[HN Gopher] London-Calcutta bus service
___________________________________________________________________
London-Calcutta bus service
Author : thunderbong
Score : 311 points
Date : 2026-01-09 14:50 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| nine_k wrote:
| While money would be in the okay range, few can afford 50 days
| off.
| 6LLvveMx2koXfwn wrote:
| A friend of mine took this route in the 70's. It was not only
| relatively cheap but once you arrived in India you could live
| off the very generous UK Unemployment Benefit for a very long
| time as the exchange rate was incredible and the price of
| basics extremely cheap. He did it for several years before
| moving on to Japan. So he didn't need to take any time 'off' :)
| hexbin010 wrote:
| > but once you arrived in India you could live off the very
| generous UK Unemployment Benefit for a very long time
|
| Oh, so your friend is the reason the _extremely_ generous
| PS391 /mo unemployment benefit stops if you leave the country
| even for one day now ! :)
| nonethewiser wrote:
| He just collected unemployment while vacationing for months?
| Was that fraud or just how the system worked?
| 6LLvveMx2koXfwn wrote:
| There were almost no checks - he was, in theory, 'available
| for work'. The system is very different now - in part
| because it used to be too easy to take advantage of . . .
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Exchange rates are still incredible and a lot of foreigners
| do this in India. In places like Goa, HP, UK etc.
| stackghost wrote:
| I can't imagine spending two months on a bus.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| It has a party deck. Now?
| stackghost wrote:
| No, it sounds horrid
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| Go spend some time on r/onebag. Every day there is a post by
| someone who is taking 3 months or 6 months to travel a few
| different countries. Usually younger people, but includes
| people who are taking a long break from work.
|
| Or to put it another way. There were only a handful of such
| buses running simultaneously. So there were only a few hundred
| passengers per year. Is it hard to imagine that in the 3ish
| Billion people that live on that route today, you couldn't find
| 500 people who can take a few months off to do an epic journey
| through 20 countries?
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| When I was planning my ~3 months euro trip from India, I just
| couldn't connect/identify with those subs at all. I guess
| it's for the other way round mostly :)
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| > There were only a handful of such buses running
| simultaneously
|
| Indeed, the Wikipedia article is written in a way that
| strongly implies that there was in fact just a single bus,
| unless there were other companies running the same service.
| brcmthrowaway wrote:
| Well not everyone goes straight from college to coding
| nels wrote:
| Very impressive! I got curious and found this photo and brochure
| from the Indian Memory Project [1]
|
| [1]
| https://xcancel.com/Indianmemory/status/1277521026813882368#...
| nickdothutton wrote:
| Reminder that everything was better in the past. Prior to WW1 you
| could travel around most of Europe without even a passport too.
| ramenlover wrote:
| Everything but lifespan I think. So Expected Value of life
| remains flat over time.
| dhosek wrote:
| I think I'd pick a shorter high-quality life over a longer
| low-quality one given the choice.
| hexbin010 wrote:
| uff that's a brave opinion in most circles
| hexbin010 wrote:
| Apart from medicine, travel speeds, cost of travel, life
| expectancy, hot showers, central heating, cars, dentistry,
| sanitation, civil rights, and fewer childbirth deaths... you're
| absolutely right
| sebastiennight wrote:
| > travel speeds
|
| Based on my experience on L.A.'s "Pacific Surfliner", I'm
| pretty sure American train speeds have been on the decline
| since 1926.
| hexbin010 wrote:
| I hear planes are pretty fast
| ZeroConcerns wrote:
| Well, I can travel around most of Europe without a passport
| _right now_? ID card will do just fine, even though, really,
| nobody ever asks me for that either.
|
| Meanwhile, my life expectancy is, like at least twice that
| 'prior to WW1' and my disposable income at least 20 times my
| take-home pay in 1917.
|
| Bloody EU, innit...
| nonethewiser wrote:
| There also wasn't socialized healthcare
| scrlk wrote:
| Bismarck introduced socialised healthcare in 1883.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| And much before that there were no passports. Maybe you have a
| point. Say Columbus et cetera :D
| LadyCailin wrote:
| A picture would have been a great addition to the article.
