[vigsom]

^^ Terrible news ; KPN's own fleet is B9Rs , B11Rs , Scanias and Mercedes while franchise owners have Leylands.

I shudder when I imagine how much of the fleet has been damaged ;can only sympathise with Dr.KPN and Co. on this .

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by vigsom

I shudder when I imagine how much of the fleet has been damaged ;can only sympathise with Dr.KPN and Co. on this .

It could also be some really unscrupulous business rivals using this opportunity to strike back at KPN. It is companies like KPN,Kallada etc. who actually stream lined and revolutionised the inter state bus transport system (even though legally they operate in a "gray zone"). They were always pioneers when it comes to offering better services, new model comfortable buses etc.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by 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.

I may be wrong with the number. Initial report was 50+ buses.
Later it was around 35 with around 50 or more parked in the depot.

[sbkumar]

Originally Posted by bhandary

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/-

Looks like they never give up on this trick. I have had enough experiences during my earlier days of such "breakdowns" that I always look at the number of seats booked already at the time of booking. I have experienced this with almost all the operators ( SRS/Kallada/KPN/SRM) that I frequent. This is a bigger problem when you want travel in a sleeper as normally there is just one available in a given route by an operator and when that gets cancelled you are booked in a semi-sleeper by default. Of late I have seen such breakdowns lesser with KPN, probably because they get some minimum number of bookings on most days and not because they have become customer focused. The one travels which is very customer focused these days is Orange. At least on the routes that I have traveled ( BLR-TVM, CHN-TVM) they are pretty good.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by sbkumar

The one travels which is very customer focused these days is Orange. At least on the routes that I have traveled ( BLR-TVM, CHN-TVM) they are pretty good.

I agree cent percent! The first time it was a Bangalore-Hyderabad trip, the journey was excellent, and it was the during their initial days, all passengers were provided with a Fruti and pack of snacks. And later during the day that I reached Hyd, I received a call asking for my feedback. On another instance, same route, the movie was played well beyond midnight. As expected, I received a phone call and I mentioned this. Since I'd booked Orange on the return, I hoped that they would heed my feedback, which they did. And to my surprise, the person who rang me up the next day, specifically asked me if the movie was playing beyond midnight (which they do not allow, it seems) and if I had a good sleep.

A year later, on another BLR-HYD trip, I forgot a pair of specs in the bus. On realising it, called their helpline and they told me that they had got 3 pairs of glasses from the bus and they'll hand over the one meeting my description to the driver of the bus I was to take on the return. Unfortunately, there were two such glasses and the driver had the wrong one. On explaining this, they agreed to send the actual one by their next day's service. And it arrived as expected.

It's surprising to see such levels of customer-centric behaviour from bus operators. They charge a little higher than the competition, but it's worth every paisa, in my experience.

[null]

Originally Posted by vigsom

^^ Terrible news ; KPN's own fleet is B9Rs , B11Rs , Scanias and Mercedes while franchise owners have Leylands.

I shudder when I imagine how much of the fleet has been damaged ;can only sympathise with Dr.KPN and Co. on this .

Take these kind of news with a pinch of salt. There is usually a hidden motive - business rivalry at play or foul play for insurance as we have seen earlier as well with these pvt operators. In either case, the mob situation is taken to their advantage.

[binaiks]

I had four trips with Orange in the last few months. Two on their Hyderabad buses (once Palakkad-Bangalore, and once Bangalore-Hyderabad), and two on their Bangalore based buses (Bangalore-Trivandrum-Bangalore). There was difference in quality among the two. The Hyderabad based ones were little more professional, and they had amazing punctuality.

The other two were terribly late both ways (about 2 hours in both instances), with lots of time waste at different point. But they are surely process driven - in fact they called up when I did not reply to their feedback message, and when informed that the bus is late, they promised to find out the reason (Not sure what happened after that though). They are a good operator - but need more focus when operating to places like Kerala - where punctuality is hit hard due to two-lane roads, that need expert drivers, and their over-reliance on online agents. Kerala is a market that runs on offline agents -who still work on the historic system of quotas. (I am talking of weekday tickets)

Originally Posted by silversteed

It's surprising to see such levels of customer-centric behaviour from bus operators. They charge a little higher than the competition, but it's worth every paisa, in my experience.

In the Kerala route, Orange is cheaper than the competition. They are trying to gain customers by keeping it low, I guess.

[mayuresh]

I had a bad experience with Orange for a travel that I did not take, as they canceled Pune - Hyd bus with a few hours left for travel.

On a weekday probably they do not get enough passengers to recover the costs (as I could see from their booking availability online) and arbitrarily cancel the buses saying the bus has got a "technical fault".

I think this is very unfair as the passenger who relies on the confirmed ticket can't even make any other alternative arrangement easily so late. This brings a bad name to a service which is potentially a good service going by some other reviews.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by mayuresh

I had a bad experience with Orange for a travel that I did not take, as they canceled Pune - Hyd bus with a few hours left for travel.

On a weekday probably they do not get enough passengers to recover the costs (as I could see from their booking availability online) and arbitrarily cancel the buses saying the bus has got a "technical fault".

On the other hand the sarkari fleets of buses - though possibly horrible - will generally run even if there is one passenger in the bus. After all the same bus will probably be redeployed on another route as soon as it reaches the destination, if there is sufficient route optimization.

[JMaruru]

Who has better service and experience on mumbai > b'lore section?

I see some new operators in 'anand' and 'canara pinto' apart from established guys like SRS n VRL.

I haven't had a experience in sleeper bus. Howz it to travel in sleeper bus?
Does it have the comfort as in trains?

