European Rail Travel - Rail from Edinburgh to London

Greetings FT'ers! My wife and I are going to be taking a two week European vacation in 2012 and we wanted to traverse from Scotland to England and the preferred route is by rail. My question is, do you suggest taking the rail during the day because of the scenery or the overnight train??? I'm assuming that the rail is much more economical and relaxing than driving. Thanks in advance for any help!

Greetings FT'ers! My wife and I are going to be taking a two week European vacation in 2012 and we wanted to traverse from Scotland to England and the preferred route is by rail. My question is, do you suggest taking the rail during the day because of the scenery or the overnight train??? I'm assuming that the rail is much more economical and relaxing than driving. Thanks in advance for any help!

Yes, I'd say the scenery's worth seeing - where in Scotland to where in England are you looking at travelling between?

To predict the next question, you can't book until 11-12 weeks beforehand, when the cheap tickets go on sale. If you're travelling on the East Coast route (e.g. Edinburgh - London) you can set up an email alert for when tickets become available here (http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/travel-information/Advanced-Ticket-Alert/).

If you're travelling on the East Coast route (e.g. Edinburgh - London) you can set up an email alert for when tickets become available here (http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/travel-information/Advanced-Ticket-Alert/).

Awesome, thanks for the tip! We are actually traveling from Edinburgh to London so this site will help tremendously. I was leaning towards the day train but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't assuming that there would be something to look at.

Definitely train - and first class is wortwhile too, if you can get a decent priced ticket - bigger, reclining seats, and food included.

If you have time, you could also consider stopping off on the way - York station, for example, is right by the city walls, and it's a great place to wander round for a couple of hours.

Wave on your way through Biggleswade! :)

As an exercise in expectation management, can the OP please be advised that there is absolutely nothing interesting to see out of the window between Doncaster and Kings X, save for catching a glimpse of Stut in Biggleswade.

Definitely take the train though, East Coast is a fantastic service, unless of course you want to take your time, do Northumberland and the North Yorks Moors in which case driving it would be nice too if you have the time.

Oh, I don't know. You can catch a glimpse of Newark Castle and Peterborough Cathedral. The A14 flyover at Huntingdon. The brutal modernism of the Gordon Craig theatre at Stevenage. Digswell Viaduct is quite pleasant. The old Shredded Wheat factory at Welwyn Garden City. Alexandra Palace. That 10-pin bowling alley at Finsbury Park, the Emirates Stadium and a sandbag house that was on Grand Designs by Caley Road...

OK, yes, this is the dull bit of the journey. It's a pleasant, fast way to travel, but do bring a book.

Can you really see Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth's sandbag house from the East Coast mainline? They were my lecturers at UCL many moons ago.

Emirates Stadium is a good spot too. Long and short of it, you can have a snooze between Doncaster and Holloway

You can indeed - it's right by the tracks. Heading into London, look right just after the Emirates, before you pass Caley Road.

I still think it's a great looking building!

You can indeed - it's right by the tracks. Heading into London, look right just after the Emirates, before you pass Caley Road.

I still think it's a great looking building!
Nice tip. Thanks. I'm usually marveling at the stadium... or trying to judge when the optimum time is to get my luggage/stand up/look calm cool and relaxed.

Definitely train - and first class is wortwhile too, if you can get a decent priced ticket - bigger, reclining seats, and food included.

If you have time, you could also consider stopping off on the way - York station, for example, is right by the city walls, and it's a great place to wander round for a couple of hours.

Wave on your way through Biggleswade! :)
Big +1 to First Class. It can be really affordable if you book when they first put the tickets on sale, and when you factor in free wifi (a great way to deal with that last dull bit) and the food/beverage included, it makes a lot of sense. I just did a return from Kings Cross to Montrose with a group in Standard, and it was miserable space-wise. (It was made better by having a table seat and great company, however.)

you can also see St James' Park in Newcastle!
Anyway....

We just made the King's Cross to Waverley and return two weeks ago to catch the Fringe, Festival and Military Tattoo in FC. We enjoyed the scenery particularly as we pasted the coast between Newcastle and Edinburgh.

The seats were very comfortable and having free WiFi allowed me to catch up on things at home. There was plenty of food (we had breakfast as we departed Kings' Cross, then again when we left Edinburgh on the return with snacks about 2 hours out) and beverages - coffee, tea, sodas, beer and liquor/wine. All these are included. You could also check your luggage if you were going the entire way.

The trip was on time - 4 hours and 20 minutes to Edinburgh and 4 hours 15 minutes return (one less stop). The Flying Scotsman service will return (non-stop) soon at least once a day. Trips leave every half hour. Tickets for certain departures are discounted and easily booked via the internet on the East Coast web site. It did take a few tries to get the seats we wanted (different sides in each direction on the two seat side) but this only added a few minutes. Cabs are plentiful at Waverley. Enjoy

Definitely worth checking out to see if there’s any offers and such, as there can be quite a bit of savings. There’s limited promotions for groups of 2 – many more for groups of 4 though. I remember getting tickets for the sleeper train for £45 return each all the way to Aviemore from London – and this was through the ticket office at Liverpool Street (offer wasn’t available online!)

Yep - I took the fast rail train from London to Edinburgh to and from...
I think it was fast, maybe not...
but it felt that way!
I didn't bother getting an over night room or anything, just relaxed working on my laptop, listening to music, and watching the beautiful scenery go by!
I've never heard any of my friends take a flight, or drive that route...
I guess if you REALLY want the FULL experience you could do the latter,
but I definitely suggest the Train - good choice :)

I, too, will be using the East Coast website to book train tickets from Edinburgh to London. I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do I know what stop in London to choose? I'm staying at the Park Lane Hotel, but don't know how to figure out which train stop is closest to my hotel. Help?
Thanks so much!

