[HN Gopher] Just how far can you travel by bus from London in 24...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Just how far can you travel by bus from London in 24 hours?
        
       Author : footest
       Score  : 200 points
       Date   : 2021-08-22 01:46 UTC (21 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | cinntaile wrote:
       | I was expecting an isochrone map, but this made for a better
       | story.
        
       | jccalhoun wrote:
       | Really interesting. As someone from the USA, I didn't realize
       | that this was only local buses not cross-country and was
       | surprised he only got 339km in 24 hours. Reading the comments
       | here it now makes sense. I don't know if you could replicate the
       | journey in the USA with those rules
        
       | shusaku wrote:
       | "How far can I go on just local trains" is a fun game to play
       | here in Japan. I'm not sure my body could handle the bus version
       | here, unless the roads of England are very straight and smooth!
        
         | lucb1e wrote:
         | > I'm not sure my body could handle the bus version here
         | 
         | Why is that, hairpins up mountains or abrupt driving or so?
         | 
         | I hate buses for long distance (1h+) as well for what it's
         | worth, would much rather catch a train even though the
         | Netherlands has some very straight and smooth asphalt, but
         | technically my body could handle it!
        
         | adav wrote:
         | Maybe English motorways, but not many buses on there!
        
         | ivan_gammel wrote:
         | It was pretty easy to travel from Moscow to St.Petersburg only
         | using local trains (,,elektrichka"), but I also heard stories
         | about traveling entire Transsiberian route this way in 1990s.
         | As of 2017 this seemed already impossible, but still quite
         | close with only few gaps, as can be seen in this story where it
         | took author only 24 days and just 400EUR:
         | https://www.yaplakal.com/forum2/topic2130672.html
        
         | Doctor_Fegg wrote:
         | > unless the roads of England are very straight and smooth
         | 
         | Hahahahaha nope.
         | 
         | (English country lanes are great for cycling. They are not
         | ideal for buses. I write as someone who has spent too much time
         | on the very winding S3 Charlbury-Woodstock service in
         | Oxfordshire.)
        
           | dboreham wrote:
           | Except Raman roads.
        
         | hoipaloi wrote:
         | I did this by accident from Tokyo to Kyoto. My idea was that I
         | didn't want to take a bullet train to Kyoto and what I wanted
         | was a slower train with a restaurant and a bar car. So without
         | speaking Japanese I tried to buy that ticket, and the train
         | office were slightly surprised then they did the ticket
         | processing to make it happen. Turns out what I got was a local
         | train all the way to kyoto. It fucking sucked. It was like
         | riding a subway train for 11 hours. There was no restroom ,it
         | was cold, the seats were uncomfortable and there was no food.
         | When I think back on it, I don't know why I just did't quit.
         | For food at a station I ran to get a bento within five minutes.
         | At another station I raced to use the toilet. My eventual
         | destination was Suntory distillery in Yamazaki and I got to
         | drink 25 year old whisky so eventually it got better, but if
         | you made it this far, yeah I had a good idea, that turned out
         | to be stupid and I stuck with it because I don't know why.
        
           | lostlogin wrote:
           | This is hilarious - a write up with photos would beat the
           | London Bus journey. Well done and commiserations.
           | 
           | Travel in foreign lands seems to regularly break down at
           | ticket offices.
        
         | q-rews wrote:
         | One of my most exciting bus journey was on a very straight and
         | smooth road which the driver did probably above 80/100 Km/h
         | regardless of the speed bumps we encountered along the way. My
         | ass got some air that day (in the skateboard sense).
         | 
         | - Bangladesh
        
         | asutekku wrote:
         | From my experience with the Shishun 18 Ticket one could easily
         | get from Fukuoka to Tokyo and even further in around 12 hours
         | or so. It's awful after couple of hours when you hit those
         | smaller trains with benches that have not been replaced in
         | decades but definitely doable haha
        
       | version_five wrote:
       | There is something very romantic about this - obviously there are
       | other ways to make the trips, but somehow is feels more free and
       | a bit furtive, like if you had to sneak out of town for some
       | reason it's a good thing to know.
       | 
       | I'm in Canada and I can't think of any meaningful distance you
       | could cover in this way. Maybe Toronto-Barrie. Our cities are all
       | so far apart, they are mostly isolated hubs and spokes.
       | 
       | Curious in the US, would there be any regions where you could get
       | anywhere by this method?
        
