I know bangalore weather doesnt require an A/C. But it still cuts the dust out. Hence going to work, and having to looks presentable I prefer the Volvos over the others.

I would prefer to have last option to be "Ordinary bus is enough - I need more frequency and no crowding".

-- navshot

mudalu, elli hoaguvaduntha gotthagabaekke??? Neevae haeli

[flickr-photo:id=2691970444,size=m]

Muralidhar Rao

Whats good in a volvo is:

1.low flooring which makes it that much easier for senior citizens to get it

2. Driver comfort - power steering and gearless..I guess this is best not only for the drivers but also for the bustops as the busses

3.being easily manoverable bus will be brought to stop in the right place rather than the current middle of the road stopping

4.AC not required..bangalore doesnt need a/c .This will mean fuel saved!

As SB said rightly, the below poverty line people should get subsidised passes. It is great to give all the classes of people access to airconditioned travel. Travelling even standing in airconditioned buses doesn't with access to more free space, one doesn't feel tiring. This is where Lalu is good and he changed the rules of railways by introducing Garib Rath, Sampark Kranthi and Jan Shatabdi and keeping the fares low. Today, BMTC ordinary pass is 400 rupees and Bangalore-Mysore train monthly season ticket is 380 rupees.

Many feel that only Volvos or airconditioned, the problem as I said earlier is that with this class of buses, it is clear that it is to pull the upper class to the buses. But, they may or may not use the services since they have the alternatives and that is why we see lots of empty Volvos running around the town. People are patronizing BIAL service is due to the fact that alternatives are expensive, it was not so during HAL days and we used to see lots of congestion near Airport.  Volvos are expensive too for any transport company to afford.

On the other hand, nearly 7-8 ordinary buses can be purchased at the cost of Volvos. This will be definitely used to the maximum extent since it is used by people who do not have alternative modes of travel. Frequency will increase and their travel will become more comfortable.

I would suggest to add more and more buses to existing routes first to give a comfortable travel who depends only on buses. Local routing with TTMC concept will definitely improve the frequency of buses, but people have to change more buses. Some people I don't know why cry saying I changed so many buses. This is what public transit is all about,  end to end connectivity to all possible routes is difficult.

Volvos or airconditioned buses (which defaults to Volvos as of now) are very important resource. Routes for these should be planned in a careful way more to the IT areas. People travelling to far off offices like ITPL from say Jayanagar or Electronic City from Vijaynagar are using company provided buses. The IT areas within the city mainly Koramangala and Bannerghatta Road is the problem since the travel time is less and driving is easy. Company buses run only in one or two schedules and they come very early in the morning as in the case of our company. Hence people are reluctant to take company buses. If BMTC can come up with the airconditioned/Pushpak/Suvarna as desired by all to these areas from residential areas with minimum 'hops', it can reduce the congestion to some extent. Once it is fully established, congestion charges can be levied on single occupancy cars in these core areas. 

BMTC can try out retrofitting A/C to normal Leyland or Tata buses or get the quote from them for prebuilt A/C buses an economical alternative to Volvos. The fares should be nominal enough for these buses and it should run like Pushpaks of today with little extra than an ordinary bus. KSRTC has retrofitted A/C to normal buses, BMTC should learn from her sister KSRTC on this.