Kickstarting the Chennai bus route mapping project

This is one thing thats been a long time coming and much needed for Chennai. The MTC may be good at increasing their fleet, but they dont seem to know 3 paisa about giving its users usable information or even trying to do so.

You cant always use a bus to make your trip, and knowing weather you can or not is what helps you decide. In the current scenario, not only is there no information about where the bus stops are located, but no one even knows what buses will stop there or what route the bus will take. Even today, the most reliable  guide is the conductor of your bus and nobody else.  Even after three years of religiously using the buses, i have to confirm if the bus goes to my destination with people on the bus before boarding.

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Chennai volvo routes and timings

Had the opportunity to meet with a senior MTC official recently and was able to extract some more details about the newly introduced ac volvo buses.

So far the MTC has acquired 10 buses deployed on 6 routes:
A1 (1) Central – Thiruvanmiyur (via Mylapore)
E18 (2) High Court – Guduvanchery (GST Road)
19G (1) Broadway – Kovalam (ECR)
21G (2) Broadway – Tambaram (GST Road)
A51 (2) Broadway – Tambaram (via Velachery)
D70 (2) Ambattur – Velachery (IRR)

Riding the Chennai Volvo

 

After an episode of having some deadly beach sundal at the marina beach followed by a session of pav bhaji, onion rava and some filter coffee at hot chips in broadway, i felt like treating myself to a little luxury on the way back home. The new air-conditioned volvo buses launched by the mtc in chennai was attracting a lot of public interest within 2 days of their inception and as a die hard public transport traveller, was keen to try it out.