From 1957-1979, scheduled overland buses ran London to Calcutta in 50 days via the Khyber Pass; 32 operators eventually competed on the route.
Key Takeaways
The first service, The Indiaman, used a refurbished AEC Regal III with 100,000 miles already on it; one-way fare was £85 in 1957.
The 20,300-mile route crossed France, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India before Calcutta – wooden planks were needed to cross desert sand in Iran.
At peak, 32 operators ran variants including double-deckers and converted fire engines; some routes extended to Kathmandu, Mumbai, or Sydney.
Albert Travel’s Albion Motors double-decker, bought for AU$400, completed 14 Sydney-to-London round trips between 1968 and 1975 before Iran instability ended the run.
The corridor collapsed in 1979 when the Soviet-Afghan War and Iranian Revolution made Central Asian overland transit untenable; a New Delhi-to-London revival announced for 2021 was delayed by Covid.
