Bengaluru to Chitradurga: KSRTC Volvo B11R

June is always a great month for the travel lover in me - its the annual examination season. This year had a lot of travels for me on the block. The first among them was a short one to Chitradurga - a short one is always a good primer! Booking tickets for the ride to Chitradurga was a no-brainer - KSRTC was the best (and only, if I may) option for the route. I picked KSRTC for both ways.

June 25, 2019:
I had planned to leave home a little earlier than required, and also to board the bus from Majestic, instead of the much nearer Yeshwantpur. I got up a little late, and I left home a little later than I had planned. The trusted Uber driver took me to Majestic as quickly as he could, and dropped me outside Terminal-1, from where my bus would depart. I roamed around the terminal for a while, observing various departures at the time. I had already received the details of the bus and its crew by SMS from KSRTC - and I was traveling on board a fairly new Volvo B11R 13.8m coach. I was surely excited about that, and it turned out later that I had a lot of them coming in that season!
The bus: KA-17-F-1946, at Chitradurga

The crew of my bus was standing outside the bus - while one person was busy calling up various reserved passengers, the other was busy seeking walk-in passengers. I got my attendance marked, left my bag inside, and then remained outside the bus until it was time for departure. The crew were busy scouting for walk-in passengers. The bus started from the platform exactly at 0655hrs, but took another three minutes to exit from the bus station. The driver took the route via sampige road, malleswaram, to get to Govardhan (Yeshwantpur Station) by 0713hrs. The load was quite light on the day, but they did managed to get more than half the seats filled.

We passed Goraguntepalya by 0717hrs. The bus went below the flyover, instead of taking the elevated highway, which is the norm these days. We picked a few more passengers from Jalahalli Cross (0723hrs) and continued. The bus passed Parle toll by 0733hrs - the driver picked speed past the toll gate. I was a little tired and dozed off for a while. I woke up just as the bus pulled into Hotel Shree Rathnam near Dabaspet (at 0804hrs) for breakfast. I hadn't taken by breakfast, and used this break to have some good food. The food was good, although a little expensive. The restaurant was quite crowded - especially for a weekday morning!

We got moving from there by 0823hrs. I was hoping to sleep a little after the break - but the conductor had other plans. A movie was played on the AV Entertainment system - I've been choosing KSRTC these days for the fact they don't force me watch a movie! Although movies could be interesting on long rides, its quite an intrusion for short routes like these. The movie was interesting -  I must say that, though. The bus stopped at Hiriyur bypass (0959hrs) to drop a passengers. The crew did accept requests for stops to answer nature's calls on the way. The movie reached its climax as the bus neared Chitradurga. We stopped at the beginning of Chitradurga bypass (1033hrs), dropped passengers and continued towards Chitradurga bus station.

In the meantime, my counterpart in Chitradurga called to enquire about my whereabouts, and arranged for picking me up from the bus station. The bus finally dropped me at Chitradurga bus station, at 1043hrs - a whole 17 minutes before time!

Remarks: The bus, KA-17-F-1946 based at Davanagere depot, had clocked about 2.4 Lakh kilometres. The bus was kept in fairly good shape - wouldn't say it was in perfect shape. Both the crew members were excellent - very soft spoken and friendly to all the passengers. The bus was operated perfectly on time - the bus departed on time, and arrived my destination well before time. The driving style was good - no rash overtakes or unnecessary braking or honking. The journey took 3h48m to cover a distance of about 200 kilometres, including a 19 minute food break. Overall, a good journey!

Amenities:
Blanket: No
Water: Yes
Snacks: No
Charging Point: Available, Not used.
Entertainment: Available, A movie played

Ratings:
Maintenance: 5/5
Cleanliness: 5/5
Driving: 5/5
Crew behaviour: 5/5
Punctuality: 5/5

Overall: 5/5

Pros: Value for money, punctual
Cons: Nothing really

Will I take this service again? Absolutely!

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