         | smelendez wrote:
         | Someone did this about ten years ago, going from LA to San
         | Francisco in about three days
         | https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sfweekly.com/news/in-transi...
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | drstewart wrote:
         | My hunch is that the best odds to get about as far in the US by
         | bus would be the NE corridor, specifically from Washington to
         | NY (which is about 225 miles / 362 km). Most of these cities
         | have transit authorities that cover their metro region, and
         | they'll probably all have bus service into the adjacent one.
        
           | skykooler wrote:
           | Think that would break down around Philadelphia - New York,
           | unless you consider the NJ transit coaches "local" buses.
        
             | drstewart wrote:
             | I just looked out of curiosity, and it looks like it's
             | doable (not sure about the time frame, just the route
             | options). From Philadelphia city center:
             | 
             | SEPTA 4 to Cecil B Moore Av
             | 
             | SEPTA 3 to Frankford Transportation Center
             | 
             | SEPTA 14 to Oxford Valley Mall
             | 
             | SEPTA 127 to Trenton Transit Center
             | 
             | NJT 409 to High St & Broad St
             | 
             | NJT 413 to Camden
             | 
             | NJT 317 to Asbury Park
             | 
             | NJT 139 to NY Port Authority
        
         | calvinmorrison wrote:
         | In the dc-boston metro you can get a bus to all major cities
         | and most smaller regional ones without much trouble.
         | 
         | But with a car you can drive from Baltimore to Montreal in like
         | 10hrs so...
        
         | megablast wrote:
         | Talking about free, catching the bus in Canada involved
         | scanners and bag searches. Only place in the world I've seen
         | that.
        
           | version_five wrote:
           | Where is that? Certainly not on city busses, and not on any
           | of the coach busses I have seen.
        
           | steve-benjamins wrote:
           | Is this your experience or something you read about? I take
           | the bus all the time in Toronto and have never had a bag
           | searched.
        
           | rfrey wrote:
           | Canada had a decapitation on a inter-city bus a few years
           | ago, people were pretty freaked out.
        
             | sunstone wrote:
             | What's a little decapitation between friends?
        
               | onion2k wrote:
               | It's one way to get ahead.
        
               | leni536 wrote:
               | Getting ahead of navigation
        
         | inamiyar wrote:
         | If you could anywhere it'd be the east side (think starting in
         | NY), itd be a lot easier if coaches and trains were allowed
         | though.
        
         | stephenhuey wrote:
         | Depending on the timing of the bus schedules, you could just
         | about make it from Maine to Florida in a day--actually over 30
         | hours but definitely to the Carolinas from Maine within 24
         | hours.
        
           | Marazan wrote:
           | This was done with local buses, not intercity buses.
           | 
           | You could get much, much further using coach routes.
        
             | dan-robertson wrote:
             | Not really. They are buses with multiple stops rather than
             | direct city-to-city coach connections but the X buses (eg
             | X6, X7 from the route in the OP) are intercity routes.
        
               | Symbiote wrote:
               | The long distance coach to e.g. Leicester starts at the
               | same place, but takes the motorway and doesn't stop until
               | it gets to Leicester. Maybe it will then continue to
               | another city, e.g. Manchester. (I've done this trip.)
               | 
               | The OP took intercity / intertown "local" buses, but they
               | stop at many larger villages and towns along the route.
               | This is _much_ slower, as it usually involves leaving the
               | large road and winding through narrow roads to the
               | centre.
               | 
               | Example map for the Leicester-Loughborough-Derby bus,
               | showing a fair number of stops, where a coach service
               | might make 1 stop between Leicester and Derby:
               | https://www.trentbarton.co.uk/services/skylinkderby/maps-
               | and...
        
