319CT on January 30th

I didn't take the Volvo this morning. I have to go some place from work. So I drove to office.

I saw two 319CT Volvo bus going to Whitefield from Majestic. The first one, to my surprise, was numbered 335E (which usually takes a different route through) Old Airport Road. I saw this one near K.R.Puram. Then again, I saw one319CT near Old Madras Road Big Bazaar. The first one was almost half-occupied. But the second one was fully occupied. I saw some people standing too in the bus. Happy to see people using this.

I'll monitor the timing of the bus in the evening for a few days. Once I'm sure of its time, then I will start using it. I hate to wait a long time at the bus station.

If you want to know the timing of 319CT, see one of my old posts.

My first day's experience with 319CT Volvo bus

I decided to try out the new Volvo 319CT bus on Friday (27th January). Friday is a good day to start this kind of an experiment; and I won't prefer the same experiment on a Monday.

While going to office, I wanted to catch the first bus that leaves Whitefield station at 8:35AM. I expected the bus to reach Hoodi by 8:45AM. I waited at the Hoodi bus stop from 8:35AM. I carry three bags to office - my laptop bag, lunch box and gym bag (I work out at the Gold Gym in RMZ Infinity). While waiting at Hoodi bus stop, I was wondering what if a fully loaded bus comes and how would it be to go there with these three bags.

The bus came sharp in time: at 8:45AM. Two persons, including me, got into the bus at Hoodi. There were four passengers including the two of us who just got into! The other person who caught the bus at Hoodi is Padmanabha Reddy who lives in Golden Star Apartment. He works in TCS at its Majestic office.

The fare to Benniganahalli (where my office is located) is Rs 25/-. I was earlier thinking of a buying a monthly BMTC pass. Someone told me that it costs Rs 1500. When I came to know that the fare to my office is Rs 25/-, then I knew that I won't require the monthly pass. Daily I would need Rs 50/-. Considering the fact that there are about 20 working days, so monthly fare will be Rs 1000. I was happy. I spend more than Rs 3000/- worth petrol every month in my car.

The bus reached K.R. Puram very soon. There were lots of passengers waiting for bus; but hardly one or two passengers got into the Volvo. Same scenario at Tin Factory. So many passengers waiting there; but only five persons got into our bus. It is quite contrary to 335E or 500C routes where most people just wait for the Volvo. I was wondering if this 319C would be commercially viable and if not, BMTC may stop it!

While I was tweeting and updating my Facebook status about the bus journey, the bus reached Benniganahalli at 9:05AM. I enjoyed this journey. But I was a bit apprehensive about the return journey.

For the return journey, I reached Benniganahalli bus stop at 5:30PM. I was expecting the bus that leaves Majestic at 4:50PM to reach RMZ Infinity at around 5:45PM. I waited till about 6PM; but the bus didn't come. Then I asked a person waiting at the bus stop about the Volvo. (He works in HP and belongs to a town in Andhra which is about 120km from Bangalore. He is waiting for a bus to go to his home-town.) He told me that I missed the bus by a few minutes. The bus left at around 5:25PM! Since I already waited for 30 minutes, I thought that I could catch the next bus which should come in 45 minutes duration from the previous one.

I was wondering if there is GPS system in the Volvo bus. I could then just send an SMS and find out the location of the bus. (We do it for my son's school bus)

There were lots of non-AC BMTC buses (blue-colored ordinary buses and brown colored Pushpak buses) going to Whitefield as I was waiting for the Volvo bus . The ordinary blue colored buses were full of passengers. The pushpak buses looked good. I was thinking of getting into one of these. But then I thought that since I'm doing an experiment, why not wait for the Volvo.

But the 319CT Volvo bus didn't come till 6:30PM. My eyes, head and neck started paining looking for the bus. It was slowly getting dark. There were mosquitos flying around. Finally I took an auto-rickshraw back home paying Rs 100!

Well, I am not going to do this experiment once again. With two kids at home, the last thing I would do is to spend an hour in a bus stop.

New BMTC Volvo Route 319CT

I live in Hoodi near ITPL, Bangalore and work in Synopsys which is in RMZ Infinity, Old Madras Road. There are lots of buses in this route; but there is not a single Volvo bus. There is a good news coming from BMTC today that a new Volvo bus route has been launched from Whitefield (near Sathya Saya Baba Hospital) to KBS, Majestic via RMZ Infinity. This route is named 319CT. (KBS is Kempegowda Bus Station, also known as Majestic Bus Station opposite to Bangalore Central railway station).

BMTC has also launched two more new Volvo buses through my place Hoodi:

• 335 ET: From Whitefield, Hoodi to KBS Majestic via Graphite India, Marathahalli
• 504: From Hoodi to Domlur

The details of these buses and their timings are available in this excel-sheet that we have received from BMTC.

I am more interested in 319CT as it covers my office route. However I found that BMTC's spread-sheet for 319CT is a bit confusing. So I've created a new view of the 319CT timing here. See my view of 319CT here in PDF format or Excel format.

There will be three buses plying in this route. I have used three color codes (yellow, blue and white) for these three buses in my table. A bus start from KBS and then goes to Whitefield. It takes 5 minutes break in Whitefield and then returns to KBS. See the following two tables.

Let us start using these buses. We can help in reducing Bangalore's traffic condition by using public transportation and contribute to a greener earth.