2015 was a great year for both the corporations in AndhraPradesh and Telangana , This is the year that the corporations split and started functioning separately. though they are slowly functioning as separate entities they are still bound by (the Love of) Z ! This year was exciting for us at Love of Z , We enjoyed experiencing APSRTC's launch in January, TSRTC's surprise B11R and not to forget, APSRTC's biggest challenge in recent past - Godavari Mahapushkaralu . the corporation might have fumbled initially but took the load gracefully as the time progressed. TSRTC, on other hand handled Jatara and Pushkaralu with ease as usual . As the year started coming to end, both AP and TS surprised us with new inductions. AP got Scania "Amaravati" s and TS got new "Rajadhani"s .
Everything was not as good as the introduction this year, employees of both the corporations went on a long strike demanding pay hike. Thankfully after a month long struggle, they got their due. APSRTC increased its fares and things have not been good between both the corporations since then with TSRTC turning out to be the cheaper alternative. Both corporations however seemed to agree on one thing, did they bow down to pressure from government ? AP saw three rounds of color scheme revisions this year . From brazen indication of ruling party's colors on the bus to subtle lines . TS too followed suit with rather subtle indication of pink on its buses . One sad moment that we will remember forever is the death of classic pallevelugu livery . Both the corporations went ahead and changed the colors of this entry level service . AP went a step ahead and renamed its ordinary service as " Telugu Velugu ".
Our worst fears came true this year . The percentage of hired buses is increasing at an alarming rate in both the corporations . Both the corporations renewed and re called for hire buses . Hyderabad, for the first time in many days is going to have hired metro express buses. Things seem much bleak in AP with the corporation calling tenders for 800 new hired buses which include Indra,Super Luxury and Deluxe buses . Up on analyzing the route data, It is obvious that they have proposed for hired buses on the routes which are most profitable for the corporation . Is it a good move ? While we can question the legitimacy of this decision it is obvious that corporation is in dire need of revenue . We hope the idea of exploiting the properties the corporation has to generate revenue succeeds and tickets wont remain the only source of revenue . We will continue to question the need for hired buses as the data we analyzed over last month reveals that hire bus owners and some greedy officers do indulge in botching up the operational data.
In other news, Andhrapradesh rebuilt a huge number of City Ordinaries and Telugu Velugu s . Finally zonal workshops have mastered the art of building proper buses reducing the load on BBU miyapur . The takeover of TATA regions by Eicher came as a rude shock for us even as we were accepting this fact, TSRTC surprised us with Eicher Pallevelugu s , Eicher is now set to take over AL too . As if this was not enough we now have Eicher Super Luxuries , Someone from Eicher is really marketing hard . Both AP and TS have made applying for bus passes easier with dedicated websites to cater for bus pass registration . Gone are the days when one is forced to stand in long lines at counters. We wish this initiative is spread more , As the corporations split, the reservation sites also got split this year . TS changed its URL twice though . Year is ending on a positive note with AP making attempts to bring the Vehicle tracking system - Passenger information system website live .
A lot happened this year in urban operations front too . Both the corporations notified SPV s for urban operations but as we expected they are not operating the way they should . This is year is significant for small cities in both states as the JnNURM deliveries happened finally. We were wrong in expecting new city routes in small cities all of the metros delivered to tirupati and Chittor ended up as inter city buses . Maybe we should re think on how these small cities work . On other hand in Hyderabad, as expected the condition of JnNURM one AL metro SLF s deteriorated beyond repair this year . After long delay , TSRTC decided to rebuild 600 of them . Initially few were rebuilt as metros by BBU and now the lone workshop for AP and TSRTC is re building three buses a day as ordinaries for hyderabad. This year also saw the rise of 300 ! the core route of 300 which runs along the inner ring road of hyderabad has been successful in connecting the eastern suburbs of hyderabad . Buoyed by the success and availability of fleet thanks to JnNURM 2 volvos , tsrtc is going beserk with combinations on this route . latest one being 277/300J a combination of 277 , 300 and 126 . This post will remain incomplete without the mention of JANBUS . JanBus , an innovation from AL made inroads into APSRTC as metro express with Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam operating them on core city routes (thankfully) .
