15B; 17D; 17M; 19B;
1B; 219A; 21G; 21H; 29C; 500; 500C; 568C; 570; 599; A51; D70; E 18……… Can you tell what
connects these ? Chennaites do well
know, that these are Bus numbers .. there is little more to it…
In city you get to travel in Volvo buses too on select
routes … ‘Aktiebolaget Volvo’ is a
Swedish multinational manufacturing company headquartered in Gothenburg , Sweden
Old timers remember it as PTC (Pallavan Transport
Corporation) … the present day Metropolitan Transport Corporation was
established way back in 1972 with a fleet strength of 1,029 buses and has come
a long way. Remember those days, there
used to bus service to every part of Chennai city connecting important places
like Broadway (Parrys Corner/ High Court), Central Railway station ~ route no.
1 used to run from Triplicane OT to Tondiarpet.
In earlier days, Transport corporations in Tamil Nadu were named
variously, till the ban on names came …. Now it is simple MTC (Metropolitan
Transport Corporation)
The transport facility in Chennai is considered to be good
– generally the fleet is good and runs on time. If you are lucky enough, you
may get to travel in the comfort of an airconditioned bus – Volvo one at
that. In the sweltering heat, it would
provide great comfort travelling in a dust-free environment – the bus has great
suspension and runs pretty fast. Though
there are many routes in which AC buses are run according to MTC web, there are
some where the services are skeleton….for example T51 – which runs from
Tambaram East via SIVET, Pallavan Nagar, Medavakkam, Perumbakkam,
Sozhinganallur, Karapakkam, Thorapakkam, LB to Thiruvanmiyur – has one in the
morning and one in the closing hours – the timing when the buses go to their
depots and none during the hot day !! (when the same AC bus is run on different
route)
The Hindu recently had a report that commuters are asking
for more airconditioned buses in more routes …. ..during summer ~ reports
suggest that most of the AC buses are
being operated on long-distance routes, for better revenue. MTC has a total of
100 AC buses. On an average, each bus earns about Rs. 16,000 every day. It is
stated that services on many routes
within the city have been stopped since the MTC felt it was not generating
enough revenue.
The IT Corridor aka OMR (Rajiv Gandhi Salai) is perhaps
one route which has most of the airconditoned buses – as all of them enjoy good
patronage, thanks to IT / ITES en route … and buoyed the good patronage, there
are more numbers … the bus staff are very courteous, some stop even away from
bus stops on seeing commuter – generally only the gate near the driver is
opened – as this ensures the cooling inside is preserved better.
If one thought, that Air travel is the mode of elite and
hence every elitist service over here would have better patronage, that is not
to be …. as recently, MTC suspended its airconditioned 16-seater bus service
from the airport to Koyambedu, citing poor patronage.
Instead, the service is now being operated from Tambaram
to Koyambedu and further towards Red Hills. The reason being cited for poor
patronage is the steep fare — Rs. 110/- for a trip from the airport to
Koyambedu. According to MTC sources, the
crew was operating largely empty buses, most of the time. Four AC buses were
operated on the route, each making at least four shuttle services a day. These
are blue buses and some complain that unlike the regular AC Volvo coaches, the
blue buses are much steeper to climb - also, since the bus cannot carry more
than 16 seated passengers, travel by standing is not comfortable.
So next time you are out on OMR, better wait
for the comfort of an airconditioned bus, though it might cost you more !
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
8th Apr 2014.
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