After a sleepless night, I was sitting at
the front seat of an MTC bus headed to Ambattur from Broadway. I love the
design of MTC buses – very functional and fairly spacious. Just as the bus
approached Central, I receive a call on my phone – an interview that I had
attended in Bangalore was positive. Now, that was the icing on my cake – two
job-offers together, and it was no secret that I chose the one I felt was the
best. I now had to head to Bangalore to take up my new assignment. A quick
round of calls to my family followed, and I confirmed to my new employer in
Bangalore that I would join them at the earliest.
The hunt for a ticket to Bangalore just
began. I browsed the KSRTC website over phone and found that tickets were
available. However, due to the awfully low speed on the GPRS connection, it
wasn’t a very good idea to book over phone. I called up my brother in
Bangalore, and he booked the tickets for me. The bus was the 1530 Chennai-Hubli
Airavat Gold Class. Jayasankar had called me and he was to join me to carry my
heavy baggage to the bus station.
He joined me for lunch, and we started off
from Central after lunch. We decided to head to Broadway, and take a bus to
CMBT from there. The bus to CMBT from Broadway runs via Central, but getting a
seat at Central is difficult. Not wanting to take chances, we took a bus to
Broadway – it was a Marcopolo. Once at Broadway, we began searching for the
Volvo to CMBT. The Broadway-CMBT route (#15B) is very busy and there are buses
throughout the day. I headed to the timekeepers’ office to enquire if there
were any Volvos to Koyambedu (CMBT – Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus) at that
time – the officers kept pointing at the next counter, and finally the last
counter pointed back to the first counter. This was sure to become a vicious
circle and hence I dropped the idea of searching for a Volvo. We got into an
ordinary bus and took the first row seat. The conductor was adamant that we buy
luggage tickets. The bus ride from Broadway to Koyambedu CMBT took about 45
minutes – was fairly fast.
We reached CMBT at around 1430hrs – an hour
left for my bus. The Bangalore bound buses of KSRTC are parked at the far end
of Platform-1. At the departure area, there were about two Airavats, one
Rajahamsa and my Airavat Gold Class parked. The Airavats were to Bangalore, and
Mangalore, while the Rajahamsa was to Madikeri (via Bangalore). My bus –
KA-42-F-1067 – had arrived from Hubli only about an hour ago. The crews were
still relaxing in the bus after their long drive. Around 1500hrs, the drivers
(the bus had two drivers and one conductor) were busy cleaning the front
windshield and filling water to the windshield washer tank. The conductor
rushed off to their office to get the reservation chart. The crew were really friendly, and they allowed me take a couple of images of the bus before boarding started.
The bus: KA-42-F-1067, of Hubli Rural-3 depot |
Boarding commenced at 1515hrs. By now, the
other two Airavats had left, and there was on Express parked in the place. There
were about 20 reserved passengers, and the conductor managed to get in about 6
more passengers. The bus was pretty young – about 39000kms on the odo. It was
well maintained – clean both inside and outside. Most passengers were curious
to know what was special in the Gold
Class. The Gold Class is basically an Airavat with two axles at the back.
The bus has 53 seats, as compared to only 49 in an Airavat Club Class. The
seats in Airavat Gold Class do not have calf support, and have lesser angle of
recline as compared to the ones in Club Class. The leg space is tighter as
well. The only speciality of the gold
class is that it charges less than the club class, but more than a regular
Airavat.
Inside the bus. The blue-green upholstery doesn't really go well with yellow curtains. A brown/dark-red theme would've been great. |
The bus started moving at 1533hrs – three
minutes past scheduled departure time. Just as the bus got moving, the second
driver came up and pulled down the near LCD screen. A bollywood movie was
played. The second driver headed to the last row to sleep – this guy would
drive the night portion of the journey. The guy at the wheels was well composed
– a very stable style of driving. The conductor distributed water bottles to
passengers soon after the bus got moving. Blankets are not provided for the
Chennai-Bangalore leg. The progress until Poonamalle bypass was painful –
crawling most of the time. One point that I liked was that the driver was
gearing the bus properly – he did not lug the engine anytime, and kept using
the appropriate gear every time.
