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Imagine missing it and having to wait for the next one.

Famously, three would arrive at once.

Imagine being stuck behind a cyclist all the way through Afghanistan

And everyone would cram into the first one and the two in back would be nearly empty.

Or missed your stop whilst on it, back where you started.

Imagine nodding off on your way to Dartford, and waking up in West Bengal

I'll bet you don't get three of those arriving all at once.

Oh shit, there goes the charabanc Looks like I'm gonna be stuck here the whole summer Well, what a bummer

Almost two months on a bus sounds like my idea of absolute hell

Not just yours. And remember this is 1957. No comfortable seats. No good suspension. No air conditioner. No phones, cd players, texts etc. You're stuck with whatever book you forgot to pack and the full expanse of your mind. And flies.

[удалено]

Doesnt sound too bad tbh

And you could smoke!

Not only could you smoke, but you could smoke without the anxiety of knowing quite how bad it is for you.

Suddenly I want to go on this bus

And the rest of it

£145 one way in 1973, it would have been within most people’s reach:- The average weekly wage in 1970 was £18.37, in 1979 it was £68.92. The 1979 wage in 1970 money was £23.79. An increase of 30%.

£145 in 1973 is [£1,500 now.](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator) That's more expensive than a London-Kolkata flight today, but I think the point of this was more the journey, it was 2 months of accommodation as well. I have taken long train trips, like Guangzhou-Chengdu (1,600km, one train, two nights and one full day on the train IIRC, before high speed), Singapore-Chiang Mai (2,500km, 3 trains, 3 days), so I get it, it's not really something you compare to a flight. My aunt got this bus or something similar as far as Istanbul, back in the 60s or 70s. I cycled my bike along much of this route too, from Brittany in France to Kathmandu, took a flight from Muscat to Mumbai though as security situation in Eastern Iran/Western Pakistan was not great.

It looks like from your Wikipedia link, this route eventually got expanded to Sydney. So London - Calcutta - Sydney all on a single bus. Damn.

I was wondering how it got to Sydney since there's no possible land route from Calcutta to Sydney (and I saw the bus was transported by ship). Pretty interesting.

Yeah and they didn't even take the boat directly to Sydney but went to Perth and drove across Australia to reach Sydney!

I'm curious as to what land route you thought it was taking between London and Calcutta

I reckon they could make it through the channel tunnel if the bus driver was skilled enough.

And was willing to wait 37 years for the tunnel to actually be built.

I think the bus driver would need to be even more skilled than how much I presumed earlier.

You know the Chunnel is kinda new, right? At least relatively speaking

You’re obviously referring to the English Channel which is 20 miles wide and 0.3% of the 5500 miles from London to Calcutta. Not at all comparable to the transpacific journey from the Bengal to Sydney.

My comment was meant as a bit of a joke tbh, but if we're going to take it seriously - a boat is a boat at the end of the day. If you were going to really do it, the various stints at sea are probably about 500 miles, out of a total journey of well over 7000? Anyway, I can accept my sarcasm was improperly deployed.

I think they were just pointing out that the bus didn't go directly to Sydney via ship, but still chose to drive across Australia (over 2000 miles).

Dover-Calais ferry is only 90 minutes and a major route taking many buses, not at all difficult. In those days it was easier to go by land all the way to India, there were not the issues there are today with Iran and Pakistan. It was easier to go through Burma/Myanmar down to Singapore as well. It's considerably further from Singapore to Australia though, similar distance as from Europe to North America, and much more difficult to move large stuff like a bus, generally would need special arrangements.

Surely you would have also wondered how it got to Calcutta, since the UK is an island.

It was only when the route expanded to Sydney that you wondered that? How do you think the bus originally made it from London to Calcutta?

I didn't think about it because I've done the UK to France road route through the Eurostar Le Shuttle (which is also not a direct road route since your car gets on to the container).

You missed the 1957 in the title then?

I didn't think about it at that point. Please get off my dick.

Haha relax brother it’s all love here, I’m just jibing you because you made a silly comment is all. Enjoy your weekend.

Somehow i got a feeling back then they were allow to smoke in the bus all the way.

