[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by sandip

Surprise !!!!

Just came to Mumbai on the 0930 Borivalli SHivneri and guess what ?
It took a turn near the Lonavla and headed straight away towards the Neeta refreshment point.
Luckily, we did not land up there but at Center Point, just short of it.

The bus of course made a 15 min halt and resumed the journey, but I missed the ambience and the service of the MacD near the khopoli exit.

Hope this was an exception - couldn't extract anything concrete from the conductor.

Thats a regular feature now thanks to the scruplous tie up between MSRTC and the hotel. Even I would have loved the bus stopping before the Khopoli exit.

[selfdrive]

Either some passengers may have complained about the high prices on the e-way eateries, or someone must be getting a cut (free snacks) from Center point

[Mr.Beat]

I travel every weekend as i said previously and every single time the bus stops at Center Point in Lonavla. They also have the MSRTC time table with them regarding bus timings at the hotel. And yes you guessed it, the conductor and driver get free snacks. Earlier they did serve some good quality food, but even that has come down now.

[amitwlele]

Bus Drivers, Conductors and even taxi drivers get free snacks at most of the stop points on the expressway. So not sure why they have to specially stop at Centre Point. Unless the snacks are better than other places.

[AkMar]

13 old Volvos will be taken out of the Shivneri fleet after this summer. This is as per an article in Sakal. The article also gives the proposed increase in services once 60 more buses enter the fleet in few months. It is unclear though whether the figure given is increase in number of buses on the route or increase in number of services. The news (in marathi) can be found here.

Summary of the proposed increase:
Pune-Dadar: 10
Swargate-Thane: 2
Swargate-Borivali: 4
Pune - Kolhapur & sangli: 2 each
Pune (shivaji nagar) - Nashik & Aurangabad: 4 each.

[maddy42]

PUNE: The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) recently introduced two 'Ashwamedh' buses on the Pune-Dadar route. The jumbo multi-axle Volvo buses will provide business class travel to passengers with more comfortable seats and legroom, say state transport officials. The buses have electronically controlled air-suspension, an electronic braking system and an integral hydraulic power-assisted steering system.

The buses, which were flagged off recently by minister of state for transport Gulabrao Deokar and MSRTC chairman Sudhakar Paricharak, have a seating capacity of 53, which is eight more than the Shivneri buses. The fare for travelling by the Ashwamedh buses will be Rs 270, the same as the fare for Shivneri buses, the officials said.

According to MSRTC officials, the buses, which cost Rs 1 crore each, will be introduced on the Mumbai-Pune-Bangalore route in the near future. MSRTC has also recently added various types of buses like the 31-seater midi buses, Parivartan buses, and air-conditioned Sheetal semi-luxury buses. tnn

Just an update. New bus service launched. Hope the same is spread throughout the state

[ambivalent_98]

I hope that the "Ashwamedh" service by MSRTC gives all those private operators on the Expressway a run for their money. Wishing MSRTC lots of good luck for their newest buses.

[moralfibre]

Here is the news article on "Ashwamedh" bus service - Times article.

[ghodlur]

Well, there is no update on the official MSTRC website. When are they going to improve?

Anways thanks for the info.

[zigackly]

any idea if the bus can be boarded from lonavla to go to mumbai ?

[raul]

No, the buses cannot be boarded at Lonavla because they don't stop there, you can drop off at Lonavla though if you are leaving from Mumbai.

I have been using the Msrtc Volvos since the service started. They have recently started stopping at the centre point stop. Usually for the longest period they stopped at the first foodmall just before Lonavla. One phase they used to stop at the second food mall where McDonalds is.

They keep on shifting their stop points, even on the way back from Mumbai to Pune they usually stop at the first food mall just before the ghats but sometime they stop at the second one after the second toll. Apparently the MSTRC folks and not the drivers decide the stop point, they run a pretty tight ship.

[aalokg]

Originally Posted by raul

No, the buses cannot be boarded at Lonavla because they don't stop there, you can drop off at Lonavla though if you are leaving from Mumbai.