The driver got a bit relaxed after we
crossed Poonamalle bypass – but the top speed never exceeded 80kmph for quite
some time. The engine did not sound strained – meaning the gearing was proper.
The movie was played at low volumes – comfortable enough for people to sleep.
All the window seats in the bus were taken. When the passenger in the row ahead
of mine reclined his seat to the maximum, I struggled a bit to find space for
rest my leg. The leg space was the sole negative point about this bus. The
driver increased the top speed to 90kmph now, and consistently maintained the
speed. Lane changes were properly indicated, and he used the horn to the bare
minimum. There were no rash cuts or sudden braking – a very disciplined driver,
I must say.
The run was eventless – the bus just kept
running at the right gear, at more or less a consistent speed. We crossed
Vellore at around 1800hrs – two-and-a-half hours for CMBT-Vellore seemed high
to me. I had done this journey in exactly two hours in a TNSTC Volvo a couple
of years back. I got worried if this bus would reach Bangalore on time. We kept
crossing a lot of Chennai bound Volvos – the frequency of these buses increased
after Vellore. We overtook an SRM B9R (The new Chennai-Bangalore day service)
at Ambur – the SRM guys were stopping at every town looking for passengers. Our
bus did not stop anywhere to search for more passengers. We stopped right after
the Vaniyambadi toll gate for a quick break – there was tender coconut vendor
at the place. I downed one and got back in to the bus. We started off at 1917. The
second driver was still asleep.
We passed Krishnagiri at 1955. The SRM bus
was ahead of us now (they overtook us, when we stopped for a break). There was
one Kallada B9R for company after Krishnagiri – I guess that was the day
service bus coming from Trivandrum. The Kallada guys went ahead of us as we
neared Shoolagiri. Our bus stopped for Dinner at Kamat Upachar, just past
Shoolagiri (2035hrs). Unlike other hotels where buses stop, Kamat did not
practice the “pre-paid” policy. Food was served fairly fast, since they offered
limited menu for bus passengers. The bus was locked as all passengers got off.
The conductor opened the doors (by entering through the driver door) only when
there were passengers waiting to get back in – this kept the baggage safe! We
started from Kamat at 2109hrs – the break took 34 minutes. Bangalore
terminating buses would usually not have this break, but they’d stop for
evening tea instead.
At the dinner break... |
The first driver continued even after the
break, while the second guy headed to the last row again! The movie was
switched off after the break – they played two-and-a-half movies! All the
movies were bollywood ones – really appreciated for an inter-state route. We
crossed Hosur at around 2140 – a couple of passengers got off here. The bus
lost a lot of time at the Attibele toll gate - heavy traffic, plus wrong
selection of toll lane jammed us in. A couple of passengers got off at
Electronic City (2209hrs). I was dropped at Bommanahalli at 2220hrs. That was
6hours and 50 minutes, from Chennai Koyambedu to Bommanahalli, including a 34
minute break. Not really bad considering the fact that the bus did not go
beyond 90kmph at any point of time.
The bus was young, and well kept. The crew
were really friendly – all of them spoke Kannada and Hindi. The conductor spoke
English as well. They did not mumble when passengers asked them to be dropped
at certain specific points – the conductor helped passengers to take the
luggage out as well. The only thing I did not like about the bus is the low
leg-space – the legroom is same as that of the regular Airavats, but not
anywhere near that of the Airavat Club Class (thanks to one extra row of
seats). The bus is excellent for day journeys – night run might be tight. The
crew behaviour was top class. The driving style was really good. Absolutely no
rash overtakes, and he did not lug the engine at all. I’d recommend this
service.
Ratings:
Cleanliness: 5/5 | Punctuality: 5/5 | Staff
Behaviour: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
Definitely recommended!
Comments
Thanks for the post