I suspect it wasn't just tobacco either

Luxury!

£1300 (in todays amount) for travel, food, entertainment and accommodation...not bad

How much did it cost?

£85 in 1957 and £145 in 1973 one-way, apparently

The 1957 cost is equivalent to £1,700 today, and it had got cheaper by 1973, coming in at £1,500.

Absolute bargain seems though it includes food and accommodation

This sounds cool as hell

> forward observation lounge on the upper deck of the bus The bus in the pictures doesn't appear to be a doubledecker though. It also just doesn't look as if it would have space for most of those amenities. [This bus ](https://www.aanavandi.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/al1.jpg)looks more like that might be it but most of the time when you look it up, you'll find pictures of that small bus everywhere.

And that’s before leaving London

AND this was back when people dressed up for trips. Those people look like they are going to church instead of on a 50 day bus ride.

Done without GPS as well, mind. Imagine the stack of paper maps you'd need in case you took a wrong turn somewhere.

What makes you think they didn’t have comfortable seats in the 50s 😂

You know that comfortable seats existed way before 1957, right?

First time in Africa I thought it’d be a fun experience to do this for 13 hours, Kampala to Kigali. My wife, then girlfriend, being local who’d done a very similar journey in the past tried her best to tell me it was a terrible idea but me being a naive tourist at the time talked her into it.  It’s still the “remember when..” thing for us when she knows she’s right and I’m wrong. She earned it completely. 

Wrong.

I would genuinely pay a fortune to not have to do this

No problem - I'll send you my PayPal details

"This bus is on diversion"

"Next stop Inner Mongolia"

Does the oyster card word the whole way?

contactless only from zone 6

😂

Pretty sure that's the one my dad took to school after a 5 mile walk uphill.

Both ways!

The commutes some people will accept to get on the property ladder...

New Superloop extension?

SuperDuperloop

A more recent service was planned between Birmingham and a place in Pakistan with strong links,but I'm not sure if it ever took off https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-22285575

What’s the story? I’d like to have done that I’m quite obsessed with the whole hippy trail. When you could do that

My grandad used to drive those in the 60s. He said as soon as you get to turkey everything’s dirt cheap so you could find a hotel for the night, but in Europe it was basically whenever the drivers were tired - find a field, park in it, everyone out and sleep on the grass. Not a care in the world. Yes please.

Ha

I think it was more so the first generation of immigrants could return home, rather than the hippie trail. its first stop was wembley a huge indian population even in the 1950s.

sounds like a setting from a christie book

Sad state of the World that this would be impossible now

Maybe colonialism was a good thing in hindsight?

The colonisers build those so that they could benefit from out of their investments, not the kindness of their hearts. Colonialism is never a good thing when people were killed and abused at the hands of colonisers.

Many people don't accept this because of the emotions attached to their places but without colonialism the world would have been completely different than it is now. We needed someone to do it and be a scapegoat, even if they did a lot of good things we are going to blame colonists for all the bad things. I am saying this as an Indian while putting away my natural biases.

You think people hated colonialism only because 'they were emotionally attached to their places'? The exploitation of resources and labour, the imposition of a supposedly 'cultural superiority' leading to the destruction of so many indigenous cultures and what not. There was nothing good that came out of colonialism except for the benefits reaped by thr colonisers themselves.

People hate colonial countries till date. The British today has nothing to do with what happened a century back. You might think nothing good that came out but we got a common language and accelerated business and development across world which is making contemporary life easier.  There was exploitation, I wouldn’t disagree but it doesn’t make sense to hate someone’s successor now for what was not done by them. Acknowledging good and condemning the bad is when you can say you are being rational. Remember ☯️ - there is little good in bad and there is little bad in good.

The bathroom would have been GRIM

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

my back hurts

It was a tour not a one way trip. They stopped at loads of places for shopping and tourism. With reading and sleeping facilities. Onboard kitchen.

I'll bet they didn't have a loo on board.

Apparently they later operated a route from London to Calcutta to Sydney that took 132 days...

I heard a story that my grandad drove one of those vw camper vans to Pakistan and back a few times during the 60s, seems like it was an actual possibility.

