Bangalore travellers: Beware of Cheats

This is a travel advisory to all newbies who visit Bangalore.

If you want to travel to Chennai [Madras] by the much hyped ‘air-conditioned Volvo sleepers’, a journey that’s supposed to be completed in five and a half to six hours, watch out.

The Maharaja Bus terminus is the place where you get hooked.

A nice chap will lead you to the ‘Friends Travel Agency’.

Look, I was accompanied by a Kannada speaking Tamil local.
The tout spoke to him so convincingly in Tamil, that the guy told me that I’d probably be in safe hands.

So we went to the Friends Travel Agency. It’s a small shop right near the bus station.
I had to catch an early morning train at the Madras Central Station.

We were assured by the agent at the counter that the bus would drop us off at Madras Central Railway station at 5:30 am or even before that. We were to report to the counter at 10 pm. The bus would leave at 10:30 pm. Passengers were charged Rs 500 each.

At 10 pm, we were escorted to GEE PEE Travels no 9, KSRTC Bus Terminus, Tank Bund road, Bangalore. The earlier ‘tickets’ were exchanged for ‘travelling passes’. We were again assured that passengers for Madras Central would be dropped off at the station.

At 10:40 pm we were asked to board a white van and were driven to a place which was near the Bangalore Race Course. We were asked to wait for the bus. This wasn’t a bus stop, but a road-side. One Volvo was already parked there. It was bound for Hyderabad.

At about 11:15, our Volvo finally rolls in. But it’s not time to board yet. The cleaner, starts, washing the windshield.

By 11:45, it’s clear that we are about nine passengers and the bus isn’t going to budge unless they rope in a few more. By midnight, the passengers begin getting restive and phone the head office on the numbers given. After a while, the driver switches the air-conditioning on, and asks passengers to board the bus, and then disappears.

Finally, at 1:15, with some more people gleaned from another service, the bus, marked Zuber transport, leaves. At this time, the staffer from GP travels assures passengers that the bus will make up time and get us into Chennai Central by 7 am.

The next morning, at 7 am we were still travelling through the outskirts of the outskirts of Chennai.

At 8:15, the bus pulls up at a ‘contract bus stand’, nownere near the railway station. The driver refuses to budge further. He says, I don’t take orders from Gee Pee. My owner is different. My mandate is to reach you here.

There’s a mad scramble as people are desperate to find vehicles to get them to their destinations. Autos charge triple rates. It cost me Rs 150 to get to the railway station to catch my train.

Later on, on the train, I look at the ‘travelling pass’. There’s no signature. The destination has a scrawl that reads ‘Chemi’ the time of departure has a scrawl that reads 12h, it could be a 12 pm if you stretch it, but it certainly doesn’t look like a 10:30. Bus number 2776. Now the ‘cash receipt cum travelling pass’ has conveniently no amount entered after the ‘Rs’.

None of these details could be checked at the time, because they exchanged the first ticket for a green card ‘pass’ and bustled us into the ‘transport vehicle’ with such courtesy and efficiency and speed. As a piece of evidence, the ‘pass’ is worthless.

Of course, these people aren’t going to get away with it.
My student friends who so honestly were taken in, will be paying a friendly visit to ‘friends travels’. Soon.

Watch this space for developments.


[BTW the photo is one I took waiting for the bus that night. it was on the wall of the Bangalore Turf club.]