Long ride to go home for the holidays- between 1957 and 1976, there was a regular bus service between London and Calcutta, India

[GON]

Neat story. between 1957 and 1976, there was a regular bus service between London and Calcutta, India. The 50 day, 2-way bus Route is the longest bus route in the world.

Direct from the article (sorry no link)::
" The bus had sleeping bunks and even a kitchen! For just £145, you get to travel with food & accommodation. The bus would stop at attractions and for shopping in Vienna, Istanbul & Iran

The bus ride took passengers from England to Belgium, West Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India."

 

[ripcord]

Wow. I can imagine only how bad many of the roads were and how poor the tires of the time were.

 

[jhellwig]

A bus ride that far sounds terrible. Would have to be way cheaper than the train.

 

[k1xv]

I wonder if there were opportunities to take a shower along the way? If not, the body odor must have been overpowering.

 

[supton]

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

145 pounds in 1955 translates to 3,223 pounds today, or $4,083 for us yanks.

 

[Leo99]

I wonder if there were opportunities to take a shower along the way? If not, the body odor must have been overpowering.

That's the first thing that I thought of. 50 days.

 

[ripcord]

That's the first thing that I thought of. 50 days.

My first thought was could they carry enough liquor on board to keep everyone sane? The next was if there was at least a closet with a bucket so they wouldn't have to stop every 15 minutes.

 

[IndyIan]

Sounds like more of a bus tour, but it would be quite the adventure in that time period! Coordinating travel visas and local money and hotels would've been quite a challenge!
At the end of high school 4 of us got greyhound unlimited passes for 5-6 weeks and went ~6-7000 miles from Ontario to BC and back, and we visited all the relatives and friends we knew across the country. Good fun and pretty decent way to travel with relatively comfortable buses.

 

[Sedin26]

5 years ago I took the train from Seattle to Chicago, One way, and it was a fun trip but I would never do it again without having a sleeper.
Doing something like that in the old days must have been extremely uncomfortable!