[SchumiFan]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

For the night services from Bangalore to Chennai, do the operators have 2 drivers. I suppose they have 1 driver for the daytime service due to the distance being less than 500 kms.

No operator has two drivers these days for this route. One guy sleeps at the seat as a passenger while the other one drives. The sleeping guy probably takes over on the return since they run thrice a day these days.

My doubt is that the person who did my trip probably drove from Bangalore that afternoon and didn't get to rest at night.

I don't care how much they value their lives themselves but to put 44 at risk is criminal.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by autotranny

Kesineni does not have any AR/NL registered sleeper buses unlike other players in the market. Kesineni were one of the pioneers in sleeper buses in South India, but have been forced out of business by newer players like Orange, Komitla, Kaveri and even Kallada.

Thanks for the background information, much appreciated.

If he is complying with the laws in question though, I am not sure what the dispute with the transport commissioner was, and why he had to go along with another politician to threaten him. Was it simply to ask him to clamp down on these out of state / north east registered vehicles?

[autotranny]

Originally Posted by hserus

Thanks for the background information, much appreciated.

If he is complying with the laws in question though, I am not sure what the dispute with the transport commissioner was, and why he had to go along with another politician to threaten him. Was it simply to ask him to clamp down on these out of state / north east registered vehicles?

Apparently Mr Nani was trying to play good samaritan.

He ran into controversy with alleged manhandling of transport commissioner N Balasubrahmanyam and his gunman recently during an argument over alleged illegal permits granted to his business rival Orange Travels.
Following this, TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu reportedly called Nani and another MLA Bonda Umamaheshwara Rao and pulled them up for misbehaving with officials. He forced them to go to the commissioner’s office and tender an apology to the officer.

Though Nani apologised, he apparently felt insulted with Naidu’s reprimand and decided to quit the travel business.

Sources, however, say there must be definitely some other reason for Nani to take a decision to wind up his Kesineni Travels. “Either he must be running heavy losses, or he wants to diversity into another business. He may even continue the bus operations in some other name. Otherwise, travel business is very lucrative and nobody will forego it so easily. Let us wait and see,” a transport department official observed.

Personally, I had a soft corner for Kesineni since they were the first ones to start the Hyd Cok route almost coinciding with my move to Hyderabad in 2011. Provided an alternate cheap option when I was travelling alone.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by autotranny

Personally, I had a soft corner for Kesineni since they were the first ones to start the Hyd Cok route almost coinciding with my move to Hyderabad in 2011. Provided an alternate cheap option when I was travelling alone.

I used to live in Ameerpet just down the road from the Kesineni office there about 20 years back, and the buses had some interesting slogans painted on them. "Aaoo Sai, Bose is Boss, Baba is Great" etc for their Hyderabad - Shirdi buses, which were also quite popular. They don't seem to do all that slogan painting on their buses these days?

[autotranny]

Originally Posted by hserus

I used to live in Ameerpet just down the road from the Kesineni office there about 20 years back, and the buses had some interesting slogans painted on them. "Aaoo Sai, Bose is Boss, Baba is Great" etc for their Hyderabad - Shirdi buses, which were also quite popular. They don't seem to do all that slogan painting on their buses these days?

No No, thats not Kesineni. Bose is Boss is trademark of SVR Travels (Mr Bose is the owner). They are the main players in the Hyderabad-Shirdi route, even having hotels in Shirdi that can be booked as a package. Kesineni buses are more subtle; they had a white and orange design for all their sleepers, it was only their Volvos that were quite colourful; sometimes a bit too colorul.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by autotranny

No No, thats not Kesineni. Bose is Boss is trademark of SVR Travels (Mr Bose is the owner). They are the main players in the Hyderabad-Shirdi route, even having hotels in Shirdi that can be booked as a package. Kesineni buses are more subtle; they had a white and orange design for all their sleepers, it was only their Volvos that were quite colourful; sometimes a bit too colorul.

Oh yes! Now I remember. Though Kesineni had specific names for their buses - Kesineni Amulya, Kesineni Pride etc if that memory at least is correct.

