My Experience with PRTC's Ultra Delux Bus

Warm welcome friends; I bring out my travel experience to my Native Temple along with my parents in Tirunelveli District, from my Native Place, Puducherry. 

I had booked up and down tickets for the journey 1 month well in advance, with the downward journey in PRTC on 24^th of January and returning back in SETC on 26^th of January.

The day finally arrived. It was 24^th of January and the clock was ticking past 6:15 PM.  The scheduled departure time was 6:25 PM and he arrived at 6:20 PM. All the 36 seats were fully occupied immediately and he left the bay by 6:30 PM.

He went non-stop till Neyveli and reached there by 8:20 PM, where we found the Puducherry – Tiruchendur UD ( old 10.8 M UD ) halting for dinner. The passengers bound for Neyveli got down and passengers who had reserved for Tirunelveli and Nagercoil. Within 5 minutes, the bus started from Neyveli and he went to Vridachalam for Dinner break, where we overtook the 5 PM Puducherry – Kumily PRTC on the way. He reached Vridachalam at 9:30 PM and halted there for 20 minutes.  

Then he started moving and reached the 4 lane NH 45 near Veppur. He was just going at an average speed of 70 kmph initially and the Puducherry –Tiruchendur UD, which we crossed, overtook us along with 3 more UDs of SETC ( Chennai to Kottarakara, Chennai to Pattinamthitta and Chennai to Nagercoil : TN-74-N-1*59; transferred from TNSTC NGL Region to SETC ) and RathiMeena Travels and Paulo Travels.  After crossing the tollgate, he accelerated swiftly upto 78 kmph, averaging about 75 kmph, to overtake again the two private buses and the Chennai Pattinamthitta and Chennai Kottarakara and Puducherry Tiruchendur UDs. But, unfortunately the Chennai Nagercoil transferred UD eased past us and he was not able to catch it. After going past all the buses, he slowed down and immediately the 2 private buses eased past us along with another new SETC bound for Thiruvananthapuram. While on the way, I spotted the Kuttam – Chennai AnanthaParavai, going towards Chennai being overtaken by an old 10.8 M UD.  Then, he crossed Tiruchirapalli around 12:30 AM and stopped for break after Viralimalai by 1:30 AM.  One irritating thing till this part of the Journey was that he was playing two movies from the start of Journey till 1 PM, spoiling the entire passenger’s sleep.  Meanwhile, Chennai to Rajapalayam TNSTC MDU UD stopped beside our bus. I am still shocked and surprised to see the bus still with seat covers and with window screens. 

The part of the journey after this was too disappointing, as the driver was just going at the speed of 65 to 68 kmph, overtaken by many new SETC UDs and Private buses. He crossed Madurai after 2 AM and he stopped for another break at Hotel Aaryas near Sattur at morning 4 AM, where the drivers exchanged again. This was another irritating part of the journey, as I spotted no other bus stopping for 3 breaks in a journey. 

Finally, we got down at Vannarpettai( Tirunelveli ) at 5:15 AM,where almost the whole bus got empty. Meanwhile,  theChennai to Tirunelveli Pudhuvasantham H 180, eased past us to drop the passengers at Vannarpettai.