The Volvo Service….
I have taken this, with permission, from the LiveJournal of “prashathks” who is (surprise, surprise!) K S Prashanth, who is becoming a good friend of mine….
Has anyone else had such a negative experience on the Volvo buses?
I thought the situation would so bad till I experienced it myself today.
From the LJ entry of “prashanthks:
After returning home, too, late to catch the first shuttle to office, we (my wife Vidhya and I) decided that we will take the Volvo to office. Since some people said that it would not stop at Jayanagar 5th block but only in front of the Ragigudda temple in 9th block, V and I decided to go there. We thought that we might have to go standing but were hopeful that we would get seats soon. But that was not to be. We were among the first 10 or so to stand in the bus but as we went on, more and more people started boarding the bus to the point where was no place to even move a muscle.
I would rather go standing in a BMTC (non-volvo) bus. paying 1/5th the ticket fee *and* hopeful of getting a seat after a few stops. Whereas the public in the Volvo’s are always going to the last stop, i.e ITPL and the other surrounding IT offices. I am talking about buses that ply between ITPL and other places, not onesthat ply from residential to residential areas. This was sheer madness….the more we thought the bus was too crowded to let more people in, the more do…. 10s of people climbing in every stop. Sheer stupidity.
No, Never again I am going to travel in a Volvo if there are no free seats. For that matte….r even if there are free seats, because then its hell getting out from the seats to the door in such a congested envionment. Sux.
Now I understand how the Volvo service is making profits. As far as I am concerned I commute on Bannerghatta Road which has volvo 365 operating on that route. I had never seen the bus having seats occupied & always find it empty.
In the city I come from [I won’t repeat it again] the public transportation is good for most workers. But there are some neighborhoods that are not well served by public transportation. What has happened in these neighborhoods is that entrepreneurial drivers have filled the gap. Some private peoplew drive what is called “Dollar Vans” which go much faster and more frequently than public transportation and cost about half the cost of public transportation.
The Dollar Vans originally were strictly illegal. But the police never bothered. Nowadays there are so many Dollar Vans and they have become part of daily life, that the police will never stop them.
I suspect the same thing can be done here in BLR. People with vans that can carry maybe a dozen people at a reasonable fare for each person can fill in the gaps. There aren’t enough police on the streets of BLR to stop entrepreneurs.
Do any of you think this can work in BLR — which needs this kind of thing desparately?
This case of “prashathks” is very normal. I don’t know why somebody gets into the bus when he knows that there is no place and then complains. I don’t get the logic.