TRIP BY RRC 977 KOTTARAKARA DELUXE

Date: 08-04-2013
Trip: adoor - bangalore
Bus: RRC 977 KTR DELUXE
Boarding: ADOOR
Departure: 2.45 PM ( 3.16PM)
Arrival: 7.10 AM (7:15AM-SILKBOARD)
Seat No: 6,7
Fare:  593*2

Decided to take kottarakara deluxe on my return trip . heard a lot of its superb driving from mclaren , this time I finally opted it and the return was wit me and mclaren  together . he boarded from thiruvalla

On 5/4 I went to kottarakara to book tickets .  boarded  RRE 880 from adoor  . it was aluva-tvm SF of alleppy depot . departed  adoor at 1148. It was on fire from the start.. continuous honking and ripping mc road. Just before I boarded , RAC742 TVM FP had left. On way it was overtaken easily. Driver showed no mercy to anyone.had a just miss overtaking it with a tipper on opposite side . completely on right hand side,. Super driving. I wa dropped at ktr at 12.13 , RAC 742  reached at 12.20.

Booked ticket and returned back by adoor FP , RSA 462 .  the depot is not allotted . maybe a new run.

On the  day of journey :

I reached adoor early . by 2.15. sreerag was there at adoor , met him , walked around here there , wandered the ksrtc stand seeing the breakdown buses and chit chatting.. at 2.40 I called up control room and enquired about the bus, they said the bus will leave in sometime. 

Finally bus entered stand at 3.13 . few passengers boarded and finally departed at 3.16 from adoor. both drivers were young . the bus moved slowly til the bypass road.. then it was a show. He throttled the bus to max.. it was on full speed.. the humps , the cars , no one was spared,  reached pandalam at 3.30 ,hardly 10 minutes from bypass exit to pandalam . saw thadathil garage at mc road , the Bangalore bus was getting ready there. Bus did not enter pandalam stand as there was no pick up .  there was lot traffic at pandalam.. took time to exit out the town . bus started to throttle again all way to chenganoor.  At tymes It was slow coz of incoming traffic and tough to overtook . but the overtakings were superb. 

Reached chengnoor stand at 3.50 ,( the actual tym for the bus to reach tvla.. ) . some 5 passengers boarded. But not all was to Bangalore. Got a call from mclaren about the location of bus . Left at 3.52.  crossed tvla post office at 4.07. from there till the stand there was heavy traffic . took 5 minutes to reach stand which is just 200 metres ahead.  4.12 at tvla ,  mclaren boarded .  only one person boarded at tvla . again startd to throttle. Reached changanashery stand  at 4.30 . there was pick up .. then left towards kottayam .  reaching kodimatha at 4.52 . there was a heavy block there before the bridge, a sharma non ac and tvla –chn kallada was stuck in the block including some SF,s and express. our driver din hav patience. He took right and moved front and stopped. Entering the bridge a car was stuck there. Was not starting.. me , mclaren and conductor , helped pushing the car to start. It was a hilarious scene there. Both drivers were laughing and we too had a great fun doin it.. the crew were very friendly .finally cleared out at 5.04 and we reached kottayam stand at 5.10 . there was a break for 10 mins. Airawat club class to bnglore and mysore bound rajahamsa was parked there. Departed at 5.20 and after all traffic snarls reached bakers junction at 5.31. weather has changed.. it was cloudy.. cool breeze at last after a boiling day 

Certain stretch towards ettumanur was literally slow. Then the bus started to rip the road.. was on right side most tymes overtakin all vehicles on way . reached ettumanur stand at 5.53. started raining heavily after that all way till muvatupuzha.. crossed kuruvillangad at 6.10.. we were sitting 2^nd row behind conductor and 2^nd driver. Was chatting a lot. They asked us about having dinner at perubavoor today than the usual alathur. And we said yes to it. reached perumbavor at 7.35 for dinner. Departed after dinner at 8.02. the 2^nd driver took over the wheels . reached angamaly at 8.30 . many thrissur and Palakkad bound passengers boarded there. Left after two minutes.. on way towards tcr , overtook kottayam deluxe with ease from left .

Passed chalakudy at 8.45 , tcr toll at 9.04 , took left to town . entered tcr stand at 9.25. there was block at the entrance. Peak time with lot buses entering and exit . departed at 9.33. reached mannuthy at 9.44.  crossed pattikad and block started at kuthiran mala at 10… took a holy 80 minutes to exit out the bridge past kuthiran . a worse situation . then no mercy on road , he was ripping left right  , full throttle  as thou saying  “move away rats , mamma comin with nitrous on :P” ..

 finally reached Palakkad at 12.05 . five minutes of fueling and we left at 12.10  , chandranagar bypass at 12.14 . garuda bound to tvm  crossed us at 12.30 , minutes later followed by the  ACC to tvm . crossed walayar at 12,37  . saw a green kallada B9R and white kallada parked at walayar

then had a sound sleep  all way till bangalore.. just remembered bus entering gandhipuram stand at 1.40 . reached salem stand at 3.50. exiting out of town and wen entered NH at the circle , the white kallada passed by , followed by a kpn Volvo.. minutes later an srs volvo overtook us . the bus was no were seen after that.. reached a toll past salem and then stopped for a break for driver change . again dozed off..  finally when woke , bus was at attibele toll at 6.45 , leavin the toll , entered ktr G4 . even that bus was late  . the bus din take BETL flyover . finally was dropped at silk board at 7.15

 My first trip on ktr deluxe and it was superb.  I was impressed with the bus and the drivers. Eagerly waiting for the new set of deluxe to arrive . 

