In the last two decades more and more people have been travelling by bus for longer distances than in trains.  While for some bus is the preferred mode of travel, for many others they are forced to travel by bus because of their limitations of being unable to plan their journey well in advance so as to book train tickets.  Especially Employees and businessmen usually travel more by bus because they never get enough intimation to plan for a train journey. Buses  charge much more than trains and yet travelling by bus is a torture if you consider the following points:=

Filthy Bus Stations:- To  begin with most bus travel companies mention on the ticket that a person has to report with his ticket atleast half an hour before the departure of bus.  If for example departure time of a bus is 7:30 pm, a person has to reach the bus travel agents office at 7:00 pm.  The buses usually are parked in the most filthiest of places with heaps of garbage and litter.  The person has to wait there in that environment inhaling the polluted air and thereby increasing chances of picking up a infection.  If that is not enough most buses start at least half an hour after the scheduled departure time.  That means a person has to wait for one hour in a atmosphere which is very conducive for sickness.

Cramped for Space:- Once a person is seated in a buses, there is hardly any space to relax their bodies.  You cannot move around, there is no space for leg movement, as the person has to keep his leg rooted to the bottom.  There is no proper back support. Even with windows opened there is no circulation of air. If a person is seated in a window seat, he cannot get up from his seat without asking the person seated next to him to get up.  Even if it is midnight the other person has to be inconvenienced in being made to get up forcibly.

Videos:- If sitting in a cramped bus, gives body aches, then you get noise aches in the form of videos.  Most of the movies telecasted in videos are very noisy ones.  I vividly recall sitting in a bus in which a movie was telecast on elephants, with noisy drum beats.  Already I was having a headache and the noisy movie aggravated it.  There was hardly anybody watching the movie and yet the crew in the bus were not bothered to find out if whether anybody was watching and was there a point in continuing the torture.

Food Outlets:- Invariably buses stop in food outlets where the quality of food is not upto the acceptable standards of a common man.  These outlets inspite of preparing poor quality of food, make good money as they are priced much higher than in usual outlets.  They know people who are hungry have no other choice but buy it from them.  Needless to say the bus crew are hand in glove with the owners of these outlets. What is worse is that these hotels exist in filthy surroundings which means even if the quality of food is good, the environment surrounding it can cause severe health hazards to the passenger.

Toilet:- It is only natural that we use the toilets often and  with bus travel  you are the mercy of the driver.  One can well imagine the fate of elderly and sick of being forced to sit for hours without being able to go to toilet.

While the above mentioned factors make bus travel a misery still there is some scope for improvement if the following suggestions are looked into by the bus owners.

Bus Owners Association:- Bus Owners should form a Association and contribute some money to ensure that Bus Stations are properly cleaned and maintained.  Bus Stations should be garbage and litter free. They should also ensure that buses stops in hotels located in neater environments.  It is not very important to stop in the best of hotels, but care should be taken to ensure that the hotels are located in neat areas.

Reduce 15% Seats:- Renovation may not be possible in existing buses, but efforts should be made to ensure that atleast 15% of seats are reduced in new buses  so that a passenger can have reasonable space tor rest his legs and back. The other option would be to increase the size of bus by 15%.  If cost is a constraint, then bus owners can increase the ticket fares by about 15%.  If a person is already paying much higher for a bus than a train, then obviously he or she would not mind paying a bit more to for that extra comfort he or she gets for 12 hours.

Include Toilets:- It is very necessary to have a toilet in a bus.  When a person is accustomed to going to toilets in house, workplace, trains and hotels, then it would be too much to expect him to restrain himself in a bus.

If trains who charge us less can give us good facilities, so can buses  provided if they have an intent.

Regards

Satish