Also, Is it better to book in redbus.in vs local travel agencies?

Pl. advise.

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

Who has better service and experience on mumbai > b'lore section?

I see some new operators in 'anand' and 'canara pinto' apart from established guys like SRS n VRL.

I haven't had a experience in sleeper bus. Howz it to travel in sleeper bus?
Does it have the comfort as in trains?

Also, Is it better to book in redbus.in vs local travel agencies?

Pl. advise.

The multiaxle Volvo/Scania semisleeper/sleeper buses of VRL,SRS,National,Sharma and KSRTC are anyday the most preferred ones for Mumbai / Pune-Bangalore sector. Anand and Canara Pinto are reputed players on Mumbai/Pune--Mangalore route and from what I know they are doing very good on Bangalore-Mumbai sector as well barring some stray incidents. Canara Pinto has a Volvo B9R and couple of Ashley AC sleepers on NH4 and the same goes with Anand.

That said, VRL and SRS are the clear winners on NH4 (VRL should rank no.1). Since both of these operate more than 32 multiaxle Volvo/Scania buses each and everyday ( both directions included), there is enough back up in case of breakdowns. Each of the remaining players operate between 10-16 buses everyday (again both directions included). VRL's fleet operations and infrastructure back up is peerless on NH4.

Comfort of sleeper buses cannot be compared with that of trains as there is a significant amount of body roll experienced in sleeper buses, more so in upper berths. However, I have always found the Volvo multiaxle/Scania multiaxle SLEEPER buses to be way more comfortable than the Ashley Sleeper buses ( lower as well as upper berths ). The only minus is poor window side visibility in the lower berths of Volvo/Scania sleeper buses ( upper berths have it too good though). Ashok leyland AC sleeper buses have good visibility in both lower and upper berths and the comfort is fairly good. By the way, on NH4, you wouldn't find the sleeper buses to be too taxing on your body due to good multilane roads all the way.


Many people find Sleeper buses as inherently dangerous contraptions to travel as there is less room to escape in case of emergency. But its not all that bad too.

Redbus, goibibo, abhibus are generally good portals for booking with almost all prominent players. I have never experienced glitches with VRL,SRS and the likes.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

I haven't had a experience in sleeper bus. Howz it to travel in sleeper bus?
Does it have the comfort as in trains?

During the month of May this year I had to make my parents take up the sleeper bus from VRL to Pune as I was out of country and my father's only feedback was that the driver was rash and negligent - Swaying in and out of lanes, jumping speedbreakers. This was not at all a good experience for him!

I am no expert with these Private operators as I have mostly avoided them and preferred the usual KSRTC Airavatha/Club Class Seater buses to sleeper ones mainly for their safer and saner driving styles.

But yes, like Vivek says, SRS and VRL are the leaders here when it comes to Mumbai/Pune - Bangalore sector with Sharma & National appearing below them.

During my return drive from Rajkot in January this year, I remember easily how Anand Travels bus (Ashok Leyland) was doing 120 KMPH on the Chitradurga - Tumkur stretch! Against this, I will prefer KSRTC again who usually maintain just 90-95 KMPH most of the times.

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

During the month of May this year I had to make my parents take up the sleeper bus from VRL to Pune as I was out of country and my father's only feedback was that the driver was rash and negligent - Swaying in and out of lanes, jumping speedbreakers. This was not at all a good experience for him!

I am no expert with these Private operators as I have mostly avoided them and preferred the usual KSRTC Airavatha/Club Class Seater buses to sleeper ones mainly for their safer and saner driving styles.

But yes, like Vivek says, SRS and VRL are the leaders here when it comes to Mumbai/Pune - Bangalore sector with Sharma & National appearing below them.

During my return drive from Rajkot in January this year, I remember easily how Anand Travels bus (Ashok Leyland) was doing 120 KMPH on the Chitradurga - Tumkur stretch! Against this, I will prefer KSRTC again who usually maintain just 90-95 KMPH most of the times.

Agree with you. There is no doubt that KSRTC Airavat buses are generally well behaved on the highways and don't indulge in rash tactics. Once in a while we would hear about a rashly driven KSRTC bus but mostly they always tend to move safely on the roads. So, "safety" aspect is not questionable but just that I would want KSRTC Airavat buses to maintain reasonably good speeds depending on the merit of the roads. I have slightly mixed opinion on their speeds, some of them do keep a healthy 90-100 on multilane highways as you said, but more often than not, in my honest opinion, they become too obsessed with mileage returns and keep lugging the engine and drag the bus all the way at 65-80kmph max even on open roads, ending up taking higher journey time. I don't want them to do crazy speeds, but let the buses be driven as per their calibre ( of course without compromising on safe driving etiquettes ). Apart from this, KSRTC is the best no doubt. I have experienced both - some super slow as well as some really excellent and punctual journeys with KSRTC.

Private buses are not all the times rashly driven, there are some saner ones too these days but I do agree that, generally most of them tend to be rash. I have had similar observation of Anand's non AC buses doing crazy speeds with loaded luggage on the top.

[sbkumar]

Can anyone confirm if the bus services between BLR to TN are back to normal ( esp KPN/SRS/SRM) ? I have to plan a trip from NGL to BLR tomorrow night.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by sbkumar

Can anyone confirm if the bus services between BLR to TN are back to normal ( esp KPN/SRS/SRM) ? I have to plan a trip from NGL to BLR tomorrow night.

Neither KaSRTC nor SETC/TNSTC buses were seen crossing Attibele over the weekend. Many of the private operators (Kallada, Hebron, Aeon Connect, etc) were seen operating original KL/AP/AR/OD registered buses, or changing KA-51 to KL-51 and making trips