               | Marazan wrote:
               | The distinction is buses that a Bus Pass would or would
               | not be valid on.
        
         | kurthr wrote:
         | Having recently learned a new skill, here's a link to the full
         | thread on nitter (for those not logged into Twitter):
         | https://nitter.net/i/status/1428438081871433731
        
         | yann2 wrote:
         | Depends on the company. The US has no dearth of characters. And
         | most of them seem to travel by bus. One time I ended up next to
         | a dude who would excitedly point out every prision along the
         | highway he had been a guest at. Another time a "paranormal
         | investigator" with a 2 inch thick binder of haunted houses and
         | she wanted me to go through every page.
        
           | poulsbohemian wrote:
           | When people at the state prison, which is in my town of
           | residence, are released they are given a set of clothes and a
           | bus ticket back to the major city. Some of them are nice to
           | talk to - polite, and very happy to be outside again. I can
           | only think of once while riding the bus that there was a guy
           | I was concerned about. The "normal" clientele tend to be far
           | worse behaved than the folks just getting out of the system
        
         | mmphosis wrote:
         | I've taken the Go bus from Toronto to Barrie, I think the
         | transfer stop was in Bradford.
         | 
         | From the Barrie bus stop you need to get on Ontario Northland
         | to go further, but that is a regional bus and is significantly
         | costlier. I paid over $90 each for the regional bus to Toronto
         | - compared to some of the pre-pandemic flight deals: Abbostford
         | BC to Hamilton ON for $17! Greyhound is no longer in Canada -
         | you used to be able to cross the country using Greyhound. The
         | Bolt Bus and others can be good options, I've gone overnight
         | from Toronto to New York. I've also taken these buses in
         | Europe, and yes you do transfer in Lille.
         | 
         | Our hack was to take the CasinoRama bus from Toronto to Rama
         | for $5, or on the first trip it was free and they gave us play
         | money to spend at the casino.
        
           | poulsbohemian wrote:
           | Say that's interesting as there (pre-pandemic) was a Bolt bus
           | from Seattle to Vancouver- so I'm hearing you could
           | theoretically get from Seattle to NYC via Canada... seems
           | logical now that I type it, but guess I'd never really
           | thought about it. Would be more that 24 hours I assume, but
           | maybe not
        
             | mmphosis wrote:
             | Except for that supercheap Abbotsford to Hamilton flight,
             | it was almost always cheaper to take the bolt (or amtrak)
             | bus from Vancouver to Seattle (or Bellingham), and fly
             | quickly and cheaply to Newark, or other airport hubs in the
             | US.
        
             | noahtallen wrote:
             | I think you're right, the current record for fastest coast-
             | to-coast drive (NYC->LA) is around 27 hours. [1] And that's
             | going well above the speed limit the whole time without
             | stopping!
             | 
             | 1. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cannonball-coast-
             | coast-...
        
         | sandworm101 wrote:
         | If i was trying to _sneek_ put of london i 'd be more
         | interested in how far i could go in 24h without being spotted
         | on a camera. Canada would probably win that race.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | Could you go 10 feet? I think the best thing to do to sneak
           | out would be to put on a few of the correct type of items to
           | make facial recognition difficult, and have enough options
           | you could pop into a shop and discreetly change outer layers
           | while exiting different doors (where possible) to slow the
           | tracking down.
        
