This decade is declared as ‘Download Decade’ and some believe it as an ‘Information Decade’ but utilization of information to spread it among end users is really shocking.
I hardly travel by Mumbai BEST buses; I find Local trains more convenient (in the sense of understanding the routes, not for comfort). Standing on any strange bus stop and finding any informative indicator of busses and its route is as rare as my BOSS approving any of report in first attempt. Well Jokes apart, many of the times it happens, you’ll find single Pole with small board displaying stop name & only bus route numbers. Just imagine how tough it is for new commuter to understand the exact bus route number which will help him/her to reach desired destination? Now possible alternatives would be,
1) Asking any of the co-commuter who is also waiting for bus on same bus stop (you’ll be lucky if he is a daily traveler)
2) Waiting alone on bus stop and keeping eye on every upcoming buses so that you can read the bus route number and last destination of it (lucky you, if your destination is same as the bus’s or else you need to know geography of city to calculate whether your destination is somewhere near by or on the way to the final destination of bus)
3) Finally toughest alternative, make the bus stop at the stop and try to ask any of the commuter who is already sitting inside the bus or else to the conductor. You can ask the query but you should have very least expectations for proper and clear response; and in all this exercise you should be very active cuz you may need to follow up for response in bit of running motion and if it is positive and even if you ask conductor to stop, he wont. And you’ll need to run till you catch it or leave it and once you step up inside the bus you’ll find notice/warning board in Marathi adjacent to steps saying, “Chalatya bus madhe chadhu agar utaru naka, tyane tumachya jivala dhoka aahe” (do not get down or board the bus in its accelerate motion, it is dangerous and can be fatal.)
Since last 4 to 6 weeks on every weekend I need to travel by BEST bus from central to western suburb via one of the busiest link roads. Generally while asking for ticket we’ll address it to conductor by desired destination name, e.g. Dindoshi Depo or else Marol Naka etc but in my every journey I found some of the commuters were addressing it by fixed price, e.g. “ek 20 wala dena” (give one of 20Rs). I thought, in that particular bus route 20rs ticket would be of specific place where these people want to go. Next time I changed to different bus route number for same destination but via different route; surprisingly in this bus also some of the commuters were addressing ticket by its cost, Rs 20. I was very curious to ask conductor about this, but he was too busy punching tickets in that over crowded bus, so I skipped it.
Next day to solve my curiosity I phoned some of my friends who are daily Mumbai BEST bus traveler. Out of 6 friends, 5 were clueless and only one who solved it partially, said “With 20 rs ticket, I can utilize it as one day pass for N numbers of round from any locations in suburbs till midnight” in short the BEST has introduced the all day travel ticket.
When I enquired, outcome was shocking. This facility is available since last 1.5 years and surprisingly not been explained anywhere officially, just a small paper cutting in selected news papers and now even after 1.5 years of its launching not all are aware about it. Those who know about it are availing it and people like me need to solve the curiosity by struggling around. Nowhere in/on the bus or bus stop is mentioned about this facility. I appreciate the new facility but what’s the use of it, if it’s not being communicated to every one?
Please find the short details of the ‘Newly discovered’ facility. This is an unofficial circular but verdicts are true, but yet reader are requested to get the updated status by communicating ‘helpful’ conductors of BEST officials rather than waiting for them to explain us.
There are 3 basic options of this ticket; those are (City, Suburb and All zones). The ticket is valid for travel on any route (except AC buses), any number of times on the day of the ticket till midnight. Basic options are explained as follows.
1) Option 1 (City) : Rs. 15 : Includes, from Colaba/ VT/ Nariman Point/ Churchgate till South of Mahim / Sion
2) Option 2 (Suburb) : Rs. 20 : North of Mahim / Sion, including beyond Dahisar / Vashi
3) Option 3 (All zone) : Rs. 25: Anywhere the BEST buses exist in the city
The ticket layout is also different from the regular ticket. Instead of punching in the ‘stop/stage number’ of the route that the passenger got in from, the conductor instead has to make 4 punches: - Date (1 to 31), Month (1 to 12), Gender (Male or Female), Year (eg: "9" for 2009, "0" for 2010, etc.)
The most important of these is the Gender. While subscribing group tickets make sure to specify the gender correctly to the number of commuters in the group. This ticket is available with all the conductors on all the regular routes.
Happy Journey.