| ZeroConcerns wrote:
| 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...)
| reaperducer wrote:
| You just need a nuclear-powered Big Bus.
|
| https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w1066_and_h600_bestv2/l5n4h4gmRtj...
|
| https://imcdb.org/i065460.jpg
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bus
|
| "Cyclops has a passenger capacity of 110 and is equipped with a
| bowling alley, Asian-style cocktail lounge with a piano bar,
| swimming pool, Bicentennial dining room, private marble-and-
| gold bathroom with sunken tub, and chef's kitchen."
| ZeroConcerns wrote:
| > You just need a nuclear-powered Big Bus
|
| Ah, so there is a chance!
| dhosek wrote:
| This was the first thing I thought of when I read the
| article. I remember making my own nuclear-powered big bus out
| of legos after watching that movie.
| leopoldj wrote:
| From Sofia to the West of Turkey should be relatively easy.
| After that, travel through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan will
| get hairy.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| 10s of thousands of religious pilgrims travel by bus between
| Pakistan and Iran every year. You can just avoid Afghanistan.
| mminer237 wrote:
| Generally the border between Paxistan and India cannot be
| crossed though. I believe Attari/Wagah is the only place,
| and it was closed too last I heard.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| Indeed, it has been closed since the aerial clashes last
| year. But we can hope for peace, and with it cross border
| tourism.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| Can locals still cross at Kasur/Ganda Singh Wala like
| before 1971?
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| To my knowledge, no. In the recent past, either you could
| cross via the the Wagah-Attari border crossing or get on
| the Thar Express train [1], which connects Karachi with
| Jodhpur via the Zero Point crossing. But the Thar Express
| has been closed since 2019.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thar_Express
| ZeroConcerns wrote:
| You'd be surprised at how cheap, relatively safe and reliable
| bus services are in those regions.
|
| Source: me and my wife traveled extensively by public
| transport in, well, at least Pakistan. The other countries
| are indeed sort-of hairy, but mostly for job-clearance-
| related reasons.
| nephihaha wrote:
| There were some bad roads in the Balkans as well.
| port3000 wrote:
| My Google Maps algo will be massively confused by my
| 'Directions' search: Sofia, Bulgaria to Kolkata, India on a
| Friday afternoon in January
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| It gives up. Besides these days it's Kolkata.
| SockThief wrote:
| Similar discussion last year:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40649091
| cpach wrote:
| Nit-pick: The year before :)
| SockThief wrote:
| You gave me a chuckle :) Thanks!
| skilled wrote:
| 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.
| cheschire wrote:
| > In 1957, a one-way ticket cost PS85 (equivalent to PS2,589 in
| 2023), rising to PS145 by 1973 (equivalent to PS2,215 in 2023).
|
| Oof that really puts inflation into perspective doesn't it?
| Doohickey-d wrote:
| PS2,589 for an all-inclusive 50-day bus-cruise, even today,
| doesn't seem that overly expensive. (~PS50/day).
|
| So it's not just inflation, it's "that used to be cheaper".
|
| I guess on the flipside, travelling by plane in 1957 (or even
| 1974), would have been much more than PS2,589.
| pc86 wrote:
| > _travelling by plane in 1957 (or even 1974), would have
| been much more [expensive]_
|
| Not to mention a lot more dangerous.
| lovecg wrote:
| Hmm. A long trip by a 1957 bus vs. a 1957 airliner? It's
| not immediately obvious what would be safer to be honest.
| pc86 wrote:
| Sorry I was unclear, I mean 50s or 70s air travel
| compared to present day air travel. (Which on
| reconsideration might not be particularly relevant haha)
| solidsnack9000 wrote:
| Lot of hijackings still to come in 1950...
| Tornhoof wrote:
| About twice as much. https://www.indianairmails.com/ai-
| bombay-to-london.html 1948 price was PS141 one-way. This
| likely did not change much in the early years.
| nephihaha wrote:
| The problem is that the suspension would not be great back
| then.