A lot to tell you ! We saw a lot this year. I (Ratnam) travelled to Vijayawada,Rajamundry cities and Kadapa,Chittor,Nellore and Prakasam districts all to experience a few special moments with the Corporation , I also made numerous journeys between my home Hyderabad and workplace Bengaluru , All of them made special by the on time reaching TSRTC guys , I experienced the 7R, 9R , 11R, and Merc . Nothing can beat the one odd evening journey in my home depot, Hyd-2's AL SL . My journeys to vijayawada and Rajamundry were made special by Revanth , Krishna on other never made me feel I was away from home with constant updates about greater hyderabad RTC s attempts at innovation , krishna Bhayya said, his special journeys this year were to Bangalore in Merc , the return journey in 11R where he had the joy of sharing Love of Z with the crew . It was delightful to know they loved our post Samstha Kosam Sibbandi. Krishna also made a quick trip to hyderabad just to enjoy a ride on the new Rajadhani to Nirmal . We hope this joy ride continues next year too :)
Wishing both the corporations and all of you good health a very happy new year .
This is Ratnam at LOVEofZ .
Our worst fears came true this year . The percentage of hired buses is increasing at an alarming rate in both the corporations . Both the corporations renewed and re called for hire buses . Hyderabad, for the first time in many days is going to have hired metro express buses. Things seem much bleak in AP with the corporation calling tenders for 800 new hired buses which include Indra,Super Luxury and Deluxe buses . Up on analyzing the route data, It is obvious that they have proposed for hired buses on the routes which are most profitable for the corporation . Is it a good move ? While we can question the legitimacy of this decision it is obvious that corporation is in dire need of revenue . We hope the idea of exploiting the properties the corporation has to generate revenue succeeds and tickets wont remain the only source of revenue . We will continue to question the need for hired buses as the data we analyzed over last month reveals that hire bus owners and some greedy officers do indulge in botching up the operational data.
In other news, Andhrapradesh rebuilt a huge number of City Ordinaries and Telugu Velugu s . Finally zonal workshops have mastered the art of building proper buses reducing the load on BBU miyapur . The takeover of TATA regions by Eicher came as a rude shock for us even as we were accepting this fact, TSRTC surprised us with Eicher Pallevelugu s , Eicher is now set to take over AL too . As if this was not enough we now have Eicher Super Luxuries , Someone from Eicher is really marketing hard . Both AP and TS have made applying for bus passes easier with dedicated websites to cater for bus pass registration . Gone are the days when one is forced to stand in long lines at counters. We wish this initiative is spread more , As the corporations split, the reservation sites also got split this year . TS changed its URL twice though . Year is ending on a positive note with AP making attempts to bring the Vehicle tracking system - Passenger information system website live .
A lot happened this year in urban operations front too . Both the corporations notified SPV s for urban operations but as we expected they are not operating the way they should . This is year is significant for small cities in both states as the JnNURM deliveries happened finally. We were wrong in expecting new city routes in small cities all of the metros delivered to tirupati and Chittor ended up as inter city buses . Maybe we should re think on how these small cities work . On other hand in Hyderabad, as expected the condition of JnNURM one AL metro SLF s deteriorated beyond repair this year . After long delay , TSRTC decided to rebuild 600 of them . Initially few were rebuilt as metros by BBU and now the lone workshop for AP and TSRTC is re building three buses a day as ordinaries for hyderabad. This year also saw the rise of 300 ! the core route of 300 which runs along the inner ring road of hyderabad has been successful in connecting the eastern suburbs of hyderabad . Buoyed by the success and availability of fleet thanks to JnNURM 2 volvos , tsrtc is going beserk with combinations on this route . latest one being 277/300J a combination of 277 , 300 and 126 . This post will remain incomplete without the mention of JANBUS . JanBus , an innovation from AL made inroads into APSRTC as metro express with Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam operating them on core city routes (thankfully) .
A lot to tell you ! We saw a lot this year. I (Ratnam) travelled to Vijayawada,Rajamundry cities and Kadapa,Chittor,Nellore and Prakasam districts all to experience a few special moments with the Corporation , I also made numerous journeys between my home Hyderabad and workplace Bengaluru , All of them made special by the on time reaching TSRTC guys , I experienced the 7R, 9R , 11R, and Merc . Nothing can beat the one odd evening journey in my home depot, Hyd-2's AL SL . My journeys to vijayawada and Rajamundry were made special by Revanth , Krishna on other never made me feel I was away from home with constant updates about greater hyderabad RTC s attempts at innovation , krishna Bhayya said, his special journeys this year were to Bangalore in Merc , the return journey in 11R where he had the joy of sharing Love of Z with the crew . It was delightful to know they loved our post Samstha Kosam Sibbandi. Krishna also made a quick trip to hyderabad just to enjoy a ride on the new Rajadhani to Nirmal . We hope this joy ride continues next year too :)
Wishing both the corporations and all of you good health a very happy new year .
This is Ratnam at LOVEofZ .