PIC COURTESY : KSRTCBLOG.COM

birthday TRIP ON PAIRING INTELLIGENCE 3340

Date: 03-04-2013
Trip: Bangalore - kayamkulam
Bus: SRM B9R - KA-01-AA-3340
Boarding: madiwala
Departure: 7.00 PM (06.55 PM)
Arrival: 05:30 AM (05.37 AM)
Seat No: 1
Fare: 1200

My trip was planned suddenly and finally booked ticket on redbus , at morning on the day of travel.. got my favourite seat again 1 . that day evening reaching madiwala , saw a lot buses parked at the pump..

A1 adoor non ac , 2 srm Volvos , srm ac sleeper , shama (5343) , sona non ac , 4 G4’S ( PTA , KTR, TVM , KTYM ) and viji (blue) , atlas sharma reached at 6.23 . my bus was not on yet. Few people boarded in left their luggage and came out. This time it was 3340 , the pair bus of which I usually get.  Meanwhile saw an SRS sleeper reaching their office with fully loaded luggages .. time 6.40 . they started the bus. Ac was set to 23 . two drivers . one was a malayali and other a tamilian. A person from friends came in and started checkin tickets .everyone had boarded . occupancy was not full . blankets were not placed on seats . finally the bus departed at 6.55. early than the usual time. 

Movie was playedas soon as taking right towards st.johns. it was 101 weddings . it was the tamil driver  on the steer .reached madiwala police station at 7.06 . crossed silk board flyover and there was a huge traffic block before BETL. Took 10 minutes to enter the BETL  and finally at 7.16 we took the flyover. Over took a sharma atlas over the flyover at 7.22. reached BETL toll at 7.24. bus was on normal speed . a lot traffic snarls after that.. bus stopped for a minute for some luggage pickup . 3 minutes after crossing BETL toll.  Driver started rippin the bus towards hosur , going zigzag between lorries and frequent honkings. Reached attibele NHAI  toll at 7.40. 

Crossed ashok Leyland unit 1 at 7.42 . overtook a thriunelveli UD after that. At hosur the traffic was high.. bus was slow . tool hosur flyover at 7.50 , once the town was crossed , the bus startd speeded up.. driver was maintaining 100  constantly. No hard breakings . stopped for dinner at CCD/MCD at sholagiri at 8.10. 17 minutes of break and departed at 8.27. started distributing shawls post departing from dinner . bus was slow . maintaining normal speed because of lot diversions and single lane and trucks ahead.. once cleared started rip.. again slowed down , and den again paced up..this routine kept happening for the next half an hour. J finally reached next NHAI toll at 8.57. toll is cleared in one minute.. second driver went off to sleep

A kpn Volvo was found broke down on way. Our driver stopped and spoke for two minutes.. and then left . it was a dark pink B9R. finally movie got over at 9.45. tv was switched off then itself.. no idea where the place was. Saw a A2B on the right,, and a toll hardly a km away.. it was 947 and the next toll was cleared. Driving was not rash.. the bus was maintaining 100 constant . dono if its speed locked as there was sticker in the speedometer. Crossed mettur road diversion at 9.56. time 9.58 , 38 kms to salem. 10.04 , 29 kms to salem ..  10.16 , bus reached next NHAI toll . took two mins to clear the toll. Reached trumpet Grade interchange at 10.28 . 10.47 next NHAI toll past salem. Post one hour at 11.30 crossed next toll. 12.28 LNT toll.. was sleeping all way in between the toll crossings. Two SRMS crossed us in opposite direction within 20 mins . one was tvla and other cbe-chn , finally stopped for fuel at madukarai at 12.51. saw two ACC’s one merc and one Volvo back to back racing towards Bangalore . checked the odometer , the bus had run 2.45l kms. Departed after fueling at 1.03 after gulping in 292 litres of diesel. Minutes later stopped at checkpost . garuda crossed us at 108 to Bangalore . 

RAK501 bang – ekm super express was ahead of us near walayar. Had a hard time to overtake it. Reached walayar at 1.20 . kallada B11r crossed then.  1.26 , the pairing 3341 crossed . both drivers waved with a horn. Just 6 minutes gap between the B11R and SRM. Super speed .  passed walayar and in full throttle to walayar,, KSRTC was ahead den. Again hada tough time to overtake it. And finally made it. In between a lot G4’S passed us . two shamas and a bharathi crossed at 1.34, back to back.. bharathi was the slowest . crossed Palakkad stand at 1.45. time 2.55, the bus was parked at mannuthy for driver change. Departed at 3 . reached tcr NHAI  tol at 3.09. took two minutes to clear the toll.. had a gud sleep after that.. when woke the bus reached aroor NHAI toll 4.15. bus was on decent speed past toll. Dippers was continuously used. 4.48 , kavalor , 4.55 near ksrtc stand allepy , stopped at a pump nearby for a luggage drop . 

Driver got a call .Kollam irumbu palam bridge work was goin on . there was block and vehicles were diverted. Driver got the news from the pairing bus and asked about the diversion routes . reached haripad at 5.25 . there was passenger drop. Driver said cleaner to wake up the concerned passengers getting down at haripad. Lights were not switched on. nearing kayamkulam the cleaner came towards me to say the place is arriving.. I stood and waited near driver before 3 kms itself.. saw the NH was fully tarred . the stretch was smooth.. but the driver was not speeding above 80. Finally I was dropped of at kayankulam at 5.37 

 From kayamkulam stand , took RRM 672 of kylm depot plying kylm –punalur  at  5.50 and I got down at adoor  at 6.45 . took MKK to kodumon and finally reached home at 7.15 .

Overall the trip was good . but I feel 3341 has faster and thrilling drivers than 3340 .  ;) 

Ratings :

Cleanliness: 5/5
Punctuality: 5/5
Staff Behavior: 5/5
Overall: 5/5