             | Symbiote wrote:
             | Since they all have cameras, you couldn't go on a local bus
             | or train without wearing sufficient clothes to obscure your
             | face. For example, a hoodie + cap.
             | 
             | Cycling while avoiding roads with lots of shops is probably
             | the best bet. In practise, private cameras aren't an issue
             | except in very unusual cases. (E.g. with runaway children
             | there might be a request for shop owners in a specific area
             | to check their recordings.)
        
       | dkdbejwi383 wrote:
       | Easier reading (and avoids the new auth-wall on Twitter)
       | https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1428438081871433731.html
        
         | pimlottc wrote:
         | Thanks for this, I managed to follow the original thread to
         | Leicester and then somehow got lost in the Twitter UI.
        
       | thriftwy wrote:
       | In Russia it was at some point possible to go from St. Petersburg
       | (Atlantic coast) to Vladivostok (Pacific coast) using only
       | regional trains ('electrichkas'). With some skill, paying for the
       | ride could be avoided entirely, but it would take ~28 days.
       | 
       | Whereas a proper sleeper train does that in "just" 7 days.
        
         | umanwizard wrote:
         | That's impressive. AFAIK in the US, the only two major cities
         | you can get between on regional trains (i.e., without using the
         | national train operator Amtrak) is New York and Philadelphia
         | (New Jersey Transit from NY to Trenton, then SEPTA from Trenton
         | to Philly).
         | 
         | NYC and Philly are so close that they could _almost_ be
         | considered the same metropolitan area, so it's not very
         | impressive!
         | 
         | Edit: also Baltimore and Washington, but those are even closer.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | jefftk wrote:
           | You're somewhat close to being able to do it between Boston
           | and New York (and then all the way to Philly); there's just
           | the gap between Wickford Junction and New London.
           | 
           | (MBTA's Providence line, gap, CTRail's Shore Line East,
           | Metro-North's New Haven Line)
        
           | Wowfunhappy wrote:
           | > NYC and Philly are so close that they could almost be
           | considered the same metropolitan area, so it's not very
           | impressive!
           | 
           | Indeed, supporting this: there are some people who live in
           | Philly and commute to New York. (Using Amtrak, not the local
           | trains.)
        
           | JackFr wrote:
           | SEPTA will take you as far south as Wilmington DE, and then
           | Maryland's MARC train goes as far north as Port Deposit, but
           | that's the gap that breaks up NY to DC.
        
           | jrockway wrote:
           | LA to San Diego is another one. Metrolink -> Coaster at
           | Oceanside.
        
             | umanwizard wrote:
             | Neat! I wouldn't have expected this to be possible anywhere
             | in the Southwest. There's no connection -- not even Amtrak,
             | between Phoenix (where I'm from) and Tucson. I didn't even
             | know San Diego _had_ regional trains.
        
           | ptspts wrote:
           | Why not use the LORR to extend the distance?
        
             | theobeers wrote:
             | You could extend the distance, but it wouldn't get you to
             | another major city.
             | 
             | I guess if you were touring Ivy League schools, you could
             | see Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Penn with only commuter
             | rail networks (if you allowed yourself small local
             | connections).
        
           | mintplant wrote:
           | Caltrain from San Jose to San Francisco? Or does that not
           | count?
        
       | bob229 wrote:
       | Londump truly is the worst capital city in Europe
        
       | laumars wrote:
       | As discussed elsewhere in this submission, if you want real
       | mileage by road then it's by coach you have to go.
       | 
       | I used to be scared of flying (technically still am but I've
       | since learned to manage that fear) so over the years I've
       | travelled great distances by road and rail. I've used coaches a
       | lot to travel the U.K. and Europe. 12 hours has taken me from
       | London to Amsterdam. I'd wager another 12 hours would get you as
       | far as Eastern European, possibly even Russia.
       | 
       | But such a journey would have to be pre-booked coaches. You
       | couldn't get there on buses.
        
         | Symbiote wrote:
         | London to Berlin is 26 hours with Eurolines.
         | 
         | It says there is a change, but not where the change is.
        
