Commuters express frustration as Pune shivneri bus takes longer than shared cab

Time of India

18 hours ago

Mumbai: Travelling by the Mumbai-Pune Shivneri may not be a pleasant and comfortable experience. Recently, passengers were left fuming as the journey was delayed by over two hours to travel from Mumbai to Pune on this popular intercity AC bus.
"It is a complete waste of time. A shared cab would have cost Rs 400 but reached in three hours. Instead, I was sitting inside the bus, which halted at many stops en route, and the wait time was longer as well. It reached Pune in five and a half hours," recalled a passenger who boarded the bus from Dadar. "Why are there too many stops in Mumbai before the bus hits the Expressway? And then, a 20-minute scheduled halt on the Expressway?" he said.
A passenger said that the bus is also not good compared to the Rs 590 fare one pays for the journey. "Imagine there is a road with no traffic jams, and the bus still prefers to halt for a long duration in Mumbai after leaving Dadar depot. It's frustrating," the passenger recalled.
Sources said that the bus keeps waiting for passengers en route if seats continue to remain vacant after leaving Dadar depot. When contacted, an MSRTC official said that the matter will be looked into.
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The official further said that if one booked a Pune bus via Atal Setu, there were no issues or complaints. "We have found that buses using the route through Vashi bridge-Nerul-Kharghar are facing this problem of unwarranted stoppages en route," he said.
The MSRTC wants to deploy more buses on the Atal Setu to expedite journeys for passengers in the near future.
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Passengers have also complained of rash driving by some of the drivers on the Expressway and other roads.
It may be recalled that a few months ago, 12 passengers of a Mumbai-Pune Shivneri bus escaped unharmed in a mishap in which the bus climbed on the road divider in Sion. The e-Shivneri bus started from the Dadar bus stand around 5.30 am, and when it was crossing the flyover near Sion police station, the bus swerved a bit and jumped on the divider.
While the exact cause is not known, officials said that the driver was not drunk nor "half asleep" when the incident occurred, an MSRTC official claimed after the incident. The driver was, however, taken off duty for 10 days.
Passengers have also complained in the past about a few cases of drivers speaking on mobile phones.
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