Did SVR rename themselves or diversify as "Apple Travels"? There are some buses with that name (and a cheap hotel named "Apple Sai" in Shirdi when I stayed there a few years back)

[autotranny]

Originally Posted by hserus

Oh yes! Now I remember. Though Kesineni had specific names for their buses - Kesineni Amulya, Kesineni Pride etc if that memory at least is correct.

Did SVR rename themselves or diversify as "Apple Travels"? There are some buses with that name (and a cheap hotel named "Apple Sai" in Shirdi when I stayed there a few years back)

Yes, a few years back they were in some legal tangle and split SVR into 2 or 3 companies, prominent being SVR and Apple iBus. Not sure of the reasons or rationale though. I live quite close to Miyapur-Bachupally road and I'm quite sure that they have the largest fleet of all operators in this road; Komitla is fast catching up though.

[girimajiananth]

Had a very bad experience with a/c sleeper bus during my recent journey to Hubli from Bangalore. I booked VRL a/c sleeper from Bangalore-->Hubli-->Bangalore.I feel the quality of seats have gone down. I boarded the bus at Jayanagar 4th block, I felt very uncomfortable trying to sit inside the bus due to lack of a proper back rest. I could not sleep since it was only 8:30 PM, and the "bed" was very thin and cushion was almost non existent.


Last week, I had been to Bangalore-->Koppa-->Bangalore to attend a friend's engagement ceremony .My friend had booked Sugama tourist non a/c sleeper. Unfortunately we got last (sleeper) seats on the return journey. There was no back rest at all. I had to lean against the body of the bus when I had to sit. At one point of time the road was very bumpy and I could not tolerate it at all. I walked up to the driver and noticed that he was driving all alone, I asked him if I could sit on the jump seat for a while. He was more than happy to welcome me. Started talking to him the entire journey till we reached Yeshwantpur. The jump seat was far more comfortable than the so called sleeper seat.

[SchumiFan]

Made a trip to Palani recently. Visited Coimbatore on Saturday in the morning and continued the trip with my relative.

Took the KPN Scania service from Bangalore. The bus was late by 1 hour because of traffic. Every other bus at that time was late because the St. John's signal wasn't letting anyone pass. Not sure why.

The bus was a new one. The white painted one with the old red, blue pattern at the bottom. There are quite a few released recently and a few more Volvo sleepers are released as well with the same livery.

Saw a sticker in the speedo stating that it was locked at 85 Kmph. The drive was very smooth and it took 6 hours (12.30 AM to 6.30 AM) to cover the distance after a small break some place after Salem. There is some warning bell inside whenever any vehicle moved past it at speed. Gave a feedback stating more such coaches need to be introduced.

Returned the next afternoon by the Ernakulam - Mumbai Kallada service. It was the cheapest of the afternoon service at Rs.500. The bus was a new one (Volvo i-Shift B9r). What was not mentioned in the website is that the bus doesn't come inside the city. They get the passengers to the L&T by-pass through a A/C mini-bus.

Started by 2:30 PM and reached Madiwala by 9:30PM after a break before Salem in a good rest stop just after a toll post.
The journey was smooth again with no unnecessary speeding and rash driving. The bus picked up passengers at almost all towns it crossed. So it took longer to reach the destination that my earlier journey. The toll booths were also full since it was Sunday evening. Didn't reach triple digit speeds at any point of time.

Would recommend both the services to anyone who is looking to do a trip in the Bangalore - Coimbatore sector.

[.sushilkumar]

I had the chance to travel in HRTC ( himachal Road transport corp ) Scania metro link bus. Was pretty surprised to see them very similar to volvo B7R coaches. So much so that i have to look for logo to identify them.

Coming to ride, It was very harsh & bumpy. Although the bus completed the journey in 6 hours against 7 odd hours a normal volvo would take but the ride was very harsh with noticeable body roll & consistent triple digit speeds for sure. Seats were also hard for long journey & not comfortable at all.

IMO, Volvo still rules when it comes to travelling in comfort.

