alt Hacker NewsLondon–Calcutta bus service
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> In 1957, a one-way ticket cost £85 (equivalent to £2,589 in 2023), rising to £145 by 1973 (equivalent to £2,215 in 2023).
Oof that really puts inflation into perspective doesn’t it?
Was discussed here a couple of years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40649091
Someone found some photos on Shutterstock:
https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/search/london-to-calc...
Back in the 60s, my partner's mother drove all the way from London to Afghanistan in a tiny Fiat 500. This was a family of four!
The past really is a foreign country sometimes.
50 days one way? Some research shows it was £85 vs. £200-£400 for a one-way plane ticket. What is the use case for this?
I guess:
- very motivated to go
- plan to stay for a very long time
- absolutely CANNOT afford a plane ticket
- or, afraid of flying
Reminds me of a lot of Amtrack routes in the US. I looked at trips from NYC to Chicago. I thought it would be fun and I needed to get to Chicago. But it was more expensive than flying and like 25 hours. There is just absolutely no reason to travel that way.
Very impressive! I got curious and found this photo and brochure from the Indian Memory Project [1]
[1] https://xcancel.com/Indianmemory/status/1277521026813882368#...
Sounds amazing.
Last year I took buses from Lima to Rio de Janeiro (not one bus, but a long trip, all by bus). In total, 3,800 miles. I've been meaning to maybe write blog post with the details (exact costs and times, etc).
For me, trains are much preferable to buses and buses much, much preferable to flying. I guess I just like to look about the window and see everything between points A and B.
A sidenote about this cross-continental trip. Dervla Murphy's book Full Tilt is really good. It talks about her crazy bicycle journey in the middle of winter from Ireland to India. Rest of her books are great as well, but this one is my favorite.
It's interesting to think how non-linear progress is; geopolitical tensions ended this overland route and it would still be incredibly risky.
Related, the Damascus <-> Baghdad bus from the 1930s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlmpfHuLo14
It's a Calum documentary. He does these in-depth studies of historical curiosities like snow trains and WW2 rescue buoys. One of my favorite channels.
There are busses you can take from London to Cape Town and back up to Kenya.
Dragoman is one, still running.
I had a genuine reason for wanting to travel overland from India to Schengen this year (Pet travel), and came across this and wished it still existed.
I did a similar route for similar money in 1991 with a Dragoman overland truck from Kathmandu to London. They used to do it regularly like a couple of times a year but don't seem to do that route anymore. The political instability was an issue - it was originally supposed to go through Yugoslavia but that was in the messy process of ceasing to exist at the time so they had to use a ferry to Italy. Also half the passengers had to fly over Iran due to the Iranians being difficult with visas. Still some problems there.
Related: Berlin-Baghdad railway [1]
Some historian say this might have actually caused the 1st world war since these German activities provoked the British empire.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin%E2%80%93Baghdad_railway
If this fascinates you. Im sure you will also be fascinated by maharaja express [1] which is orient express equivalent in India. Fairly expensive and targeted towards foreign tourists but i do find it fascinating.
There are quite a few African "Cape-to-Cairo" variations of travel by land tours they have been a thing for a long time and still going by the look of things ... if you have 23-weeks!
https://www.oasisoverland.co.uk/trips/cape-town-to-cairo-23-...
https://compassexpeditions.com/special-tours/major-expeditio...
Interesting. I did a quick search but doesn’t look like there are any personal stories on this.
Can see it having been a unique experience, bonding with people over such a long period of time.
Looks like photos from inside the bus are also not available sadly.
While money would be in the okay range, few can afford 50 days off.
For a trip of 30000km, would a bus not need any service? My car today wants a service every 10k or year. I guess if it's only oil change the bus drivers back then where also service men and mechanics.
Well, these days you can catch a Flixbus from London to Sofia for a mere 150 Europounds, and 48 hours of your time. And from there, Calcutta can't be that far, right?
(But, seriously, you can probably do it in another 48 hours...)
Here's a picture of Albert, the double-decker bus:
https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/article1124887.ece/ALTERNA...
So that's what the people were using before commercial flights were common.
I didnt know this existed. Would be pretty cool if they restart the service.
People back then had a lot more spare time evidently ...
operated by albert travel. aptronymy strikes again
A picture would have been a great addition to the article.
hooooooly, that's a long journey
Operator was Mr. Travel himself! Maybe he invented long journeys.
Why can't Google Maps calculate London/Berlin to Kolkota?
Imagine a couple who broke up somewhere in Iran and still had to share a seat for another thousand miles.
All the cold cuts in Calcutta are smelly. Please Mum buy meat at the New Delhi.
[dead]
Reminder that everything was better in the past. Prior to WW1 you could travel around most of Europe without even a passport too.
Is Calcutta India here?
Interesting that I saw this article earlier today on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1q841...
Was the Reddit article the impetus for your post?
A very different scale, but this reminded of the Green Tortoise which was an American, mostly West Coast affair that once ranged from Alaska to Belize.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Tortoise
edit: oh wow. It still runs!
http://www.greentortoise.com/