Imagine travelling from one side of the world to another by bus. It seems close to impossible, right? Well, in 1957, it was very much possible and went on for nearly 20 years.
The London-Calcutta Bus Service, also known as the Hippie Route, was a bus service by operator Albert Travel, taking passengers from London to Calcutta, now Kolkata in India.
For £145 (equivalent to £2,950.82 now), passengers experienced what was considered the longest bus route in the world, spanning 10,000 miles one way, passing through various countries.
The first service left London on April 15, arriving in Calcutta 50 days later. The bus would travel from England to Belgium, then go through Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan before arriving in India.
But it didn’t just go through the countries; it made some great stops, including incredible sights such as the Khyber Pass and Taj Mahal
Passengers even got to enjoy shopping days in Tehran, Salzburg, Kabul, Istanbul, and Vienna.
This bus service had everything needed and more – reading facilities, separate sleeping bunks, fan operated heaters and a kitchen. The upper deck housed a forward observation lounge and both radio and a music sound system were provided for parties.
If anything, the extraordinary trip was more like a tour with everything it offered.
After a few years, the bus became useable following an accident. It was then bought by a British traveller named Andy Stewart who remodelled the bus into a double-decker mobile home, renaming it Albert.
In 1968, the bus would travel from Sydney to London via India, under the English and Australian-based company Albert Tours, taking 132 days.
It had the same facilities and the same cost as before whilst operating the London-Calcutta-London and London-Calcutta-Sydney routes.
During the time of its service, there were political shifts in some of the countries part of the journey. The lead-up to the Iranian Revolution and the increasing tension between India and Pakistan meant that the route became unsafe, and after 15 trips, the service was discontinued.
