Bus Travel Reviews

[KRRaj]

- Bus Operator: KSRTC

I have always preferred only KSRTC and have had only good experiences with them. Except for starting late always, I have faced no other issues. Tho' of late, I have been seeing their buses being badly maintained incl. Rajahamsas and Airavats.

[vpr]

Hi, lastweek i traveled from Bengaluru to Thiruvanthapuram in KPN bus AC sleeper bus. This was a brand new Leyland bus.
I was surprised to see that there was no gear shift lever in that. It was only like a small joy stick. after speaking to driver i understood that it was the automatic manual gear shift option provided by leyland and its called Leymatic(after some google search).....
this is the first time i am seeing ....such ... a bus.
I dont have camera mobile to take photos.
anybody post some photos if you have.

[silversteed]

Leymatic

Interesting!

How did it look like - this...


or like this:



The first one is from a pamphlet of the newly launched JanBus. The real Leymatic.
The second one is the drive selector in an MTC bus - one of the 100 or so Viking buses given to MTC, Chennai for trials. This is an Allison automatic, IIRC. Don't remember the other specifications though.

My point is, I'd read that KPN was provided with a few buses that were fitted with automatic transmissions and one of the routes was one service to Kerala. I was curious since then to know if it's just an ordinary AT box (like the one in the MTC bus) or a sophisticated one, akin to the i-Shift from Volvo

[vpr]

Interesting!

How did it look like - this...
...

Yes, this was like that only - first photo. I came to know that its shown in Janbus in auto expo.

[silversteed]

I don't know how many of us would benefit out of this review, but I do find it worth sharing - a bus journey in the USA. Not many prefer travelling by bus here, despite being so comfortable and cheaper than air and rail travel. The only reason I travelled in a bus this time was my destination, Columbus,OH did not have a commercial rail network, and my cousin who stays there, is far away from the nearest airport.

My pickup point was at a little far away from my Hotel, so I took a bus to the airport, then went to the Metra Station (the US parlance for our Metro Rail) and reached the pick up point at 9:30pm. I saw a couple of buses parked there, with people loading their luggage in the luggage compartment. My bus was yet to come. Walked around the buses there, to see how they are. And by then, my bus arrived.





It was a VanHool TD925 double-decker coach, with a seating capacity of 80: 58 in the upper deck and 22 in the lower deck.

In around 25 minutes, everyone boarded the bus and it started rolling at 10:10pm, 10 minutes behind schedule. For the 400 miles (~600km) journey, the bus was to take 8 hours, with 2 cities to cross in between - Indianapolis (~200miles from Chicago) and Cincinnati (100miles away from Indianapolis and Columbus). There were two drivers, a pleasant and cordial gentleman and a head-mistress like lady, who was not so friendly to talk to. The lady was at the wheel when the bus started, until the first break, which was a continuous 200miles drive on the freeway. And from Indianapolis, she retired to sleep.

After a good sleep, I woke up to the driver's cheerful voice that announced the bus' arrival at Columbus. Got down at 6:45am on the day of Vishu. It was a quiet, and comfortable journey. But I couldn't see the countryside at all, since it was an overnight trip. On my return, I had booked their day service on sunday.

It was another bus, but identical to the one that took me to Columbus. Started at 11 o'clock in the morning, after a delay of 20minutes. There was only one driver, a friendly Afro-American guy. There was a lunch break midway between Cincinnati and Indianapolis, at a McDonald's attached to a fuel station. 30min. There was heavy traffic on the freeway, and the bus was not designed to go faster than 70mph because of the height. Still he managed to take us to Chicago by 6pm. Since I was sitting in the upper deck, I could see the road and the sides very clearly. There was a short break some 100miles away from Indianapolis, when the driver said he felt a bit tired. On asking, he said he was running another service the previous day and managed to get only 5 hours of rest, while he was supposed to have at least 6 hours. I must appreciate the skills of that gentleman and the design of the bus, because despite the heavy traffic and bursts of higher speed, I didn't feel any roll or G-forces inside the bus. I was sitting on the upper deck, where all these can be felt more appreciably.

As soon as the bus reached the destination, the driver changed the destination board:



About the bus: It was an airconditioned, low-floor double-decker multi-axle bus. Every seat had seat belts, and everyone had access to a charging point and there was a reading lamp too. A free Wi-Fi hotspot was made available in the bus, so I was able to track my location through maps without paying for data on my Bangalore number that was on roaming. The highlight was a chemical toilet, similar to the ones found in airplanes - much better than what was there in Olivea of Bangalore.

