2,800 miles by coach for £53
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VOLVO now figures in the Guinness Book of Records. Two air-conditioned B58 40-seaters are operating twice a week on the world's longest coach route. It is from Perth to Sydney, Australia, a distance of about 2,800 miles, and is covered in 62 hours.
Across Australia Coachlines charges $A90 — about £53 — which is a little less than 2p a mile. There are three meal stops a day, otherwise, the journey is relentless. About 1,000 passengers a year make the trip, which, to judge by a film I saw of the Perth-Sydney rail route, must be one of the world's most boring, although excellent value for money.
A journey of roughly similar Length is being made across America in a double-decker by a Yorkshire wholesale butcher and his family. He sold his business to buy and renovate a bus and ship it to New York for a holiday. He hoped to sell it in California, fly home and start another business.
The bus is reported to be creating a minor sensation. A motorist was so intrigued by the spectacle that he ran off the road. And they tell me that a street-corner lounger, caught in mid-gape, actually stopped chewing.
PHILIP MAYO, the National Freight Consortiums' director of legal services, who shares my pleasure in words, commends this notice in Lurke Street, Bedford: "Cars parked opposite this door will be towed away without compassion."