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Alright well it seems that we’ve ran out of original ideas so we’re doing another
one of these.
So, what’s the longest bus route in the world?
Well, if you live in New York, you’re probably confident that it’s the M14, which takes
you the 3.3 miles between Abington Square and the Lower East side at average speed of
4.3 miles per hour, which is the top speed of a snail, if the snail was on a scooter
that went 4.27 miles per hour.
But it turns out that believe it or not, there are bus routes even longer than that.
So now let’s walk through, as is tradition, our few caveats.
First, this must be a regularly scheduled, commercial bus route—it can’t just be
a route some bus went on some time.
If that counted, the longest bus route would be when the Magic School bus went from Pluto
to inside a kid’s intestines.
Second, it must be a route done on one bus, with no transfers.
Third, and I can’t believe I have to say this, it has to be a bus.
A bus with wheels that drives the wheels on the ground.
I don’t want to hear any nonsense in the comments about airbuses or how trains are
just buses on rails, no.
Nobody cares.
Get a life.
Just like… not so much of a life that you stop watching the videos.
Alright, so if you’ve ever watched this channel before, or watched any YouTube video
ever, you know that I’m not gonna tell you the answer right away.
Sorry folks, but this is how I win.
Now, historically, the longest bus route in the world went from Kolkata, India to London,
England.
Throughout the 1950s to 1970s, there were actually a number of buses that took this
approximately 10,000 mile, 16,000 kilometer trip, which took roughly 46 days—and now
I know what you’re thinking: didn’t the bus have to get on a ferry, and under the
rules of your “world’s longest drivable distance” doesn’t that not count?
Well, yes to the first and no to the second.
It did have to get on a ferry, but in my opinion that shouldn’t disqualify it: a bus route
is a bus route, so long as you stay on the bus.
If it gets on a ferry, I say all the power to it.
But second of all, it’s a moot point because all the routes died out in the 1970s, mostly
because a bunch of people decided to do the wars in Iran and Afghanistan, and despite
what Ted Cruz’ new mullet would have you believe, we don’t live in the 1970s.
Now, I know that some of you have probably heard that there’s a company called Adventures
Overland that is launching a new UK to India bus route.
I can see the comments now, correcting me and saying this one is actually the longest.
But check the website folks: the bus doesn’t launch until April 2022.
Is it April 2022?
No.
No it isn’t.
Or at least… it isn’t right now.
If you’re watching this in the future, maybe it is.
If that’s you, how’s the future?
Is Covid over?
Did someone finally invent a home printer that doesn’t make me punch… um, want to
punch a baby?
Let me know.
Now, there are a number of different road systems to consider when we want to look at
what bus route might be the longest.
There’s the American one, the other American one, the Eurafrasian one, the Australian one,
and the underground one the mole people use.
Now you might think that the Eurafrasian road system, being the longest, would offer us
the longest bus route—but it seems that the Europeans got too good at building high
speed rail, and so buses aren’t particularly popular in the region.
Australia, however, doesn’t really do the train thing, so it boasts an impressive 1,200
mile, 1,900 kilometer, 26 hour bus journey from Darwin to Broome.
That’s bested slightly by India’s longest, which appears to be the 1,250 mile, 2,000
kilometer route between Bengalru and Jaitaran, which is well documented in the bizarre canon
of YouTubers who love to make videos about them riding Indian bus routes.
Over in America, though, neither Amtrak Joe nor Secretary Mayor Pete has been able to
bring effective high-speed rail yet, which means Greyhound still reigns supreme: the
longest route being a 2,800 mile, 4,500 kilometer bus between New York, NY, and Los Angeles,
California.
This leaves the Port Authority Midtown Bus Terminal at 4:00 pm daily, and after 65 hours
and 29 stops, arrives on the West Coast with the few survivors who managed to not get deep
vein thrombosis.
But finally, now that you’ve watched enough that the algorithm will pay me, we arrive
at the answer: the longest commercial bus route currently in operation is the 3,900
mile, 6,200 kilometer TransOceania, which takes passengers on a 102-hour journey between
Lima, Peru and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
With 44 regular seats, along with 12 sleeping ones, it’s operated by two bus drivers who
alternate sleeping and driving, with two daily breaks to rest and refuel.
The overland route was made possible by the Transoceanic highway, completed in 2011, which
connects Peru and Brazil—it’s called Transoceanic because it connects the Pacific to the Atlantic,
which I mean I guess is cool if you haven’t heard of the Panama canal.
Originally the route only went from Lima to Sao Paolo, but it was extended to Rio in January
of 2016 due to “customer’s wishes” for a true ocean to ocean connection.
But you know what the customers probably really wished for?
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