subject: Chennai Buses [print this page] Chennai Buses Chennai Buses
When you are on the road you can see different colors of buses such as red, green, blue, orange, white, and so on plying on the road. During morning and evening the buses will be fully packed. Most of them will be travelling on the footboard; some are clinging on to the iron bar near the entrance door, etc. And when bus stops at the bus stop, I could hear someone from inside the bus shouting pinnadi erunga, pinnadi erunga'. At first I thought that someone is calling someone or the conductor shouting the name of the places, the buses goes. Basically, I am from Kerala and I do not know Tamil. Actually it was the conductor shouting to everyone to enter the bus through the back door. All the buses in Chennai have a unique number on the route board. It is really very helpful to everyone who doesn't know how to read Tamil. I will note down the unique number of the buses that goes to my office and to my house. That is how I survive here.
But some of them entered the bus through the front door and the conductor started shouting and murmuring in Tamil. He is asking everyone who enter through the front door to pass the money for the ticket and each time he gives tickets to them he keeps murmuring something. This is a usual incident that occurs in the buses in Chennai. In Kerala, the bus conductors won't tell you any such stuff like this. Even if there is rush in the bus, he will come near you to issue the bus ticket. He will never complaint or murmur and they always maintain the proper bus timings. The buses will reach the respective bus stops at the correct time. But in Chennai, it is not like that. I have lots of real life experiences.
I am staying at Nanganallur and my office is at Chetpet. For going to office I need to catch a bus from Nanganallur to Pazhvanthangal. From there I have to travel by electric train to Chetpet. In the morning, during the peak hours, every 10 to 15 minutes there is a bus service from my place. But the buses won't maintain the proper bus times. All the buses will be coming together and creating problem for the consumers and because of that many will be late for office or they may miss the bus, etc. The drivers and conductors will be having their breakfast together and talk with everyone and waste time instead of starting the bus service at the proper time and create inconvenience to the consumers. The same thing happens in the evening also. I used to reach the Pazhvanthangal bus stop by 7:45pm and I have to stand there for almost an hour and around 8:40pm three buses going to the same destination from the same starting point will be coming one behind the other and around 9pm only I will be able to reach home. I will mention some of the incidents that occurred in the bus.
Three buses coming one after the other is a usual thing. One day one customer argued with the conductor that you people will have tea with the other drivers and conductors and waste time instead of starting the bus at the proper time and create inconvenience to the consumer and I am going to complaint about it to the concerned people. Then he replied that if you want to come by bus you can come otherwise get out and there was a heated argument between the customers and the conductor. At that time someone in the crowd said we should record the conversation as a video and the conductor heard it. After that he didn't utter even a single word even though others are talking to him. He knows that the fault is on his part, so he kept quite because he knew he will be in more trouble if someone records. I think the higher officials are not taking proper care whether buses are maintaining the proper timings. I feel that the higher officials should conduct some surprise inspections so that they can catch the ones who are not doing their jobs properly or they should have a proper way the consumers can report the problems to the transport officials.
The other incident was about the door issue. After four stops the bus will reach the main stand, so the bus was almost empty, there were around 15 people in the bus. At one stop, a lady got into the bus through the front door, she was the only person who got into the bus from that stop and when the bus stopped the front door was directly in front of her, so obviously she will be getting though the front door. The conductor started shouting at her. She occupied the seat near the door. When she tried to pass the money to the conductor, the conductor told that person not to take the money from her and asked her to come to him to buy the ticket. For which, the lady did not respond and she sat there itself. The conductor was shouting at her all the time. After sometime he went near her to issue the ticket. That time also he was shouting. Then she told the conductor that his duty is to issue ticket, so do that and keep your mouth shut. After issuing the ticket he was about to leave without giving her the balance. When she asked for the balance he said he won't give the balance because she entered through the front door and didn't come to him to take the ticket.
A conductor's job is to issue tickets to the consumers and take the money for the ticket from the consumer. If he is not willing to do the job that is assigned to him, he can resign the job. There are lots of unemployed people in this city. It will be a great help to them. Hope the higher officials will take proper care about the behavior of the people working under them.
