seat in their semi-sleeper bus, and they did not have alternate sleeper bus, which we refused and they agreed for full refund. We had to call their call centre for the refund and after several follow ups (not very competent staff at the call centre) the refund was done with a deduction of Rs 153.00 for a ticket of Rs 2600/-

Fortunate that we had ignored the various offers from Redbus/Paytm portals etc and had booked directly on the Kallada website. We would have lost more money if we had booked through other online portals. This is one of the reason I prefer to book directly with the agency concerned rather than with the aggregators.

We re-booked the journey on KPN A/C sleeper on their Mercedes Benz vehicle and chose KPN again for the return journey whose bus was good enough.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by CGB

Anyone travelled in TAT travels Scania to madurai which starts from 9:45AM in chennai? What time it takes to reach madurai?

I haven't tried TAT Travels but the TAT for Chennai to MDU by Volvo/Scania/Benz is approx.7hrs , if the bus continues on bypass through TVS tollgate.

[tharian]

50+ KPN Travels buses burnt in their Bangalore depot in today's protests.
Looks like a mix of all their buses and mini vans.