Trains from London to Edinburgh leave from Kings Cross station if I'm not mistaken.

Indeed they do. And the new Kings Cross is due to open on Monday, an looks rather lovely!

I think there is now an occasional through train from Euston, via Birmingham, but this is more intended for intermediate journeys than the through journey.

Big +1 to First Class. It can be really affordable if you book when they first put the tickets on sale, and when you factor in free wifi (a great way to deal with that last dull bit) and the food/beverage included, it makes a lot of sense. I just did a return from Kings Cross to Montrose with a group in Standard, and it was miserable space-wise. (It was made better by having a table seat and great company, however.)

Agree with that.
I try and pick up the £25 or less one-way advance tickets they do from time to time as I won't pay something like £150-250 for a full ticket (supposed to be doing the £25 in First KX-Edinburgh etc fares at present but don't know about availability)

During my last trip, wandered back towards the buffet car and standard did look miserable. Used to happily travel in it all the time but after being spoiled with First, it just seems dull, cramped etc. Then again, if East Coast are doing any really good deals (had £5 and £8 tickets from Kings Cross to Doncaster a few times), I'll pay that and pocket the £25-40 difference from First.

I like the airline seats in First although East Coast do tend to quite often have completely different carriage layouts when you board from what you select at the time of booking.

I've got rail pass for Britain which includes England, Wales and Scotland and was thinking about training up on the Caledonian and then the fast trains back...

I couldn't find much ino about the services and offerings onboard so thought I'd ask here..

Thx

What class of travel? Specifically, are you thinking of 1st of 2nd class for the daytime trains between London and Scotland, and for the sleeper are you thinking of *shudder* a seat, a one berth cabin or a two berth one?

For the sleeper, Scotrail have a surprisingly good and accurate virtual tour of the train, which might answer much of your questions no matter which you'd be thinking of! It's http://www.scotrail.co.uk/360_sleeper_tour/virtual_tour/caledonian-sleeper

East Coast has standard (2+2) and first class (2+1) seating. Standard is in both "airline" (groups of 2) and "table" (groups of 4 around a table) mode (well, plus a lone single seat in coach B of the diesel trains...), and first class has a variety of single seats, two facing seats, and four facing seats. You can choose a particular seat when you book through eastcoast.co.uk.

All trains have wifi and power sockets, but the wifi's quality is variable, and tends to peter out in more rural areas. Wifi is paid in standard class, free in First.

First class seats are comfortable, offer increased legroom, and recline (within a hard shell, so you don't get a seat in front reclining into your space). There is a complimentary food and drink offering, which isn't bad (microwave meal standard, with lots of cups of tea), although this is limited to sandwiches on weekends.

There is a buffet car as well as a trolley for paid snacks and drinks in standard class. Although, to be honest, you're better off picking up a decent takeaway salad from M&S or the like.

Both classes have a quiet carriage, where all electronic devices must be kept in silent mode, and conversations kept to a reasonable volume. Of course, if you're on a packed train on a weekend evening, all bets are off, but it works OK most of the time.

First Class can really be worth the extra, IMO, it makes the journey very enjoyable. Standard Class seating is a little cramped if the train is fully loaded, particularly on the longer runs from Edinburgh, although on quieter services, it's perfectly fine.

More info on first class here:

http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/welcome-landing/a-first-class-welcome/

The same site is the best place to book tickets, too - no fees, some advance purchase discounts, and print-at-home tickets available on some itineraries (otherwise you pick tickets up at any station with the credit card you used online).

To book the Scotrail sleepers, you need to go to scotrail.co.uk.

For both, the well-priced tickets are the Advance ones - prepurchased and unchangeable (the pricing system works the same as airlines, effectively - you pay a hefty premium for flexibility). However... Booking for these only starts about 12 weeks prior to purchase, and this is generally when the cheapest fares are available - some can get snapped up very quickly, so it's worth signing up for alerts on the East Coast site.

There can be engineering works at weekends that affect trains - the booking sites will alert you to this (with a yellow warning sign against the train, or if the travel time is significantly over the normal one). These can be diversions, but some are bus substitutions ("bustitutions"). The latter are best avoided. The former can actually take you on some particularly scenic routes if you're not in a rush, but it's often just a shunt down a branch line and back. However, these are published before the 12-week cutoff (and are the reason for the 12-week cutoff).

Happy travels!

Thank you!

Question - Is it going to be much of a bother if I am to bring my suitcase along on the Sleeper service? I am traveling alone and have a First Class ticket. Or will the Caledonian take care of my luggage till Inverness ?

My option is to leave my suitcase with a friend till I ome back to London in a few weeks' time.

I expect you'll have plenty room for the suitcase - there is space under the lower bunk (which will be the only one open in a first class compartment) and a rack over the sink. In extremis, there are luggage cars - just turn up reasonably early and speak to the guard (bear in mind that the train splits up to three ways, so you need to make sure you've got the right one!) Checking luggage in isn't really done on UK trains.

(If you're planning on travelling on the Deerstalker towards Fort William, it gets more complex, as the Highland Sleeper doesn't have a direct luggage car on the Fort William section, so you'd need to transfer it yourself during the split in Edinburgh...)

Thank you. But I doubt my stainless steel Rimowa roller suitcase can fit on the rack over the sink ! :p

Hmm, maybe not. I think under the bed should be fine, though. Failing that, you can always stand it by the sink and move when needed...