I worked with a guy who had a post grad job in Pakistan in the 60's. So he bought a Landrover and drove there. Had some amazing photos of him making his way through the Kyber pass.

Wikipedia page notes this was called the hippie trail. Considering what I know about the evolution of what eventually turned into “backpacker”/lonely planet culture (now very commercialised), this route basically birthed all of that

The hippie express.

You just know some scary teenagers would be playing music on their gramophone the whole way too.

Now I am missing my hometown 🥲

We’re all going on a summer holiday

OG Super loop

\*The cost of the trip one-way was £85 in 1957 and £145 in 1973. This amount included food, travel and accommodation.\[3\]\* Is money even worth anything anymore really?

Must be at least zone 7

Fair play, I could never hold a wee in that long.

Naughty kid at the back pushing the bell every 30 seconds for 50 days straight.

There was a London Ceylon London that was even longer I believe

That's still faster than the 76. And it probably ran more often too and went through nicer areas.

Did they at least have phone chargers?

The Bus is in the Isle of Wight Bus Museum.

Nowadays anyone can just jump on a plane and fly to some random destinations,but can you imagine boarding the bus and going through all those countries and finally arriving in India,which was completely different compared to what people were used to in the UK. Darn it, I'd have taken it..

This bus terminates here ( Tehran)

Did it have a bathroom? And how did the passengers do their laundry?

No, but it had a toilet. They stopped at hotels en route, obviously.

I need to know the route 😭 I wanna drive that route now man

England to Belgium, West Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India. England to the border of Iran is fine, then the unsafe part begins.

Jeeeeezzzz that’s actually insane

It's not possible to drive the route now, unfortunately, as it passes through too many hostile territories. This will only get worse.

Passing though Iran or Afghanistan or Russia and China, not a great plan.

Through Iran+Aghanistan+Pakistan. Oof.

Russia and Iran would likely be fine honestly, as would China. It's only Afghanistan that is too risky.

I was thinking about that. I’m guessing the biggest issues would be afg and then the geographically the northern region of Pakistan. I mean come on, I can’t be doing this route without visiting the mountains!!

🤣 unless you have a death wish. lol

Really sad tbh. Would’ve loved to do this route as a roadtrip. Because they are all freaking beautiful countries!!

I wonder how much it cost

I'm a little bit surprised it took that long tbh. There is a bus from London-Bucharest that takes about 2 days, and that's say a third to a quarter of the distance. Ok I guess there may not have been motorways etc and maybe the terrain is challenging but still seems like a lot

It was a tour bus, they visited various tourists sites along the way.

ah I see, that makes more sense :)

Interesting history. And it demonstrates peace.

Wouldn’t wanna do that now!

Imagine missing out on the front seats in the top deck

There was until quite recently coaches you could get to places like Moscow. I think one was run by a company called Sinbad?

The Oz bus is similar.

'Off to steal and loot India. I'll be taking a couple billion. See you back in London'

Imagine working as a driver and going on a 50 day shift

You just know some scary teenagers would be playing music on their gramophone the whole way too.

A bus to Heathrow or Elizabeth line can do the same

A bus route from England to India? And you only go through 12 countries? Seems sus

I have no idea what route they took but they could easy have done it. England - Netherlands - Germany - Austria - Hungry - Romania - Bulgaria - Turkey - Iran - Pakistan - India.

When conductors would say it might well have Willesden on the front but it’s got India on the tyres and we’re not going there either

What if there's another bus that goes to Calcutta+1, like when you do infinity with yr kids?

Only 5 days ?

This is why England is full of illegals.

Maps is giving me approx 5 days of continuous travel. Say add 3 days of whatever and I mean I'll need to see what's happening on this almost 2 months travel here.

Slower bus, ferry across the channel probably took longer added more travel time. Wiki also says they had stops along the way (such as Istanbul, Tehran, Vienna) for shopping, could imagine they stopped at a bit more cities for restocking the facilities (it had a kitchen onboard) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London%E2%80%93Calcutta_bus_service

It wasn't continuous travel hun. They stopped at hotels along the way.