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-   -   Intercity Buses operated by various private travels and STUs (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/73526-intercity-buses-operated-various-private-travels-stus-19.html)

Is these operators run buses(business) for fancy!
How come or why should they bear the additional expenses by adding a AC and then charging the same ticket!.

Not for fancy. They will get more passengers compared to normal services as everyone prefers more comfort for less money.

Similar to the buses with 3-4 TVs seen in many towns in TN :) The first such bus I'd travelled in, was in Virudhunagar - the bus ticket was some 3 rupees for a ~15 min ride.

EDIT:
I returned to Bangalore by the same RNC974 KSRTC Super Deluxe that took me to Palakkad on thursday. Boarded the bus at 2045hrs from PLKD depot. Bus started at 2100hrs sharp. Got down at Madiwala at 0440hrs. Total journey time = 7hrs 40min. I'm impressed

Hmmm... let us do some math.

Fuel - 1250 odd per day. Add another 500 as additional maintenance expenses for the a/c, interest costs, depreciation and overhead expenses. Add a margin for error, and extra expenses come to 2K per day. For a bus which runs 250 or more KMS a day, that is INR 8 per KM. (less, if the bus actually runs more - which it would). At 58 paisa odd per KM fare, that translates to 14 extra passengers to break even.

For a bus with 2x3 seating configuration, even taking into consideration passengers who get down in between (which actually increases the fare collection per trip) this translates to a stuffed bus.

In plain English, passengers "should be stuffed in like sardines" to achieve that kind of additional income.

Happened to read this news in yesterdays daily. [A passenger beaten by female private bus driver]. I personally have not seen any lady bus drivers in Kerala (seen many female autorikshaw drivers), even though it is a common signt abroad. I think KerSRTC also should start hiring lady drivers. How do they compete/compare with their male counterparts. School buses are another category where female drivers could excel..
Binaiks,.etl, which bus is this? which route?

Please excuse me for going OT.

Few months back, I've read an article about a female truck driver, in Malayala Manorama. I've personally seen her driving an oil tanker too.

Thus, I won't be surprised if I see females driving buses! :D

EDIT: How come she fell down on the gearbox? I guess, the reporters must have been talking of gear lever.(?)

There are2 vanitha transport buses operating from Thrissur for more than 6-7 years,iirc (One route was thrissur-kodungalloor - now the number might have grown).
All the operators of this bus are ladies (Conductor, Kili and Driver).

I have seen one lady driving a eranakulam-guruvayoor limited stop bus ( it was the last trip, and they terminated the trip at kodungalloor - this was about 7 years back - The lady was really flying the bus, and only when she removed the bandana style head scarf after reaching kodungalloor, I realized the driver was a lady )

yeah , the vanitha transport 1 operates in kodugaloor - TCR route as Limited Stop

all the employes are ladies , especially I like the guts of the lady driver who use to fly the bus !

There was a lady driver in Kottayam - Ernakulam Pvt LS and she was equal competetion to other male drivers especially during morning trip. Also there was another KeSRTC service between Trichur and Ernakulam with a female driver.

Slightly OT, but I don't know any other thread where these videos will be more apt:

1) this video was taken at a turning on the Kodungalloor - Thrissur route.
YouTube - Limited Stop Bus Drifting - Irinjalakuda - Kerala

2) Found this video which features many private buses plying through Irinjalakuda (though I frankly could not understand why the video starts with buses in chennai )
YouTube - Buses of Irinjalakuda

PS: Please feel free to report this post to remove the videos if they do not belong to this thread.

Yes, the first video is an example for private busés rash driving on Kerala roads. They are least bothered about others.

In the second video, there are lot of buses blowing air horns. Is it not banned there?

The first video does show pretty rash driving, but I still would not call that drifiting. The vehicle just rolled too much due to high speed cornering, causing one set of wheels to leave the ground.

Though I am sure, the driver will succeed one day in drifting his bus. We should have an Indian entry into the truck drifting championship and send this guy.

#1 was posted here.

#2 shows many private buses, but not much of their antics. Just another day in the Irinjalakuda bus stand.

We can have as many entries as we want. I'm glad that they don't get to lay their hands on the Volvos and Mercs (and of course the more powerful ALs and TMs) with huge amounts of torque and power at their disposal - they'll let hell loose on the roads

I was travelling in a bus from Thrissur to Kodungalloor (the driver was a he, it was driven rash). A few stops before I got down, a Vanitha Transport bus, manned by ladies pulled up next to our bus and the driver was directing profanity at our bus driver. Reason, this guy started from the bus stand 2 minutes late, which meant the gap between these two buses is just 2-3 minutes instead of the 5 minutes. The other bus took off soon after this "show" and it was rather flying low!

@silversteed thanks for pointing me to the right thread. The second video does not have any antics, but features many private buses - sorry if the video was not relevant.

The bus in question is surely NOT Vanitha. Vanitha operates only on Thrissur-Kodungallur route now - all the other routes have been cancelled. They are saying Edathirinji-Perinjanam route, which lies on the Moonupedika-Irinjalakkuda section. A Major operator on this route is "Veenamol". There are umpteen small operators on this route - mostly single bus operators.

The Bonnet is often colloquially called the "Gear box", perhaps because the gear level juts out of this box.

That bus was "Rajarajeswari" - was owned by a neighbour of mine. The bus is now sold, and I last heard that the lady was driving some truck now. It is possible that the lady in the news could be the same person.

Not now. They have two buses - One of their buses had a lady conductor, while the other has a lady driver. There are no Kilis in Vanitha buses - its run by a co-operative society, and they operate even during Private bus strikes!!!

The actual frequency is only around 2-3 minutes during most times! When KeSRTC services were, the private operators were ruing the fact that they were getting only 2-3 minutes gap, and with KeSRTC entering into the scene, the gap only got narrower.

Not just LS services, there are ordinary services too eating into the pie.