           | laumars wrote:
           | The Megabus will take you from London Victoria to Prague in
           | 19hrs
           | 
           | https://bustickets.distribusion.com/connections/results?depa.
           | ..
        
             | bogomipz wrote:
             | Interesting that the Prague journey is 7 hours less than
             | Berlin which is closer. Is this just because the number of
             | stops is greater on the Berlin route or something else?
        
               | laumars wrote:
               | Possibly, though the location of the stops might matter
               | more (ie the Berlin route might be a greater mileage but
               | less direct). The change over likely doesn't help either.
        
               | Symbiote wrote:
               | It could be that Berlin is the "end" of a trip around
               | Germany, but Prague is the beginning of a trip to
               | Czechia/Slovakia/Hungary/wherever-it-ends-up.
               | 
               | I had a friend who took the bus from London to Poland
               | after each term at university. It was about 20 hours to
               | the first stop in Poland, then another 12 or so going
               | around Poland until it got to his city. (This was decades
               | ago.)
        
           | dukeyukey wrote:
           | I've taken that bus. I think the change is in Lille, in
           | France near the border with Belgium.
        
         | IAmEveryone wrote:
         | In Europe, trains are far more comfortable, usually faster, and
         | with better networks in most places. They are more expensive,
         | but if you are in your early 20s (up to 25 or 27) the Interrail
         | ticket is an all-summer (or several weeks, as you chose) pass
         | to travel as much as you want, over most of Europe.
        
           | laumars wrote:
           | I've taken many trains in Europe. Ferries too.
           | 
           | Train is actually my preferred way to travel (that or
           | driving. But it depends where I'm going and why).
        
           | megablast wrote:
           | And more expensive than flying. Trains are insanely
           | expensive, especially in the Uk and France.
        
           | drstewart wrote:
           | "Better" network is an interesting choice of words if you're
           | listing it as a separate quality from speed. Better in what
           | way? I doubt anywhere in Europe has a train network with
           | denser routing or more stops than the bus system.
           | 
           | There are many, many cities and villages that are only
           | accessible by regional buses. I doubt the residents would
           | consider the train networks to be "better".
        
             | IAmEveryone wrote:
             | I was talking about coaches now :)
             | 
             | ...and my perspective may be both local and outdated.
             | Intercity coaches were actually illegal here in Germany
             | until 5 years ago or so, intended to protect the train
             | services (and, I guess, roads and the environment).
        
           | JackFr wrote:
           | > In Europe, trains are far more comfortable, usually faster,
           | and with better networks in most places.
           | 
           | Hah! That's what I thought until I wanted to go to
           | Liechtenstein. You would think Vaduz as capital would have a
           | rail station, but I had to take a bus.
        
             | gpvos wrote:
             | Well, the station is called Schaan-Vaduz. At least the
             | country has a railway; neither Andorra nor San Marino do.
        
             | suction wrote:
             | Nobody wants to go there, may be why.
        
             | Symbiote wrote:
             | With a population of only about 5,000, and with mountains
             | around, it's not especially surprising.
             | 
             | The neighbouring settlement, Schaan, is larger, has all the
             | industry, and has the railway and two stations.
        
       | louthy wrote:
       | I felt 'seen' as I went through the tweets...
       | 
       | - Starts is London, where I lived for 18 years.
       | 
       | - Goes through Kibworth Beauchamp which is about a mile from
       | where I live now (Beauchamp is pronounced like 'Beecham' btw)
       | 
       | - Then to Derby, where I was born and grew up
       | 
       | - Then through Belper, where my first job was
       | 
       | Felt slightly surreal!
        
         | Epenthesis wrote:
         | Is Derby pronounced with the first syllable rhyming with "car"
         | or "her" (/da:bi/ or /de:bi/)?
        
           | Symbiote wrote:
           | Also being familiar with the East Midlands, I would have
           | expected the pronunciation enquiry to be for Loughborough
           | (/l^fb@r@/).
        
