Madurai Bus system- Far more than you ever wanted to know

Digital Drifter

For most people, irrespective of their nationality, Madurai is quite
unfathomable when it comes to its bus transport network. Madurai,
being what it is, is more like a sprawling neighbourhood, albeit badly
planned. More likely, designed in parts, by drunken draftsmen. The
only place where one can intuitively figure out the layout is the
Temple complex and the surrounding streets of Chitrai, Maistry/Masi, Avani
and Veli which are arranged in concentric squares and labelled
according to the compass directions. So, North Veli Street is exactly
that, the outermost street from the Temple North Tower.

But this is about the bus network. I shall outline the ways you can
reach Madurai from other cities and the means to shuttle from one
bus-stand to the other.

In their infinite wisdom, the present day town planners have decreed
thus; since Madurai city cannot handle an ever increasing number of
vehicles, there shall be bus-stands in different points of the compass
to handle the incoming traffic. So we have[1]

a) Palanganatham bus-stand to handle south bound traffic
b) Arapalayam bus-stand to handle west & north-west bound traffic
c) Mattu Thavani[2] bus-stand to handle East and North-east bound traffic
d) Anna bus-stand to handle city traffic
e) Periyar bus-stand to handle city as well as private service buses

Hence, if you wanted to go to Tirunelveli,Kanyakumari, make for
Palanganatham; Theni, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Salem et al Arapalayam;
Trichy, Tanjore, Pudukottai, Karaikudi, head for Mattu Thavani. It
pays to have a rough idea of the general direction of towns in South
India with respect to Madurai!

Unless otherwise stated, the intra-city bus-stand is

a) adjacent to the above list
b) it is the intra-city bus-stand
c) or just a long series of bus shelters next to the inter-city bus-stand.

All this sounds quite logical, doesn't it? OK, now these are the
quirks you should be aware of. Periyar bus-stand is very close to
Railway station, say about 200m, so don't get ripped off by flagging
an auto for a 5 minute walk. Periyar bus-stand itself is split into 2
by a main road, so it's actually two bus-stands. Coming from the
Railway station end and past the church, most of the time you'd need
to enter the right hand half. Go in there if you want to make your
way to Arapalayam or Anna / Mattu Thavani bus-stand. Because of the
one way system in force(still?) the right one handles city buses going
west and north while the left one handles the south and east. This
means that to go to Tirupparankundram rock cut temple, you go to the
left bus-stand and wait for buses going towards Palanganatham and
Thirumangalam.

Sometimes, it's easier to take the buses than taking an auto/Taxi.
going to Azhagar Koil say, is easier by town buses than by taking a
Taxi. From Periyar, taking buses which go towards 'Arasradi' will
taking you within a Km of Arapalayam if you miss those buses marked
7,7A which swing by Arapalayam before going on to Anna bus-stand.
Similarly buses going towards Tirupparankundram, Thirumangalam will
have to pass by Palanganatham bus-stand though it will drop you on the
main road & not inside the bus-stand. You'll have to walk about 200m
to get to the bus-stand. Keeping on the left shoulder of the road,
you might be lucky enough to flag down the Kanyakumari/ Tirunelveli
bus which has just left the bus-stand. The drivers usually oblige,
you of course have to pay the fare.

There are 3 bus shelters(lanes?) inside the Periyar bus-stand. The
first lane handles buses going towards 'Simmakal' and past the Vaigai
river bridge. The second lane handles buses towards the west and
north-west and the last lane handles long distance city buses(heading
towards villages) like Azhagar Koil and west bound places again. The
South & East bound traffic is handled in the left half of Periyar
bus-stand across the main road.

Arapalayam bus-stand is more of a inter-city bus-stand than one for
city buses. So you'll find it more of a transit point as far as local
buses go i.e. more likely Arapalayam is one of the bus-stops on its
way to another destination. Palanganatham is slightly better off in
that there is a bus shelter there shared by both local and long
distance operators. Anna bus-stand too had shared facilities but
with the new Mattu Thavani bus-stand, its size belies its use.

I really don't want to go into specific buses by which you can make
your way about as these are wont to re-routed and most likely there's
a good likelihood that you'd get into the correct numbered but heading
in the opposite direction. Some rules of thumb are (from a Periyar
bus-stand perspective), to go to Arapalayam, you WILL have to cross
the overbridge across the railway Station. Similarly, Anna bus-stand
is across the river , so you WILL have to cross a bridge across the
Vaigai. Lastly for Palanganatham, you will immediately go over an
overbridge overlooking a college football/cricket field. Failing to
see these landmarks means in all probability you're heading in the
opposite direction of where you thought the name board of the bus
stated.

As for the private bus services, they've been pretty badly hit after
new trains have been introduced from Madurai to various places
especially Madras. Now, the procedure is to book your ticket and then
turn up at the written time on the ticket. If you ask for 'KPN
travels' or 'Hotel Aarthy' in Periyar bus-stand, the road on which
they are located you will find a dozen Travel companies operating bus
services to different cities like Ernakulam & Bangalore. Use them when
you can't get a train ticket. Beware, they contain the works; music,
video and loud speakers but the drivers are pretty safe, if thats any
consolation.

In all this, the following caveats apply. The service has grown
hugely. Some services to outer villages will always be crowded
whatever the time. Jump in. There is a time keeper office where
they're invariably polite in answering all your queries. Lots of them
are not comfortable with English but will be more than happy to show
you how to get to different places provided you ask nicely. Failing
which, ask the well dressed chap waiting for the bus, he'll help. The
above are not hard & fast rules about where the buses should and will
be; in it's own psychotic way, it will change suddenly.

And you can always throw in the towel and just take an Auto.


Footnotes:
[1] Don't even try to pronounce them, just go by the name board, if
you're lucky to see it in English, that is

[2] This is the new bus-stand which handles the inter-city buses
formerly handled in Anna bus-stand.

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