| dgacmu wrote:
| That seemed high, so I plugged it into the bank of England's
| inflation calculator[1] and got:
|
| > What cost PS85.00 in 1957 would cost PS1,796.12 in November
| 2025.
|
| Not orders of magnitude off, but makes a little more sense this
| way. I wonder if there's a bug in wikipedia's inflation
| calculator.
|
| [1] https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-
| policy/inflation/in...
| wasmitnetzen wrote:
| The template references a site which uses the Retail Price
| Index[1] (even though it says it uses the Consumer Price
| Index?), Bank of England uses the Consumer Price Index. Over
| such a long period a difference of 30% doesn't seem that
| much.
|
| [1]:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Inflation/UK/dataset
| layer8 wrote:
| There was heavy inflation in the seventies:
| https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/gbr/uni...
| langleyi wrote:
| 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.
| hexbin010 wrote:
| That's impressive!
|
| My grandmother took 2 or 3 of her kids, on her own, on the
| train from London to southern Italy a couple of times a year
| with the same kind of stoicism as people take the bus into town
| these days. They were built different
| jimbokun wrote:
| Taking the train to southern Italy a couple of times a year
| sounds like both a great adventure and a great privilege.
| hexbin010 wrote:
| My grandparents switched to driving as soon as they could
| afford it haha (my grandfather the begrudging driver).
| Train was certainly an adventure
| trop wrote:
| Robert Byron, in The Road to Oxiana, describes a 1930s trip to
| present-day Afghanistan. But I believe he started the
| automobile portion in Tehran.
| consumer451 wrote:
| 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/
| jacobgorm wrote:
| I took that once from SF to NYC when in my twenties. Definitely
| recommend.
| daviding wrote:
| I did too - did the SF back to NYC leg that goes the north
| route as well. Amazing experience. I was only 19 at the time.
| My favorite memory is that on the westbound leg we met up
| with the eastbound one in (I think) Yellowstone and while
| parking the buses they managed to slowly crash in to each
| other (just a dent, nothing serious). I liked the fact they
| both started from separate coasts and ending up colliding.
| tavavex wrote:
| Can I ask what year that was in? Several people in here
| seem to be intimately familiar with this company, but it's
| my first time hearing about it, despite me being quite
| interested in travel and all sorts of weird transit
| methods. It made me wonder if everyone here used them when
| they were at their peak many decades ago, or if this
| varied.
| daviding wrote:
| 1989. I saw a paper flyer in the New York Public Library
| and turned up a few days later at the bus station on
| impulse. It was basically a moving commune, where you
| slept on flat boards, cooked together and moved glacially
| slowly towards the destination. The NY -> SF went south
| via FL, TX etc. It was mainly young people not actually
| from the US, Europe, Australia etc.
| tim333 wrote:
| I did similar as brit tourist. It was about a week from
| Boston to SF.
| jacobgorm wrote:
| 1997 for me.
| Klonoar wrote:
| Huh. I've seen that hostel in downtown Seattle for years now
| but never knew the story behind the brand.
| rpozarickij wrote:
| > Green Tortoise Adventure Travel is an American long-distance
| tour bus company
|
| > is
|
| I usually find Wikipedia to be quite accurate when it comes to
| telling whether something is still operational/active or not,
| especially when it comes to businesses (among other things).
| ivm wrote:
| Many years ago it was a great service to get to BM cheaply.
| redler wrote:
| 2019 was their last year.
| pimlottc wrote:
| BM?
| ivm wrote:
| Burning Man, accoridng to the article they switched to
| "adventure camping trips" in 2001
| mapt wrote:
| > A very different scale
|
| Anchorage to Belize: 5777 miles
|
| London to Kolkata: 5695 miles
| tavavex wrote:
| I actually can't find any evidence that there ever existed a
| direct Anchorage-Belize trip. The parent comment implies that
| the company merely offered routes that extended to these
| destinations, but not necessarily as a single trip.
| consumer451 wrote:
| That is indeed what I was trying to imply. Although, as
| someone who grew up on the West Coast, I have to say that
| similarity in distance is still a bit surprising to me.
| skrebbel wrote:
| Which of the two distances would you have guessed is
| further?
| trueismywork wrote:
| How did you compute the distances? Geodesic?
| nonethewiser wrote:
| 50 days one way? Some research shows it was PS85 vs. PS200-PS400
| 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.
| mkw5053 wrote:
| You definitely don't take long distance Amtrak today for cost
| or convenience. You go for the experience and views. I had a
| blast sharing a room with a friend on the Seattle to Emeryville
| route. I'm looking at Chicago to Emeryville next (or starting
| in Denver along the same route).
