European Rail Travel - Manchester to London Rail?

I need to get from Manchester to London, specifically the Hilton LHR. Is there rail service between these two cities and how long is the travel time?

Thanks

Every 20 minutes, takes a couple of hours. Can be expensive but if you book in advance and/or travel off peak not too bad.

www.virgintrains.co.uk

You would then need to get to LHR itself, from central London you can use a taxi (very expensive), Tube+Heathrow Express (expensive) or the Tube (slow but cheap).

It appears, according to a Google map, to be right next to Terminal 4.

You also have the option of flying - BA flies from Manchester to LHR.

Neil

Virgin Trains (http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/). Trains every 20 minutes during the daytime; journey time just over 2 hours.

Often it is cheaper for fly MAN-LHR (esp. as the LHR Hilton is attached to T4 at LHR). Elasped time would be about an hour longer by train, even counting airport wait times.

Often it is cheaper for fly MAN-LHR (esp. as the LHR Hilton is attached to T4 at LHR). Elasped time would be about an hour longer by train, even counting airport wait times.

Really depends on if you can get a saver fare. What time of day are you looking at doing this?

As you need to get to LHR, I'd recommend flying. Check fares on BA and BD, if booked in advance you can get good discounts on this route. If you take the train, you'll travel from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston, which is in central London. From Euston you'll have several options for getting to LHR, all options will require at least an hour of travel time.

As you need to get to LHR, I'd recommend flying.

Wouldn't this depend on the OP's starting point in Manchester? If it's the centre of town then the journey would take about three hours door-to-door regardless of whether he travels by train or by air

Wouldn't this depend on the OP's starting point in Manchester? If it's the centre of town then the journey would take about three hours door-to-door regardless of whether he travels by train or by airMAN has quite good train service, so it doesn't really matter; as easy to take train to airport as to London. Elapsed time to LHR will be similar or slightly shorter by flying. I've taken the train to London from MAN a few times (actually chose to fly US-MAN instead of LHR to avoid the hassle of LHR) and the train is not bad, but cost more than flying MAN-LHR and the only advantage of the train is if you are not going to LHR or that part of London. Virgin trains seem to think they are BA when it comes to pricing.

Virgin trains seem to think they are BA when it comes to pricing.

Not surprising, as it is on a city-to-city basis somewhat of a premium service.

If you want to go on the cheap, buy a ticket to Crewe then change to London Midland services. Will take you ages, though!

Neil

If you want to go on the cheap, buy a ticket to Crewe then change to London Midland services. Will take you ages, though!


For a journey between London and Manchester, the place to change would actually Stoke-on-Trent, not Crewe (the cheap London Midland train/ticket being between Stoke and London) - three and a half hours or so total journey time.

Not surprising, as it is on a city-to-city basis somewhat of a premium service.

It's also worth comparing like with like - I've lost count of the number of times I've seen the most expensive walk-up train fare used to compare with the cheapest, inflexible air fare.

For example, if I look at train fares for the evening peak on Monday, they're from £30-60. Flights are £120-160.

For a journey between London and Manchester, the place to change would actually Stoke-on-Trent, not Crewe (the cheap London Midland train/ticket being between Stoke and London) - three and a half hours or so total journey time.

Sorry, I forgot the wobble via Stoke. FWIW, that wobble actually, last time I checked, made it quicker to change at Stafford onto a Liverpool train to get to Crewe rather than staying on the same through train.

Neil