There were two stairs to get onto the top deck, one at the front, right opposite to the driver seat, and the other one, just ahead of the first rear axle. The portion of the lower deck behind the lower deck was used as the luggage hold. Whatever luggage space is lost by making it a low-floor bus, has been made up for, by using the portion above the engine - they saved the extra cost of noise insulation over the engine compartment and isolated the passenger saloon at the same time.

Exteriors of the bus



Notice the tail lamps, they're the same ones found in Mark-III Volvo B7Rs that we have here.





Firestone FS400 22.5" radials

The driver seat:



Pneumatically adjustable, Recaro made seat. All controls within reach - no need to move from the driving position. Excellent ergonomics. Notice the Drive Selector buttons on the left side - yes, it's got an Allison automatic. The two red buttons seen on the centre console are to open and close the two doors. The red sticker reads 13.2" height, to warn the driver before he thinks of pressing the A-pedal too hard.



The entertainment system as well as PA system controls fixed on the ceiling.



Toilet, and access to the luggage compartment from inside. The rear stairs can also be seen.

Specifications of the bus:

Dimensions (L x W x H): 44' (13,411 mm) x 102" (2,590mm) x 13.2" (4,023mm)
Turning radius: 12,000 mm
Gross Vehicle Weight: 25.9 Tonnes
Engine: Cummins ISX12 11.9L 6 cyl with 400hp output and 1650 N-m torque
Transmission: Allison B500R 6-speed automatic with two-speed fan clutch
Brakes: Disc brakes on all wheels
Safety: ABS, Automatic Traction Control, Electronic Stability Control, Tyre monitoring system as standard
Tag axle unloading system (Read more about it here)

[yksharma]

nimrod , many thanks for sharing the bus and journey details. It was very good insight about the bus transport in USA. In deed not many people prefer bus journey in USA even though service is excellent and comfortable. Just wish that we had similar services here in India.

[para_7k]

I don't know how many of us would benefit out of this review, but I do find it worth sharing - a bus journey in the USA. Not many prefer travelling by bus here, despite being so comfortable and cheaper than air and rail travel.

Thanks for sharing nimrod. I have taken the Megabus two return trips back in 2008, once from Chicago to St. Louis and next from St.Louis to Kansas city.

They were very reliable because it was peak winter and snowing that time and they still operated.

The fares were great VFM at around 63-64$ for a return trip. I was not so bus frenzy then, I couldn't note anything particular.

My grouses were they were not punctual and they were slow as well. The bus felt underpowered to me. They also do not have any waiting areas or offices and we ended up waiting for 1.5 hours on the street as the bus was late.

Overall, a great bang for the buck service.

BTW, Nice to see that you're in Chicago. It is a wonderful city. Enjoy your stay and make the most of it.

[silversteed]

Just wish that we had similar services here in India.

I hope things would change really fast. Already we have Olivea that's a pure luxury service. And many operators are giving more creature comforts for the price they charge.

However, the seats in the bus I travelled in, were cramped and the recline angle was far too less than what we're used to here. Maybe they should learn a thing or two from the buses here too!

The bus felt underpowered to me

That must be because of the wind. The driver was telling me that going faster would make it very risky. With windspeeds reaching 20-30mph, the engine has to push real hard to maintain the speed at 60-65mph (a combined relative speed of ~90mph - 120kmph+). Moreover, it's got an AT, that the drivers not too happy about, "It's reeeeeeeally powerful, but the Automatic Transmission makes it drive like shit".

By the way, glad that you guys liked the review, yksharma & para_7k

[KRRaj]

Megabus is quite recommended from what my Friends told me here. I wanted to take a Bus to NY as it was way cheaper, but I only got hold of some China Bus services and Greyhound and I was not sure, finally decided to take Amtrak.

[Prince02]

Travelled in a Sharma multi axle from Bangalore-Pune in a multi axle volvo last sunday bus was scheduled to depart at 3pm but the bus was brought in only at 3pm & left at 3.25. The bus's curtains & seats were not cleaned. Morever the driver was giving unnecessary stops. Went inside Davangere city for dinner. Movies wete also played even after 10.30pm disturbing the sleep. Finally was dropped off near Chandni Chowk in Pune half n hour late than scheduled time.