I have been using the Msrtc Volvos since the service started. They have recently started stopping at the centre point stop. Usually for the longest period they stopped at the first foodmall just before Lonavla. One phase they used to stop at the second food mall where McDonalds is.

They keep on shifting their stop points, even on the way back from Mumbai to Pune they usually stop at the first food mall just before the ghats but sometime they stop at the second one after the second toll. Apparently the MSTRC folks and not the drivers decide the stop point, they run a pretty tight ship.

Actually its completely upto the driver to decide where to stop. On the PNESTN-DDR sector, where the frequency is now 15 minutes, drivers of consecutive buses actually call each other once they reach Wakad (while driving) and decide where to stop.

During the lunch (Noon to 1400) and the dinner (2000 to 2200) periods, they usually stop at 'Motel/Hotel Drive In' near Kamshet. (This is the worst of all the malls). The BVI and THNVND services from SWR usually stop at mall at Khalapur while coming towards Bombay, and stop at Talegaon while going towards Pune. Most of the drivers say "ek baar ghat khatam toh tension khatam".

Regards,
Aalok

[aalokg]

The Dadar-Pune/Thane-Swargate fare now stands at Rs320, up Rs50.

Borivali-Swargate is now Rs 390. Might be Rs 400 in some cases.

Aalok

[TKMCE]

I was following this thread with great interest since after a long time inter city commuting in the south, I was about to get back to doing the route which I started with a couple of decades back. Yes I was back to doing the Pune-Mumbai hops again. As I mentioned, I used to do this long back when neither the expressway nor the volvos were there and luxury in the route was the good old reliable ASIADs boarding from Pune Station and on the way back getting drooped off opp Shimla Office (Shivaji Nagar). Aundh was hardly developed and buses used to go by NH4 via Nigdi, Chinchwad.

Back to the present, it was a a quick trip for the weekend to Pune. An Andheri start point meant that the multiple frequencies from Dadar was not of use . The highly recommended Metro Link/Purple does not appear to have a website to get info and so the choice was between Shivneri and Neeta.

Originally planned to take the first Shivneri service which hopefully would have reached Andheri around 6 , but since I was early and it was not raining for a change, thought I would try my luck with Neeta which had an office down the road from the MSRTC boarding point and was supposed to have the first bus at 5.45AM from Andheri.

Maybe I was lucky, but I had an absolutely hassle free ride with Even as I was walking down to the Neeta office, one Neeta Volvo B9R passed by. When I reached a few minutes later the bus was still there, seats were available and the bus indeed the first service from Borivali (5.15). Charge was 300 (Shivneri website listed theirs as 390) and the bus left on time from Anderi at 5.45.There was about a 10 min wait at Vashi in the vain hope of filling up some seats but in the end when the bus hit the expressway it was only around 2/3 full. Reached Hinjewadi without any stops (3 or 4 people getting down at Lonavla were dropped off on the byepass) at 8.15 which meant 2 1/2 hours end to end on the "dreaded" Neeta. I doubt I would have reached beore 9 on the Shivneri service and the service I took was hardly to be faulted. The bus was a new one and no rattles or engine noise of any sort. Also they announced the stops (Lonavla Wakad and Hinjewadi) very clearly.

In short I guess may be I got lucky and it may be a one off, but as of now, I dont see any reason why I should not take this (the first Borivali Pune Neeta service) again and the difference of 90 Rs over MSRTC is not a bad amount.

No advance reservation , I just walked in to the Neeta office in Andheri (not a sub agent) and got the ticket.


By the was someone mentioned about Ashwamedh. There was one which we passed at Vashi at 06 30 operating on the Dadar Pune routes, so I guess it is the 6 AM dep from Dadar. Seemed fairly full though.

Cheers

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Here is the news article on "Ashwamedh" bus service - Times article.

Any idea about the timings of these buses from Pune?

Also i had read that MSRTC also have Mercedes buses in their line up now. Any info. about the timings of those as well.

Planning to go to Mumbai on Saturday morning in a bus for a change to enjoy the beauty as well as to avoid damage to the car because of craters on Mumbai roads after the expressway.