Many government buses have one route mentioned on the display board in the front and the rear glass of the vehicle has two or more bus route numbers for completely different places.
Even if there is a heavy rush at the bus stop, commuters tend to read the route mentioned on the glass above the windows to make a guess on the correct destination to which the vehicle is heading, before deciding to board a bus.
But, on many occasions, that information is also misleading. While people who use these buses frequently are aware of the bus routes despite this confusion, those from other places get confused. On many occasions it results in heated arguments between commuters and conductors. And, this confusion seems to be more in Government buses.
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The conductors say that some buses operate on two routes and hence have a mention of both the routes.
They said that the buses operate on particular routes during peak hours and on the other route during the non-peak hours.
However, there are instances of painting the new routes without the removing the old routes. They suggested that having digital board for all buses would put an end to such confusion.
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A senior official of TNSTC said that such confusion arises only when a bus from another route was operated on a new route temporarily, when the assigned bus is taken up for maintenance or sent to RTO for fitness certificate.
The official said that some buses ended up having two or more route numbers when the glass from another bus was used to replace the glass in another bus plying on a different route. However, buses with such confusing route details are few, says the official.
Stating that it is the responsibility of the respective depots to ensure that the present route number of the bus alone is painted on the glass, the official said that TNSTC officials are now identifying such confusing route numbers painted on buses and are removing the faulty ones.
(Reporting by
M.K. Ananth)