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Also be prepared for delays up to 24 hours on any long
| distance routes especially west of Chicago.
| noman-land wrote:
| What if you want to enjoy the scenery?
| naikrovek wrote:
| Amtrak is not for someone that simply wants to get from A to B.
| I suspect a 50-day bus trip would be the same.
|
| When I take Amtrak, it's because I want to look out of a window
| for a few dozen hours and see something new (to me) every time
| I look out the window.
|
| It's probably the bus trip that they want, and not simply "go
| to India."
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| You don't need to do it in one trip.
|
| The equivalent of this would be interrailing through europe...
| travel via train to one country, stay for a few days, travel to
| next, stay a few days, and continue, all with a single ticket:
| https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/global-pass
| justincormack wrote:
| There was only one bus, so waiting for it to pick you up
| again would be at least 100 days wait, so not really an
| option.
| inglor_cz wrote:
| Or being a "nomad" type who considers the journey itself as an
| end.
|
| Fits the hippie age quite well.
| simonw wrote:
| The other motivation would be getting to see - albeit briefly -
| all of the countries in between.
|
| If I had 50 days to spare I might choose that over a flight
| too!
| Hnrobert42 wrote:
| I have friends that take the long haul Amtrak route. One does
| it for environmental reasons. He also eats discarded food so as
| not to waste. Great guy. Just a bit of a nut.
|
| Another travels by train with his wife because they are retired
| and both have knee problems that make sitting in a plane
| untenable.
|
| But yeah, traveling by train in the US outside the Northeast
| corridor doesn't make except for unusual circumstances.
| Klonoar wrote:
| Eh, the Portland - Seattle - Vancouver BC Amtrak sector is
| also pretty usable. In practice I've found it's not
| substantially faster or slower than driving - at least not
| enough to make a big difference for me.
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| Pretty, yes, but geopolitical issues slow the service. We
| were at least two hours late thanks to various issues with
| crossing the border and fitting in with the cargo trains.
| Klonoar wrote:
| I believe you when you explain your experiences. All I
| can offer is anecdotal experience of having never
| encountered that myself.
|
| If it's luck then I'm thankful if nothing else.
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| The conductor bent our ears for a while as we waited. He
| said it was common.
| bpye wrote:
| It's slow on the Canadian side, especially around the
| swing bridge. The US side is actually fairly fast, and
| the border crossing is quick.
|
| Definitely my preferred way to do Vancouver-Seattle
| travel.
| tialaramex wrote:
| On a train I can read a book, eat some food, drink, stare
| at the scenery, check my phone, no problem because I'm not
| driving. On most trains a professional is driving, on a few
| a machine is driving, but either way it's not my problem.
| bradchris wrote:
| For long distance trains, sure. But there's plenty of shorter
| Amtrak routes outside of the NE Corridor where it could make
| as much or _more_ sense than flying, to be fair
|
| Los Angeles - San Diego: 2.5hrs downtown to downtown (less if
| you're going to one of the many suburbs or beach towns in
| between), which is on par with driving and sometimes even
| faster than traffic. Also, a ticket is only $30-50, so about
| a tank of gas. This is likely why it's Amtrak's busiest and
| most profitable route outside the NEC. If the second phase of
| the California High Speed Rail ever gets built (lol), this
| trip is to take somewhere between 30-45 minutes.
| gradascent wrote:
| I just took the Amtrak from Southern California to Seattle.