[BulZire]

Sharing my brothers worst experience with KPN.Beware of this morons.

https://medium.com/@arunck/not-trave...s-9851e6ff391d

[SchumiFan]

Originally Posted by BulZire

Sharing my brothers worst experience with KPN.Beware of this morons.

https://medium.com/@arunck/not-trave...s-9851e6ff391d

Let me add one more from my end that happened to my friend last Saturday. Parveen Travels cancelled his ticket and sold it at a higher price to someone else.

They initially lied about having the bus being cancelled but upon further pressing, they mentioned that the ticket has been sold to someone else for a higher price.

From driver being asleep at the wheel to the operator cancelled valid booked tickets, Parveen and other mainstay operators have come a long way.

I actively try and avoid the big operators if I can. For Chennai-Bangalore, I stick to Asian Xpress. They have introduced a sleeper bus as well now.

I feel sorry for your friend. There is no 'Customer' concept let alone 'Service' for these people. We are just another body on the seat with money in the register.

It is surprising that the driver didn't call your friend while leaving the boarding area. Why collect numbers from customer if it is not going to be used at all.

[sbkumar]

KPN is the worst of the lot. I have enjoyed their customer "service" so many times that I have stopped booking unless theirs is the only service on that route. Seats with the backrest hanging, seats with a/c leaks, berth with broken AC vent , sleeper with no Windows and no AC, deliberately slow driving just to switch the bus over to another midway (took 6 hours to Salem from Bangalore).. these are some of the things that I can remember and I don't have a good memory... On top of it, they have the worst drivers as well. Just taking them out of business would improve the customer satisfaction percentage of the entire industry

[vivek95]

With the addition of new SCANIA 14.5 multiaxles and 12m biaxles into their fleet, the Pune-Mumbai-Pune schedules have been greatly augmented by MSRTC.

The total number of Shivneri Volvo/Scania schedules/buses plying in just one direction from Pune to Mumbai now touches a historic and whopping 198 ( up from existing 148 ) !! And an equal number of 198 Scania/Volvo buses will ply from Mumbai to Pune. Another remarkable thing they have come up with is that the last/first bus ( whichever way you look at it ) from Pune to Mumbai now starts at 12: 30 a.m midnight and that from Mumbai to Pune will start at 12:45 a.m midnight. The introduction of late night buses had been a long pending demand by commuters.

Below is the break up of schedules as per the updation on MSRTC website:

A. Pune to Mumbai direction - total 198

1. Pune (Swargate) to Mumbai (Borivali) - 53
2.Pune (Swargate) to Mumbai (Thane) - 27
3.Pune (Swargate) to Mumbai (Dadar) -31
4.Pune (Railway station) to Mumbai (Dadar) - 87


B. Mumbai to Pune direction - total 199

1. Mumbai (Borivali) to Pune (Swargate) - 54
2. Mumbai (Thane) to Pune (Swargate ) - 27
3. Mumbai (Dadar) to Pune (Swargate) - 32
4.Mumbai (Dadar) to Pune (Railway station) - 86

Lets acknowledge a fact here that plying such a large number of premium AC buses with such high frequency is possible only on Mumbai--Pune route in India as no two bustling metro cities are so closely located ( 80 kms from exit to start ) and compliment each other as Mumbai and Pune do. The biggest challenge in front of MSRTC now is to ensure they stick to the schedules with atleast 70% punctuality. Also, we should note that on some days, two schedules might be clubbed together in case of less loads. However even factoring this, the number of schedules may not come below 170 on an average on any given day ( that's my analysis).

Another challenge MSRTC needs to tackle is the expensive fare of AC Shivneri Volvo/Scanias vs economic fares of Hirkani semiluxury non-ac buses, which also ply in huge numbers and the new ones with push back seats that are very comfortable too. Let's wait and watch if MSRTC is able to garner success with the whopping increase in Shivneri buses as opposed to the Hirkani counterparts.

Some pics of new Scania Shivneris and Ashwamedh multiaxles ( credits to respective owners )

[aroonanand]

Has anyone tried the new EVACAY Scania AC seater service between Bangalore and Coimbatore? Has extremely good ratings on Redbus, seems to be a new operator with a brand new bus, and is offering mouth-watering fares of Rs. 600 even for weekends (30-50% cheaper than most other options)