BUS – VANDI PART3 (Continued frompart 2)
21 Madras citybuses In 1964 end I came to Madras (Now Chennai). Myexperience was with city buses at that time. City buses in Chennai are identified by their numbers.Buses were painted red, one exit and one entrance were there. There were bells in the bus,which passengers could operate to get down from the bus, if conductor was busythe other way. Crowd was too much; it was difficult to see the stop where onehad to get down. Some conductors announced stops. Stopping of the bus was for few seconds. Ifthey were Hindus conductors could be seen only with sandal paste with kumkum/holy ash applied on the forehead. Conductors on those days talked Chennai Tamilto elders of Chennai employed in selling fruits, vegetables etc. This languagewas singular use mostly. Today we cannot see any conductor using such language.Respective words like Neenga, Vanga, and Ponga etc. are only used. Most use sirto passengers. Buses started from early morning 5AM to 11 PM. Laternight buses were introduced with 1.5 times fare. 22 Doubledecker buses Double decker buses were there till about 2012 in thecity. Two conductors were there, one for upper deck. Driver again started busafter stopping in a bus stop, only after both conductors gave whistle. Stilllady conductors are less in buses comparing to Bangalore. Now there are nodouble decker buses in Chennai city. Unlike Kerala conductor giving bell is notin Tamilnadu. He uses whistle or tell the conductor, yes, we can start afterstopping in a bus stop. 23 Trailerbuses City’s another attraction trailer buses. One mini bus attached to main bus. Ithad separate conductor. Trailer buses also slowly disappearing from the roads. Butstill they are running. 24 Specialbuses Still city has lengthy buses with one entry/ exit inthe middle. Generally all entry/ exit in city buses are wider comparing to Keralabuses. Some buses have more steps enabling very elder passengers to get in. 25 Colour ofbus The earlier buses were painted red, later green andgrey, and now and light red and yellow colour Newly introduced buses are painted dark red. The newdark red buses are city expresses, charged more. Ordinary buses are chargedless, and white board buses charge still less. 26 Frequency ofoperation Earlier frequency was less, especially in interiorroutes. Now in main routes once in 5 minutes a bus is there. Interior routesonce in 15 minutes. 27 Airconditioned buses AC buses appeared with lessor stops, with specialuniform for conductors, announcement of stops in loud speaker, smilingconductors etc. They had very high fare.After the AC units started failing they disappeared from the routes. But localfish merchants found it very convenient, not to decay fish while they wereoperating. They did not mind excess fare. 28 Ownership Earlier transport was under government, later made tocorporations, and again now under government. 29 Longdistance buses Earlier they were called express buses andcomparatively less. Now Long distance buses are more, most paintedlight blue. Private operators are now less in Chennai. I recollect coming to Chennaifrom Nagerkovil in the express bus. Half ticket was identified with a marking.Irrespective of the age of the boy/girl, if they exceeded the marked height,full ticket was charged. Buses are designated point to point, NH traveller etc 30 Tickets. In city buses tickets are white in colour but printing in differentcolours. The conductor tear exactly at the printing of the ticket up to the point where it isvalid. However in express buses it is punched in the ticket.Express bus tickets are 3 times larger than the city bus ticket. No writing of half fare ticket. The uniform colour was khaki. Blue shirt and violet red pants wereintroduced for drivers and conductors who safely conducted journeys for 10years or so. Now most wear blue shirt and khaki/any colour pant. Earlier ticketrack was not there, now most carry ticket in rack. 31. Behavior In long distance routes drivers and conductors directpassengers. For a destination, five buses may be parked; they direct passengersfor the earliest one. In all routes the behavior of conductors is better thanKerala, but not up toBangalore. 32. Koyempedubus stand More than 50 % long distance buses operate from Koyempedu Busstand. It is one of thelargest ones in India. 50% starts fromother bus stands like Tambaram, T nagar, Adyar, Highcourt etc. 33. Bus bays. Unlike Kerala in the city, Chennai bus bays are more.Many buses in city start from these bus bays. Bus bays accommodate 7-9 buses ata time. Tambaram has a bus stand and five bus bays for an instance. EarlierSaidapet had a very big bus bay. 34 Private busoperations In places like Trichy, Tirunelveli, Madurai, Karur, Erode,Coimbatore, Kanchipuram etc private buses are much more comparing to Governmentbuses. 35. Busesthrough railway stations In Chennai (MGR) central, buses towards Parrys etcpass through the railway station. Most buses park for a few minutes. FromChennai Egmore many city buses start to other city areas. I will continue innext posting -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/2028353284.1063549.1638872504175%40mail.yahoo.com.
