[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by nbr

The Mangalore-Manipal route has finally been launched today .Finally people can travel by A/C to Udupi& Mangalore. They have priced it at Rs.60 from Mangalore to Manipal which is reasonable.

Source: Gulfkannadiga.com

Wow !!...This is awesome news..Am thinking about how will these buses manage during the monsoons when this stretch is full of craters.

Also,given the rash driving by the "Express " buses ...it will interesting to see how these buses fare .



Anyways ...another good move by KSRTC

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by LPT2625

A small observation about Marcopolos: They have a longer wheelbase when compared with MTC's new SLF Ashok Leylands. That means more revenue per trip.

They are all 12mtr in length with passenger capacity of 46+2+25.
Any idea of Viking seating capacity?

Originally Posted by LPT2625

Someone wrote about the bus struggling to make its way on bridges and inclines. The reason I think has to do with the style of driving in Chennai, where the technique is to shift into top gear as quickly as possible (within 10-20 seconds of moving from standstill) without bothering about engine rpm.

Engine had too much of turbo lag and that coupled with driving manners was making so much trouble over there.

Originally Posted by LPT2625

Query: Is the Marcopolo non-A/C equipped with power steering?

Of course a big Yes. Without which I am quite sure our drivers will never board the bus.
They have

[dkamath]

Originally Posted by nbr

The Mangalore-Manipal route has finally been launched today .

Might be an off-topic post, but noticed from pictures in yet another news website that one of the drivers used to be in service for the M'lore-B'lore Airavat, and he sure is one among the most responsible drivers I have come across. Cheers to him .

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by Ashley2

Any idea of Viking seating capacity?

The same thing (46+25+2) is what is written inside the Vikings too. But obviously during peak hours, there could be more than 25 people standing, in both Vikings and Marcopolos.

[Ashley2]

I have more points to add on Marco's:
There was heavy vibration when the bus was in idling. It was too heavy that even my jaws started a rhythemic motion with that. The bus was very new with around 2500 kms on odo.
The rubber boot over the CSO was completely torn sending high amount of warm air into the cabin. I could sense it high as I was sitting adjacent to driver.
Again with opened doors driver never cared and continued driving leaving passengers a free head ache.

[fifthwheel]

Originally Posted by Ashley2

I have more points to add on Marco's:
There was heavy vibration when the bus was in idling. It was too heavy that even my jaws started a rhythemic motion with that. The bus was very new with around 2500 kms on odo.
The rubber boot over the CSO was completely torn sending high amount of warm air into the cabin. I could sense it high as I was sitting adjacent to driver.
Again with opened doors driver never cared and continued driving leaving passengers a free head ache.

This is the inherited issue with the TATA commercial vehicles what say?

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by fifthwheel

This is the inherited issue with the TATA commercial vehicles what say?

A big yes to that.
Same day evening I took a Blue board MTC, which was one of very few buses launched in 2006 (just before the launch of SLF in MTC) - A conventional E+3 Viking in Blue board.As it was older one every windows, grab handles in the bus was vibrating during running but at idle the bus was complete smooth with no frills and engine was very comfortably idling, unlike Marco's which was doing the other way. During idling it was vibrating and during running it was smooth.

[teamveevee]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Precisely, but how many times have we seen TATA doing it? Though I wish they did. Also, DTC would have had these buses checked/audited and then arrived at the conclusion of imposing the fine. Moreover, and I could be wrong here, I guess the purchase also came with an upkeep contract so TATA's preventive maintenance quality is questionable.

It looks like, not Just Tata buses catches fire. On March 24, A 4 Days old Ashok Leyland Low floor bus caught fire. It cannot be maintenance, as it was in service for just 4 days. Manufacturing quality?

[Transsenger]

Originally Posted by teamveevee

It looks like, not Just Tata buses catches fire. On March 24, A 4 Days old Ashok Leyland Low floor bus caught fire. It cannot be maintenance, as it was in service for just 4 days. Manufacturing quality?

CNG bus catching fire is not any new incident. There could be lot of reasons. Just blaming Tata or AL dosent hold good. Now, one should not say that its due to the new low floor buses being maintained by respective companies. Beacuse even the earlier versions(Tata 1510CNG & AL VikingSuper CNG) of DTC caught fire. And those were maintained by DTC.
Thank god, Volvo is not supplying to DTC; otherwise we could have read "DTC Volvo bus catches fire"!!

And there are hundreds of CNG buses of Tata & AL running with BEST, APSRTC, GSRTC etc. Why always a DTC catches fire!!

[teamveevee]

Originally Posted by Transsenger

CNG bus catching fire is not any new incident. There could be lot of reasons. Just blaming Tata or AL dosent hold good. Now, one should not say that its due to the new low floor buses being maintained by respective companies. Beacuse even the earlier versions(Tata 1510CNG & AL VikingSuper CNG) of DTC caught fire. And those were maintained by DTC.
Thank god, Volvo is not supplying to DTC; otherwise we could have read "DTC Volvo bus catches fire"!!

And there are hundreds of CNG buses of Tata & AL running with BEST, APSRTC, GSRTC etc. Why always a DTC catches fire!!

Good point, I totally agree with you, i was replying to Devdaths accusation on Tata. It is not just Tata, it could happen to any manufacturer.

[AkMar]

I happened to see BEST's Leyland low floor AC again today evening. The finishing of rear is not up to the mark. But overall, body is much better than Kinglong.

That bus has a ladder to climb on to the roof at the rear! I was surprised to see this

Engine makes noise equal to the latest generation Kinglongs.

[kadri007]

The BMTC AC Marcoplo's in Bangalore North are just missing. Was seeing quite a few when it launched but now where did they vanish

[teamveevee]

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), which had been the first customer for Volvo’s inter-city buses in India, has run into losses by operating low-floor, air-conditioned city buses from Volvo. The corporation’s Volvo bus operations have reported a loss of Rs 24.03 crore between February 2006 and March 2009.

According to CAG report for 2008-09, as at the end of March 2009, the BMTC had 310 Volvo buses in its fleet. Out of average 165 schedules operated during 2008-09, only 13 schedules were profit making, while 33 schedules covered variable cost and 119 schedules did not earn enough to recover the variable cost.

The total loss suffered calculated on monthly cost and traffic revenue earned on operation of Volvo services since induction in February 2006 up to March 2009 worked out to Rs 24.03 crore.

As part of its Metro Bus Pilot Project and to offer eco-friendly transport, the BMTC had introduced Volvo buses. As per the feasibility study, the operations would be viable at 60 per cent load factor. However, it was seen that actual load factor for 2008-09 was 52.3 per cent and the kilometre per litre achieved was only 2.09 against the estimated KMPL of 2.50, which was the cause for loss in Volvo operations, the CAG report stated.

The CAG has recommended giving re-look at the Volvo services and paying attention to passenger load factor in order to enhance it.
Volvo services turn uneconomical

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by teamveevee

The total loss suffered calculated on monthly cost and traffic revenue earned on operation of Volvo services since induction in February 2006 up to March 2009 worked out to Rs 24.03 crore.

Not surprising!
I thought I heard references in this forum before that the Volvos are not causing losses.
One would have thought that public money could be better spent!

[Amartya]

Originally Posted by silversteed

I guess it is. (I've read somewhere in T-BHP that it's mandatory for heavy vehicles now. Please correct me if I'm wrong)

That is correct, it is mandatory now.