April 29, 2026
50 days, 1 bus, infinite butt pain
London to Calcutta by Bus
The 50-day bus ride that has commenters dreaming, joking, and fact-checking
TLDR: For years, people could actually ride a bus from London to Calcutta on a brutal 50-day trip through multiple countries and hazards. Commenters were torn between romantic travel fever, practical fact-checking, and jokes about whether any human backside could survive it.
A vintage bus rolling from London all the way to Calcutta in the late 1950s sounds like something invented by a screenwriter after three espressos, but yes, it was real — and the comments section is absolutely eating it up. The original trip took 50 days, crossed Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, survived desert sand, mountain roads, storms, closed borders, and even wild rumors that the passengers had been killed by bandits. Instead, they turned up alive enough to score a British Embassy cocktail party. Honestly? The internet is obsessed.
The strongest reaction was a mix of wanderlust and disbelief. One commenter immediately wanted the modern reboot details, pointing to a delayed New Delhi-to-London service and basically asking, “So… can I still do this?” Another chimed in with a Wikipedia link, as if to say: this tale is so outrageous it needs receipts. Then came the bittersweet travel-drama crowd: one person shared they nearly did a similar overland trip 20 years ago, got as far as an Iranian visa, and then hit problems at the Pakistani embassy before giving up and flying. That comment brought the whole fantasy crashing into real-world paperwork.
And of course, the jokes landed too. One of the funniest lines praised the bus for having great tires, battery, and passenger butts to survive the journey. Another casually raised the stakes by noting there are still companies doing monster bus trips in Africa. The vibe? Equal parts "bring this back," "there’s no way my spine survives," and "please tell me there’s legroom."
Key Points
- •A London-to-Calcutta bus service operated for roughly 15 years from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, with journeys taking about 50 days.
- •The first service, The Indiaman, left London on April 15, 1957, and completed a 20,300-mile round trip by August 2, 1957, using a refurbished AEC Regal III bus.
- •The original route crossed multiple European and Asian countries and passed through major Indian cities including New Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, Banaras, and Calcutta.
- •The trip involved significant logistical and environmental challenges, including dangerous mountain roads, desert conditions in Iran, severe weather, and a border closure caused by Asian influenza.
- •The Indiaman completed four round trips and inspired numerous similar overland operators, including Albert Travel’s later London-to-Sydney service.