           | danschuller wrote:
           | The "car" one
        
       | carlsborg wrote:
       | Technically you could probably get to Vienna, Austria in less
       | than 24 hours by bus, and still have time to visit a Wiener
       | Wurstelstand and the opera, if your timing and access to a shower
       | is good. London -> Paris: 2hrs 25 min, Paris-> Vienna: 17 hr 53
       | min.
        
         | zimpenfish wrote:
         | > London -> Paris: 2hrs 25 min
         | 
         | I'd say that was technically cheating since at least part of
         | that journey isn't going to strictly be on a bus (or coach.)
        
           | chrisseaton wrote:
           | > I'd say that was technically cheating since at least part
           | of that journey isn't going to strictly be on a bus (or
           | coach.)
           | 
           | You know coaches can go straight through the Channel Tunnel?
           | They board a special train.
        
             | willyt wrote:
             | It takes about 2hrs to drive to the tunnel from London. The
             | high speed train does London to Paris in 2hr25. I'm
             | guessing it takes about 7hrs by express coach.
        
               | e12e wrote:
               | Looks like 8h30 to 9h based on a couple of searches..
        
               | carlsborg wrote:
               | Quite right. That's the Eurostar time not the bus. My
               | bad. Salzburg might still work though!
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | zimpenfish wrote:
             | > You know coaches can go straight through the Channel
             | Tunnel? They board a special train.
             | 
             | a) That's a coach, not a bus, and b) that's using a train
             | to go through the tunnel and not strictly (by my definition
             | at least) on a bus (or coach.)
        
               | chrisseaton wrote:
               | > That's a coach, not a bus
               | 
               | You said:
               | 
               | > or coach
        
         | yosito wrote:
         | I was puzzled by the fact that this person seems to have
         | remained in England and didn't even make it to Scotland. I
         | guess they were taking only public transport service busses and
         | not express long distance busses. Seems a bit arbitrary to me.
        
           | reedf1 wrote:
           | Arbitrary in the exact same sense as seeing how far you can
           | go in any form of transport?
        
             | wincy wrote:
             | I think the confusion arises because in the US we call
             | anything that is a bus that takes you somewhere else
             | "traveling by bus" which apparently long haul trips are
             | called traveling by coach in the UK.
             | 
             | So as an American my first thought was "heck I could
             | probably get to LA from Kansas on a 24 hour bus trip" and
             | to see this person traveled only a few hundred KM was
             | confusing until that was clarified for me.
             | 
             | I thought maybe they were gonna end up in Russia or
             | something crazy because I have no sense of how big Europe
             | is.
        
               | Symbiote wrote:
               | Europe includes a lot more water than the USA (North Sea,
               | Baltic Sea, half the Mediterranean Sea), which is
               | obviously a barrier to a land journey, and makes a direct
               | comparison difficult.
               | 
               | But otherwise, something like Lisbon to Moscow is very
               | similar to the distance of LA to NYC.
               | 
               | Google's driving directions for these are 45 and 41
               | hours, respectively.
        
           | AndrewDucker wrote:
           | In the UK that kind of service is known as a "coach" rather
           | than a "bus" generally.
        
             | mxmilkiib wrote:
             | I remember way back when the Megabus from Edinburgh to
             | London was the same type of bus as the one I used to go to
             | school on :) And it cost 1 quid (plus 50p booking iirc).
             | 
             | Also, for GP, afaiu, the rules in Scotland are kinder
             | (includes long distance)
             | https://www.transport.gov.scot/concessionary-
             | travel/60plus-o...
             | 
             | P.S. Hi Andy!
        
               | goeiedaggoeie wrote:
               | I took that coach often and when I finally started making
               | money I decided to splurge on the sleeper train and in
               | time upgraded to a cabin. what luxury compared to
               | megabus!
        
               | megablast wrote:
               | You could have booked the entire bus instead.
        