|
| Pros:
|
| - space! wide seats and leg room are awesome (I'm 6'5" so
| this is everything)
|
| - Freedom to move around and explore. Lounge car, dining car,
| snack bar
|
| - Spectacular views
|
| - Train stations are much more pleasant than airports
|
| - Opportunity to meet people from all over the place. On a
| plane everyone is going from A->B, people on the train could
| be starting/ending anywhere along the route, including small
| towns you've never heard of.
|
| Cons:
|
| - 32 hours of travel
|
| - Pay an extra ~$500 to get a bed, or sleep in your seat
|
| Overall I have no regrets but I'll probably not do this again
| until I'm retired or extremely bored.
| kccqzy wrote:
| I've traveled in the Coast Starlight I think maybe five
| times. It was enjoyable.
|
| Some more pros:
|
| - The food served in the dining car is far better than
| airplane food. If you get a bed, the food is included. Even
| if you get a seat, you have the option of paying for good
| food.
|
| - You can bring a bicycle along for the ride. You do not
| need to disassemble it or put it in a box. Just walk the
| bike to the luggage car and someone will take it; when you
| get off the train walk to the luggage car and someone will
| hand it to you.
| mnicky wrote:
| As a European, I was shocked by how slow trains are in the
| US.
|
| It definitely doesn't encourage people to use them instead
| of flying.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I assume they have eliminated the "smoking" car by now?
| Last time I took Amtrak long distance, walking through the
| smoking car to get to the dining car basically ruined the
| experience. Literally blue haze air and you smelled the
| smoke in your clothes for several hours afterwards. This
| was the early 1990s.
| iso1631 wrote:
| I did NY to Miami in 2024, I was working in NY one week and
| Miami the next, made sense to me to have Sat morning down
| town in New York, then sit in a private hotel room with great
| food for 24 hours before arriving in New York Sunday evening
| in time for work the following day.
|
| Could have flown Saturday evening and had an extra day in a
| hotel room in Miami instead, but I spend enough time in chain
| hotels
| kakacik wrote:
| Road is the destination, thus you arrive a changed man, ready
| for the Indian sub-universe to experience and mold you further.
|
| And specifically on this, clashing with a very exotic cultures
| and mindsets along the way, forming unexpected intense
| interactions and experiences that you will remember for the
| rest of your life.
|
| I've done a similar thing to this since this specifically
| wasn't possible anymore without crossing battlefields and
| risking kidnapping and death - backpacking around India for 6
| months together. No real destination or plan, just 1 thick
| Lonely planet book covering whole country in the backpack (this
| was 2008 and 2010), return ticket and fixed budget in cash.
|
| Came back a bit different, dare I say in some ways enlightened
| person. Experience cannot be explained to others by mere words,
| but other folks who experienced similar understand without a
| word.
| binary132 wrote:
| drug and sex tourism
| beejiu wrote:
| It followed the hippie trail, that was the motivation:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_trail
| usueye wrote:
| An interactive article from CNN :
| https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/travel/hippie-trail-
| hist...
| mbreese wrote:
| The point is the travel. If you have the time, then this would
| have been a great way to see a lot of the world. It's a bit of
| an adventure by itself.
|
| I can't say it would have been very comfortable, so I guess it
| would be trading time and comfort for money.
| sublinear wrote:
| I can say as an anxiety sufferer and avoider of planes is
| that the discomfort helps me feel grounded (literally hah).
| It's its own kind of comfort.
| refulgentis wrote:
| Cheers, I thought I was the only person like this :) (also
| didn't tie it to my anxiety, but it's extremely obvious in
| retrospect. This is too short and elides the own kind of
| comfort part, but I guess it means I can't spin out,
| ruminating on or creating other problems, when I have stuff
| right here to complain about!)
| erikig wrote:
| Exactly. For many, the idea of being able to see England,
| Belgium, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey,
| Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in one 50 day trip with
| many similar minded travelers who aren't in a rush is really
| quite appealing.
|
| Also, with bus travel you could, if you felt like it, leave
| the trip to enjoy many more local attractions and resume your
| travels later in a way not afforded by airplane or rail
| travel.
