More than 5 months after the 'new-age-monster' was official launched in India, the Volvo B9R (Marketed as Volvo 9400 6x2) makes its appearance in the Kerala market now. The Volvo B9R is longer than the Volvo B7R at 13.7 meters in length (the B7R is only 12 meters long), powerful than any other bus in India (with a 9-litre, 340hp rear mount engine) and perhaps the most expensive on the road too (at Eight-five lakh rupees).
The current services are:
One reason that I can think for the B9R have such a delayed debut (considering the fact that the Bangalore-Ernakulam route was one where the B7R was initially introduced) is narrow roads, and sharp curves in the towns of Kerala. The B9R is now finally in Kerala!
Two operators are operating these mega monsters to God's Own Country, from the Garden City. One bus is operated to Trivandrum and the other to Alappuzha. One more service is to be launched to Trivandrum very soon.
The current services are:
1. Sofiya Lines (Bangalore agent: Friends Travels) to Trivandrum. These buses depart from Madivala every evening at 1830 hours. The end-to-end fare is Rs. 1050.
This is the bus operated by Sofiya Lines on the Bangalore-Trivandrum route
2. Kallada Travels (Suresh Kallada Group) operates B9R buses to Alappuzha. The bus starts from Kalasipalayam at 2030 (Madivala at 2115). The end-to-end fare is Rs. 850.
Kallada Travels (Suresh Kallada) has announced new services to Thiruvananthapuram. The date of introduction of these services are unknown!
Hope to have a B9R very soon :)
[Others who have experienced a B9R ride, please do share your experience]
Comments
Sharma also actively promotes its new Merc bus on the same route. But that's not very different from the regular Volvo. However, the name sells.
Last nite I got a chance to travel in new Volvo B9R which has been owned by Suresh Kallada group.The Bus is an example of extreme luxury travel on road resembles a journey in a typical aircraft.Most of the features are controlled by automatic sensors installed in the bus which makes the driver to have a stressless job.
The Kallada Group is charging Rs.850/seat for a journey from Cochin to bangalore which starts from cochin at 19:00hrs and drops at Madiwala,Bangalore by 05:30 am.
I took the same bus on (May10, 2009) and saw that they have already patched it up. Another addition to the bus is Dishtv. Surya TV was on and i watched a movie
took only 12 hrs to reach trivadrum. Facilities: 2 LCD monitor (one in front and one in middle), mineral water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3uvHdZ0wvc
After traveling 3 hours from Bangalore there was a problem with the engine. They stopped the bus and tried to got it repaired by a local technician. It took nearly 3 hours to do the repair work but was not successful. We tried to contact their customer care centre and office .None of the phones was answering our call. Later they brought a mechanic from Bangalore and got the engine fixed some how. It was 3 o'clock in the night when we resumed journey. After traveling for next 2 hours it again got stuck on the road near Selam (Bhavanipuram) All the passengers deserted over there until 12 noon. Another bus took us from there. Near Kollam they asked all the passengers to transfer to another bus. When the bus reached TVM it was 10:30 night. The scheduled arrival time was 7:30 am. Just 15 hours late. Passengers lost some of their valuables during these transfers.