               | martin-adams wrote:
               | PS1 plus 50p booking ads used to annoy me.
               | 
               | It's PS1.50-that's the price!
        
               | motiejus wrote:
               | The booking fee is per booking, not per ticket (at least
               | it was about a decade ago when I last did this route with
               | megabus).
               | 
               | So technically the ticket price can be as close to PS1 as
               | you want it to be.
        
       | Kreotiko wrote:
       | The title is misleading, it should state that is within the U.K.
       | You can get to south Italy from London in less than 24 hours.
       | 
       | Edit: My fault, it is not misleading. I didn't get the context of
       | somebody using British English.
        
         | wincy wrote:
         | Despite them not intentionally misleading I was excited to read
         | about someone's trip to Italy on a bus or something. I rarely
         | travel in the US because every place is kind of the same. Why
         | travel 400 miles when I can get some McDonald's right here?
        
         | acallaghan wrote:
         | By coach maybe, not by bus
        
           | Kreotiko wrote:
           | Good point but I have travelled from London to South Italy on
           | a vehicle called bus by their operators :)
        
             | steve-benjamins wrote:
             | You should consider taking back your comment about it being
             | misleading-- the author is from the UK-- vernacular is
             | different for busses and coaches.
             | 
             | Misleading is a pretty negative thing to call someones
             | story!
        
               | Kreotiko wrote:
               | You are very much right, cheers
        
       | aww_dang wrote:
       | https://mycitypaper.com/fumbling-toward-portland/
       | 
       | >Megaloping has only three simple rules. One: All vehicles used
       | must be operated by a public transit company. Two: Using regional
       | or long-distance transit systems is forbidden. Three: No
       | megaloper can walk more than two miles.
        
       | gandalfian wrote:
       | I think he means walk on bus rather than prebooked coach.
       | Otherwise there is a coach to Berlin and in 24 hours I would
       | guess about Poland.
        
         | codeulike wrote:
         | _Yes, deliberately excluded coaches. Basically the rule was to
         | only use routes that a older persons concessionary pass can be
         | used on (I'm too young for one, but it's a useful yardstick!),
         | which excludes most express coach routes._
         | 
         | https://twitter.com/politic_animal/status/142901686896309453...
        
         | 00deadbeef wrote:
         | That's generally the terminology we use in the UK.
         | 
         | Bus = something you just walk on
         | 
         | Coach = longer distance and prebooked
        
           | satysin wrote:
           | Yup. While not an official definition the following site has
           | a decent definition of the differences
           | https://www.wyattcoaches.co.uk/news/what-is-the-
           | difference-b...
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | signal11 wrote:
             | That's actually a pretty good explanation. My Concise
             | Oxford dictionary app has this:
             | 
             | coach(1) /k@UtS /
             | 
             | > n.
             | 
             | 1 Brit. a comfortably equipped single-decker bus used for
             | longer journeys.
             | 
             | 2 a railway carriage.
             | 
             | 3 (also coach class) N. Amer. economy-class seating in an
             | aircraft or train.
             | 
             | 4 a closed horse-drawn carriage.
             | 
             | > v. travel or convey by coach.
             | 
             | - DERIVATIVES coachload n.
             | 
             | - ORIGIN C16: from Fr. coche, from Hungarian kocsi (szeker)
             | '(wagon) from Kocs', a town in Hungary.
        
               | Symbiote wrote:
               | Single-decker seems unnecessarily restrictive.
               | 
               | This certainly counts as a coach in the UK:
               | https://greysofely.co.uk/85-seat-luxury-double-decker --
               | it's the kind of thing you see bands use when touring.
        