| dtm987654123 wrote:
| iirc it was more doing it for the experience than as a
| convenient mode of travel (and actually if you run the maths/do
| some estimation, the journey time would be much shorter if they
| were driving 24/7 - like 5-10 days maybe)
| pkorzeniewski wrote:
| Depends on the type of tourism you prefer, I absolutely love
| roadtrips because "journey is more important than the
| destination", it's an adventure and the best memories from
| trips I have are from the journey itself, the destination is
| just a cherry on top.
| paxys wrote:
| Says so right in the opening paragraphs:
|
| > became famously associated with the overland Hippie Trail of
| the 1960s and 1970s
| jandrese wrote:
| The Wikipedia article made it sound like more of a "land
| cruise". The bus stopped at some tourist and shopping
| destinations along the way and the description make it sound
| more like a cabin cruiser than your typical bus. I can see the
| appeal for people who want to travel and don't have a lot of
| money. Definitely easier than hitchhiking across the continent.
| elAhmo wrote:
| Can't believe you tried so hard to list reasons for taking the
| route, and missed an obvious one that other commenters
| suggested. Travel is not always just A->B as fast as possible.
| netdevphoenix wrote:
| This is HN, a place where people see dot A and people see dot
| B but they fail to connect the dots. Reminds me of HN's
| underwhelming reaction to Dropbox.
|
| One would think that travelling across so many countries and
| continents would be quite clearly the point of the bus
| service.
| theideaofcoffee wrote:
| I've given up on expecting any subtlety or nuance from the
| painfully literal nerds on here. "Must optimize my route
| for efficiency because I am an engineer! No fun allowed!"
| There's a certain depressing lack of joie de vivre.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| It's not nerdism. It's the dominant ideology of our times
| - neoliberalism - which demands that everything be valued
| only in terms of dollars. A trip that takes 50 days is
| not dollar efficient because you could fly in one day and
| spend the remaining 49 days earning dollars, i.e. the
| value of time is only about dollars, and cannot be other
| measures, especially subjective ones like human enjoyment
| and wonder.
| fakedang wrote:
| Judging by the facilities mentioned in the Wikipedia article,
| it was very much planned as a (relatively) modern-day Orient
| Express. Not everyone back then had the luxury to not work for
| 50 days (one-way), so it was very much a rich people service.
| square_usual wrote:
| I took the Amtrak from Chicago to SF and it was the highlight
| of that year for me and one of the best memories of my life.
| Eating breakfast as we snaked by the Colorado river with fresh
| snow on the rocks - that's a travel experience.
| chrononaut wrote:
| For the most part, the purpose of the long haul Amtrak services
| isn't to make it economical go from one end of the line / one
| major city to the other (e.g. NYC to Chicago); It's to provide
| a transportation service for all the intermediate, rural
| stations who might not be near an airport or have any other
| public transportation options.
| jihadjihad wrote:
| By way of comparison, it took pilgrims from England traveling
| on ships like the Mayflower about 66 days to arrive in New
| England.
| NoSalt wrote:
| Really, more expensive than flying? The family and I are
| looking at taking a X-country trip on AMTRAK and it looks to be
| significantly cheaper than flying. Plus, we will get to see
| awesome sights.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| You lucked out. I periodically have entertained the idea of a
| long train trip with the family, and it has invariably been a
| good bit more expensive than just flying. The only time it is
| even close is on short (say a few hundred miles) trips.
| nephihaha wrote:
| "There is just absolutely no reason to travel that way."
|
| Some people liked to see all these places and meet people. The
| journey itself would be an adventure. The other alternative
| would be by sea.
|
| I used to know someone who travelled to India overland long
| before the Beatles made it fashionable for westerners to visit.
| throwforfeds wrote:
| The same reason why people take month long road trips anywhere,
| it's to see everything on the way. I'd guess their clients were
| 20 year olds wanting to go on an adventure. Honestly, if this
| had been a thing when I was 21 and out of college and a friend
| asked me to go I probably would have.
| pcrh wrote:
| I once took Amtrack from Chicago-Seattle-San Francisco-Los
| Angeles-San Antonio-Chicago. With side-trips to Madison WI,
| Vancouver and to Yosemite (via Green Tortoise company).
