Royal Travels-Redbus.in-Madurai to Bangalore

First thing first : *******Do not travel on this bus***********

Booked a ticket from Madurai to Bangalore on Royal Travels through Redbus. Reached the Periyar bus stand in Madurai 1/2 an hour early to board the bus. At the travels office, I was sitting with ease knowing that I will be informed when the bus arrives and journey will be hassle free. I was completely wrong.

First Shocker:  Zero information. Once the time for departure came, I started to inquire about my bus at the counter. The guy looked at the Redbus ticket, then stared at me, asking me to wait. I took three rounds of entire bus stand looking out for Royal bus, sweating profusely, with no success. I saw couple of other woman looking concerned late at night trying to find the bus as well.

Somebody from the management announced that SHAM travels bus to Bangalore has arrived and people started to leave. I got suspicious and enquired at the counter again showing my eticket. The guy said yes this is your bus.


Second Shocker: Royal Travels did not have any bus for Bangalore. Yes, there was NO BUS named Royal Travels.  I took my luggage and went to SHAM travel bus, there I was informed that even this is not my bus and instructed to go to the next bus standing.


At the bus gate they guy confirmed that yes this is the bus that I need to board. This was the same guy whom I asked 10 times before and he chose not to answer. He was expecting me to miss the bus so that he can sell the ticket to other waiting passengers. Extreme mismanagement.


Third Shocker: The bus was poor quality very old bus for the fare of Volvo. The bus finally started to move an hour late and I thought maybe the ordeal for the day was over. I was wrong again.


There was a very loud sound coming from bottom of the bus ( I suspect it coming from faulty axle). It was like generator sound blown into your ears. Very loud. The sound remained for rest of the trip, next 9 hours.

I was surprised to see people refusing to protest, instead using earplugs and trying to sleep. What kind of country have we become. The only guy who protested was an elderly person. He went to cabin to protest.

Fourth Shocker: The staff at the cabin threatened the elderly person to keep quiet and asked him to go back to the seat. Yes, the bus is being run by illiterate goons.

Fifth Shocker: The bus driver with such low quality old bus was driving at over 120 kmph. The bus was overtaking Volvo's and SUVs. The more the driver hit the gas the more unbearable sound the bus produced.

The entire experience was an ordeal which I want to forget in a hurry. The bus business has become huge and the time has come to provide structure & professionalism by involving established corporates. The utter mismanagement and illiterate goons employed at these buses are giving everyone a nightmare.

Redbus.in: The management of Redbus do have the information of wrong doings but they chose to look the other way for sake of revenue and business and include them for online booking. Ethics and integrity are foundation of a great business, which seems to be lacking in Redbus. Forget about customer service & satisfaction - this is too big a word for these guys.