       | ggm wrote:
       | Purely for the appropriateness of the lyric I give you Paul
       | Kelly: "from St Kilda to Kings Cross is 13 hours on a bus" the
       | kings Cross in question being in Sydney, not London.
       | 
       | I've done the London - Edinburgh night bus. and, the Melbourne -
       | Sydney night bus. They both kinda suck. The Edinburgh London
       | pulled in at the Victoria station coach terminal, not kings Cross
       | station unfortunately
       | 
       | You should be able to get north of Aberdeen in the time limit on
       | a regional.
        
         | eesmith wrote:
         | In the comments, there's a restriction - the rider is using an
         | over-65s bus pass.
        
           | denysvitali wrote:
           | He is not, but he is following the rules of a over-65 bus
           | pass, which exclude coaches.
           | 
           | As far as I can tell, he is paying every single ticket and he
           | is going to provide the total at the end of his journey.
        
             | phire wrote:
             | Total is PS56.95, you can see the breakdown here:
             | 
             | https://twitter.com/politic_animal/status/14290067146412974
             | 1...
             | 
             | Apparently a walk-up train fare would cost PS73.50, but he
             | managed to pre-book his return trip train for PS40.90
        
               | aix1 wrote:
               | > he managed to pre-book his return trip train for
               | PS40.90
               | 
               | Those discounted fares are often tied to a specific train
               | (i.e. a particular departure time on a given date). Kudos
               | to the author for their faith in the ability to execute
               | on the bus journey and get to the train in time for
               | departure.
        
               | pm215 wrote:
               | If you check out the end of the thread you can see that
               | they stayed overnight in a hotel in Morecambe and took
               | the train back the next morning. There wouldn't be a
               | train to catch at gone midnight when they arrived in
               | Morecambe (the last sensible train option to London
               | leaves at about 20:00 and takes three hours).
               | 
               | I wonder if they had a plan B for accommodation if they'd
               | missed that last bus to Morecambe, though...
        
             | aix1 wrote:
             | > following the rules of a over-65 bus pass
             | 
             | For non-UK readers, the significance of this restriction is
             | that a person who are over 65 years of age would have been
             | able to make the entire journey _free of charge_.
             | 
             | https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN0
             | 1...
        
       | akshaykumar90 wrote:
       | To everyone looking for the answer:
       | 
       | It was Morecambe, UK -- after 21hrs and 24mins.
        
         | neonate wrote:
         | https://www.google.com/maps/place/Morecambe,+UK/@54.0705645,...
        
         | jmclnx wrote:
         | Thanks, and that is quite impressive considering he was using
         | what I would call public transportation
        
         | overkill28 wrote:
         | Thanks, couldn't figure out how to follow the Twitter thread to
         | the end.
         | 
         | This is a really cool idea, but I would have much preferred to
         | learn about it as a blog post or YouTube video.
        
       | pahn wrote:
       | Show HN: I actually made an art installation on this question
       | once: https://maschinenzeitmaschinen.de/tagged/derweil
       | 
       | derweil is an interactive video installation correlating time,
       | space and big data to provide tailor-made instructions on how to
       | get lost.
       | 
       | Materials: Google Directions and Streetview APIs, JavaScript,
       | NW.js, cables.gl, Involt, Arduino IDE, computers, thermal paper,
       | plastic, metals, wood.
       | 
       | Edit: wording and spelling.
        
       | Ichthypresbyter wrote:
       | Note: the UK has long-distance bus services which could get you a
       | lot further. The challenge here was to use only local bus
       | services (defined as those on which people over 65 get to travel
       | for free).
        
         | lostlogin wrote:
         | > long-distance bus service
         | 
         | The National Express! I was too poor to afford the train so
         | would use the busses. Often the bus was faster than the trains
         | for London - Edinburgh, usually for weather related outages.
         | The train is way nicer.
        
           | Symbiote wrote:
           | The train (London King's Cross to Edinburgh) is about 41/2
           | hours, but the fastest National Express coach is over 9
           | hours.
           | 
           | You were incredibly unlucky if the time you took the train
           | had a 5 hour delay.
        
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