Volvo's or Marcopolo's?

 SB,

The Ground Globe buses cost almost Rs.1 crore.  I remember mentioning the same thing to Ashwin Mahesh and he gave me this figure.

Most (90+%) of buses sold in India are not built on true bus chassis.  They share the chassis with trucks.   Which is why they still have the engine mounted just behind the front axle.  With a front engine and a rear drive, the transmission will not allow the floor to go below a certain level (remember that hump in your old Fiat car in the back seat?).  Rear engine + rear drive does not give you those problems.  

Your drive train will be very different.  Also suspension for a truck chassis will be much harsher than for a true bus chassis.  They might have softer settings, air suspensions, coil springs vs. leaf springs, etc.  

Likely that the truck business is either more profitable or dealing with state transport corporations is something that they want to minimize.  

I guess during boom times they want to put their capacity behind their core business and minimise changeovers.  

Srivathsa

 Blrsri,

I have been on these and they feel underpowered.  But given our city speed histogram (most of the time is spent at 0 speed at signals), it may not be a killer. 

Low floor is different from low ingress and egress.  Genuine low floor buses are disabled friendly and a person on a wheelchair will not have the issue of steps.

I think the big bus/truck companies have not seen city buses as a big volume segment.  I think that will change in the next few years.

Srivathsa

The Delhi transport corp recently tendered and ordered for a whopping 3100+ low-floor (both AC and non-AC) buses to be delivered before CW games.

The tender was won by both Ashok Leyland (800+ buses) and Tata motors (2300+ buses) .

There were a few quality issues noticed but nothing major.

BMTC should also go for these Tata or AL buses instead of the costlier Volvo buses. Things would definitely be clearer if BMTC goes for a transparent tendering process, rather than behind the scenes procurement as is being done now.

 Today afternoon I saw ISUZU mini A/C bus with same painting as Volvo running on ORR. Don't know any plans of BMTC to introduce mini A/C buses.

Based on my (limited) observation so far, the Marcopolos are a sad story.

As already pointed out, they are under-powered and noisy. Even worse if you happen to be outside on the road/pavement when one passes you - the engine sounds like one of those loud diesel generator that retail shops had a few years back, only much worse. And they already belch smoke - I saw one recently that was spewing it out by the tonne. Considering these are all new buses, that is pathetic.

To my mind, this first effort of the Tatas in the A/c City Bus segment is like their initial forays in the passenger segment. For all the nationalistic fervour at the time of the Indica launch, it was undeniably a shoddy product.

BMTC, please let's stick with Volvos till Tata/AL learn to build better buses. Charge me more for the ticket, I'll pay.

In most of the Volvos, you cannot control the A/C Vent and it continuously blows cold air. This becomes very bad when you are wet in the rain and sit in a Vajra which I experienced once.

These vents are fully rotatable and at the back there is a butterfly which opens and closes. This is a plastic structure and people break this quite often.

This should be made non fully rotatable so that people do not break the butterfly like structure behind the vent or vents should be put like the Intercity Volvos which are not fully rotatable.

I also heard the new   Isuzu AC bus on route No. BIAS-12(Heard it ran in 25A today) is also quite good. If BMTC can run these also it will be beneficial.

BMTC started with the low-floor concept right from 2001 and has now improved from the white parisara vahinis introduced then to the blue buses of today. Hope more improvements take place year after year making it the best.

Some time back it was announced that BMTC had taken over bus shelters from BBMP. Still BBMP have removed overnight three shelters on 100ft. rd, Indiranagar. After lot of phone calls to many BBMP depts it is now known that one Advt. section of BBMP is handling this. The AEE said that the design of shelters is left to the advertiser!

He agreed to consider suggestions from commuters.

 I request any praja who can provide a design as per any norm(IRC?) to give it here so that it may be informed  to the engineer.

K.V.Pathy

The motivation of the advertiser is to advertise.  Here is where clear engineering standards for bus shelters would help! 

The recently introduced marcopolos are o k in looks but  emit thick black

exhaust fumes .Are the Bmtc people aware of this?

I had the opportunity to travel in a Marcopolo (AC version) recently - on route 501C. Many of the observations made by Srinidhi and Vasanth ring true. Some important points, which IMHO BMTC should take note of:

1. Noise: the engine sounds like a generator both within and outside the bus, and there is little sound insulation at all speeds (in stark contrast to the Volvos which only emit a gentle purring sound).

2. Pollution - I really wonder whether these meet our emission standards? Or is the fuel the problem? Either way, BMTC needs to do something to prevent those thick black clouds of smoke from pouring out of the exhaust.

3. AC vents: No vents for standing passengers, despite the bus running full with standees almost throughout the run - is this because the AC is not powerful enough (noticeably less powerful cooling than a Volvo)? On a positive note, the AC vents for seats cannot be rotated fully, thereby preventing vandalism and accidental breakage. Volvo should take a cue from here.

4. Acceleration - terrible at all speeds. Not only was the bus slow to pick up from a standing start, but even at higher speeds, on a relatively uncrowded ORR, the engine was straining to accelerate even on level stretches.

Overall, while Marcopolos might be cheaper, they are a definite compromise in quality when compred to the Volvos. One also needs to examine Tata's after-sales service (Volvo's is reported to be excellent - possibly in part because their factory and offices are located here).

One positive was the announcement-cum-LED indication system, which seems to be GPS-linked. Quite effective and the announcements are loud and clear. Also, despite the terrible acceleration, we managed better than any PV or Suvarna - the stretch from Goraguntepalya to BU was covered in 25 minutes flat (around 8 pm). On a slightly tangential note, it was heartening to see AC services on the western half of the ORR (which seems to be the poor cousin of its eastern counterpart).

During our technical inspection, we found the fuel efficiency of the bus not up to the mark, engine noise and smoke emission above the limits and gaps in the doors that allow dust to come in. We have asked the company to rectify these problems

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