Finally for the first time i decided to try transnational express bus from KL back to Penang today. This is referring to the article i discussed earlier about problems with Konsortium bus. There are a few good things to highlight here about Transnational:
1. The information counter has a large board displaying all destination, time, bus plate number, on time or delayed, and is it boarding now. It is updated every second and passengers dun hv to keep asking about which bus and where to wait (as in Konsortium)
2. This is impressive! 4pm bus ticket, the bus departed at 4pm sharp. 3 transnational buses departed together at the same time, showing how punctual are they. The buses were already waiting at the lane b4 the departure time.
3. The bus is very new, 3 seats, comfortable, clean. Drivers and staffs no chit-chatting or making noise around like in other bus sometimes.
4. Bus moved in fast speed. Powerful engine coz it is new, with auto gear (i can feel its smoothness when changing gear).
5. Only stopped once at Plus rest station. Duration was short and no delaying.
6. This is safe! The seats are equipped with seat belt. But none of the passengers used it, including me, haha :)
7. 4pm bus, i arrived Penang island at 8.20pm (hv to count in the time the bus went to Duta station to take more passengers). it is much faster and well scheduled than konsortium or other buses, where more than 6 hours is not something shocking at all (late depature, stop many times & long duration of stop, super slow driving)
8. Ticketing counters available in UM (my school lar university malaya) or even in UH (university hospital).
However, there are a few inconvenience that i found out:
1. The information counter has a large board displaying all destination, time, bus plate number, on time or delayed, and is it boarding now. It is updated every second and passengers dun hv to keep asking about which bus and where to wait (as in Konsortium)
2. This is impressive! 4pm bus ticket, the bus departed at 4pm sharp. 3 transnational buses departed together at the same time, showing how punctual are they. The buses were already waiting at the lane b4 the departure time.
3. The bus is very new, 3 seats, comfortable, clean. Drivers and staffs no chit-chatting or making noise around like in other bus sometimes.
4. Bus moved in fast speed. Powerful engine coz it is new, with auto gear (i can feel its smoothness when changing gear).
5. Only stopped once at Plus rest station. Duration was short and no delaying.
6. This is safe! The seats are equipped with seat belt. But none of the passengers used it, including me, haha :)
7. 4pm bus, i arrived Penang island at 8.20pm (hv to count in the time the bus went to Duta station to take more passengers). it is much faster and well scheduled than konsortium or other buses, where more than 6 hours is not something shocking at all (late depature, stop many times & long duration of stop, super slow driving)
8. Ticketing counters available in UM (my school lar university malaya) or even in UH (university hospital).
However, there are a few inconvenience that i found out:
- The seat is not as spacious as Konsortium. Transnational has 11 rows, 3 seats per row, making it 11x3=33 seats, compared to Konsortium with 9/10 rows.
- The bus will go to Duta station to take more passengers.
- The time KL-PG-KL is not that frequent.
So whois better?
I like the good system, management, transparency, punctuality, discipline, and attitude of Transnational bus company.
I like the comfortable seats, frequent schedule, and direct PG-KL-PG route of Konsortium.
Maybe this is why ppl always say "there is nothing perfect in this world"..
Both of them have their pros n cons. Overall, i'm more satisfied with transnational bus as the seat and extra duta stoppage doesnt really matter for me. So for the time being, i think KL-PG with Transnational, and PG-KL with Konsortium, is a better idea.
I like the good system, management, transparency, punctuality, discipline, and attitude of Transnational bus company.
I like the comfortable seats, frequent schedule, and direct PG-KL-PG route of Konsortium.
Maybe this is why ppl always say "there is nothing perfect in this world"..
Both of them have their pros n cons. Overall, i'm more satisfied with transnational bus as the seat and extra duta stoppage doesnt really matter for me. So for the time being, i think KL-PG with Transnational, and PG-KL with Konsortium, is a better idea.
10 comments:
Services provided by Transnational not always consistent. All these also depend on the driver.
Last time I took Transnational back to pg from Puduraya at 4pm also. The bus stopped at 3 rest stations for almost half an hour. Eventually when I reached pg, it was almost 10pm.
wow izit true? then i may have to re-evaluate it. I still have plenty of chances to take bus home, 1 yr plus to grad ar.. after that no more lo kua, time to drive! haha..
yes...all depends on d driver u got.
y dun u drive back with friends from pg? it will be cheaper than bus if u got at least 2 more ppl...
old car, no ppl follow, expensive petrol n tol fee.
so is extremely not recommended. the risk of car breaking down is very high :(
aiyo, then tumpang others' car lor...
though toll and petrol expensive, but few ppl sharing, eventually will be cheaper than bus fare...dun forget these few months bus companies charge 30% more...
let's say petrol RM 60
toll about RM 50
add together is RM 110, devided by 4, one person about RM 27.50
Bus fare usual price is RM 22.70
30% surcharge --> RM 29.50
and bus will drop u at d Sg Nibong bus station, if u drive, u will be in ur hse d...
aiya, forgot to add bridge toll, RM 5.40..
again drive urself is worth
no ppl driving, if got certainly i will follow. my frens only a few from penang, and only few with cars, most of them never go back wan, they like to stay at college.
more importantly we all hv different schedule and timetable for class, so is difficult to get ppl following.
transnational seems like the clear winner, the only real problem i can see wif it is, is faster really better? even in japan i heard stories about the high accident rates of highway buses in malaysia... so mebbe slower is actually better lah.... the better organization n punctuality makes it much better like konsortium tho. konsortium is probably so big that they dont care about offering good, competitive service anymore, n that juz sucks...
btw, u kiddin right? 4pm departure, 8.20pm arrive at pg??
aiya...like that is really a problem...
I also seldom go back pg becoz of this problem...a bit of laziness... in my class only total 4 penangites and all are in different postings. Also, our holidays are few and always brief, no point gtg back today and coming back day after...
btw, arriving pg at 8.20pm is considered quite fast d...
yea quite fast d. usually in the past, konsortium used to be the fastest, sometimes even can reach 3 hours plus, but recently becomes worse, not jz the speed but the delay and frequent & long duration of stop.
speed is not the main concern, but is about the service and delay during stoppage time.
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