|
| It was a 6 week vacation, the purpose was to travel and see the
| US. I enjoyed it very much!
| dyauspitr wrote:
| I'm surprised you've missed the most important reason of all.
| The very journey and the time spent on it is the point I would
| imagine for a large majority of the folks. It's an adventure.
| What sort of person misses this?
| bajirao wrote:
| 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.
|
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/163921.Full_Tilt
| tfrancisl wrote:
| Operator was Mr. Travel himself! Maybe he invented long journeys.
| captn3m0 wrote:
| 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.
| jstanley wrote:
| What would a non-genuine reason look like?
| gambiting wrote:
| You can still drive your own private car the entire way. And
| there are trains you can take.
| captn3m0 wrote:
| The India-Pak trains have been stopped since 2019.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| You can probably still drive India-China-Central Asian
| countries-Iran-Turkey-EU.
| ashishgupta2209 wrote:
| Is Calcutta India here?
| debarshri wrote:
| 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.
|
| [1] https://www.maharajasexpress.com
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Not this but Golden Chariot (and Palace on Wheels - not sure
| this one still runs) was a dream since I was a student. When I
| could afford it, I was no longer interested. A few people I
| know took those rides and had nothing extraordinary to say of
| it. The prices are in USD so I guess it's literally the "Raj
| Trip" trap for the foreigners and that's what I heard from
| those few Indians I know who travelled in these. For the ultra
| rich Indian it holds no pull, and the rich Indians - they'd
| rather go elsewhere in that cost than cross the same tracks and
| platforms knowing fully well what lies below 2 feet and around
| it, in fact they can damn picture it in HD
| stickfigure wrote:
| 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.
| helsinkiandrew wrote:
| 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...
| cvoss wrote:
| These are photos of the Indiaman service, operated by Garrow-
| Fisher starting in 1957. The Wikipedia article conflates
| details of this service with another one, the Albert, operated
| by Albert Travel, which started in 1968. I noticed the
| discrepancy because the photos are of a single-decker bus, not
| a double-decker.
|
| See here for much better Wikipedia article that keeps the
| details straight:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_b...
| dang wrote:
| Thanks! Macroexpanded:
|
| _London-Calcutta Bus Service_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40649091 - June 2024 (117
| comments)
| Fricken wrote:
| All the cold cuts in Calcutta are smelly. Please Mum buy meat at
| the New Delhi.
| shevy-java wrote:
| People back then had a lot more spare time evidently ...
| nephihaha wrote:
| Most people never did it.
| inanothertime wrote:
| 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
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| You can do Paris-Berlin-Moscow-Beijing by train via the trans-
| Siberian, or via Ulan-Bataar with the trans-Mongolian.
|
| Quite an iconic route that became much simpler administratively
| to travel in 2000s but perhaps again trickier now because of
| the situation with Russia.
| jan_Sate wrote:
| So that's what the people were using before commercial flights
| were common.
| NoSalt wrote:
| 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?
| pvelagal wrote:
| I didnt know this existed. Would be pretty cool if they restart
| the service.
| jimmySixDOF wrote:
| 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...
| ankushkun_ wrote:
| hooooooly, that's a long journey
| brcmthrowaway wrote:
| Why can't Google Maps calculate London/Berlin to Kolkota?
| ks2048 wrote:
| 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.
| raybb wrote:
| Please reply back here when you do publish the the blog post.
| I'd love to read it.
| srameshc wrote:
| there is a DW channel documentary about Transoceanica (Rio to
| Lima ) the longest bus route, which I just watched last week.
| It is 5 episodes but well made.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_ODFlqURxY
| katspaugh wrote:
| Imagine a couple who broke up somewhere in Iran and still had to
| share a seat for another thousand miles.
| tim333 wrote:
| 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.
| seb1204 wrote:
| 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.
| empressplay wrote:
| Here's a picture of Albert, the double-decker bus:
|
| https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/article1124887.ece/ALTERNA...
| agumonkey wrote:
| operated by albert travel. aptronymy strikes again
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