U.K. and Ireland - Need advice on getting from London to Edinburgh

My husband and I are going to Scotland & will be flying into London Heathrow. We're trying to decide whether to fly to Edinburgh or take the train. If we fly, what's the best way to find good fares? If we take the train, are there options on which trains to take? Thanks.

you can try looking at www.opodo.com for flights. Also www.expedia.co.uk

www.kayak.com also lists this route. Probably easiest to just fly on from LHR. For example, BMI does this trip several times a day.

What time does your flight land? If travelling at a weekend then my advice is probably to fly (see other replies for search engines) as the UK often becomes a third world country at weekends due to engineering work on the track. Trains are often substituted in part or fully by a bus service known (with some disgust) as the Rail Replacement Bus service and these can add anything from a ½hour upwards to your journey time. Basically a weekday daytime train from Kings Cross takes about 4½ hours and the fares are around £120 for a walk up i.e. valid on any off peak train ticket and around £60 for an Advance i.e. you can only travel on a specific train ticket. You will travel on East Coast trains (http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/on-board-our-trains/), they do have wifi and there is a buffet (cafe) for standard class passengers with complimentary meals for 1st class passengers.
However if your arrival is in the early evening then you might want to consider the sleeper (https://www.scotrail.co.uk/caledoniansleeper/index.html) which runs every night except Saturday night. The Edinburgh train can be boarded from 23:00 and leaves 50 mins later (23 on a Sunday) Bargain Berths can be had for as little as £19 but are snapped up very early and are only valid for that specific train.

If you're going straight from LHR, it'll almost certainly be easier to fly, although there's less competition on this route now, given that bmi has been taken over by BA. However, if you're buying separate tickets, do leave plenty time, as there's no guarantee you'll be reaccommodated if your inbound flight is delayed, or you are held up at immigration. That said, the airlines do tend to make more of an effort if it's the same airline or alliance.

Generally speaking, you don't often see BA fares discounted much more than on their own website, unless you're looking at a flight/hotel or flight/car package. Expedia can be handy for this, as it allows you to specify a shorter hotel stay than your flight duration.

If you're going from central London or find that the cheaper fares are from another airport, I'd generally recommend the train. It takes 4h to 4h30 on East Coast (http://www.eastcoast.co.uk) from King's Cross station. The route is pleasant up to Durham, and then starts to become really rather impressive. First Class is generally worth the extra - bigger, 2+1 seating, and food/drink and wifi included. Very nice way to travel.

Pricing for the railways is like airfares - the further in advance you can buy an inflexible ticket, the cheaper it is - the only restriction being that you can't buy more than 12 weeks before travel. There is often engineering works on the line at weekends, so do pay attention when you're booking - if the journey take more than about 4h30 then there's most likely engineering - the website linked to above (which is also the best, and always the cheapest, place to buy tickets) will have full details.

At the moment, most of the engineering is on Sundays, at Hitchin (about 20 minutes out of London, with no diversionary route). To be fair, they've been significantly better on this line about avoiding replacement bus services, using diversions or single line working instead. The former is slow, but works well, the latter has been... Interesting. I can see much of the creative shunting from my house, as it happens, but there have been problems with one type of train blocking the line due to computer problems.

However, if you let me know your travel date, I can double-check if there any engineering, and what type it is.

... my advice is probably to fly (see other replies for search engines) as the UK often becomes a third world country at weekends due to engineering work on the track. Trains are often substituted in part or fully by a bus service known (with some disgust) as the Rail Replacement Bus service and these can add anything from a ½hour upwards to your journey time.

There are no scheduled engineering works that will require replacement bus services between London and Edinburgh this summer. There are some works (mostly limited to Sundays) that will result in timetable alterations and slightly longer journey times, but nothing that will require you to get into a bus!

If you are going to Edinburgh directly from Heathrow then fly from Heathrow. There is a reasonable amount of time and hassle in getting from Heathrow to Kings Cross (the station for Edinburgh). Do not be tempted to book a flight from another London area airport as connecting between London airports is never particularly easy.
Of course, if you are spending time in central London before continuing to Edinburgh then the train can be a more sensible option.
When are you planning this trip? Remember that for a reasonable deal Edinburgh during August you need to have booked last year...

If you are going to Edinburgh directly from Heathrow then fly from Heathrow.

Indeed.

LHR is no FRA when it comes to connecting on to the UK rail network.

If you are flying into a London airport then the only sensible option if flights are available is to fly out again from that airport.

See if you can have a flight added to your existing ticket as this will remove the need to collect & recheck luggage and allow for a shorter connection time - do it right and you could be in Edinburgh before you would have left Kings Cross.

As a general rule it's better to book a routing that either takes you direct to your final destination or which routes via a mainland European hub thus avoiding UK or Irish hub airports. This moves the immigration check to your final destination rather than sweating in a queue at your connecting airport.

There are no scheduled engineering works that will require replacement bus services between London and Edinburgh this summer. There are some works (mostly limited to Sundays) that will result in timetable alterations and slightly longer journey times, but nothing that will require you to get into a bus!

Yes that may well be true, but generally as one of my foreign friends says "it's a well known fact that you avoid travelling on a weekend on a train in Great Britain."

Yes that may well be true, but generally as one of my foreign friends says "it's a well known fact that you avoid travelling on a weekend on a train in Great Britain."
And like most "well known facts" it's wrong. In most cases there WON'T be any scheduled problems and so denying yourself the chance to travel without checking first is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Anyhow a question for OP - why did you book to London if you wanted to be in Edinburgh?

I think the best advice would be to inform yourself when travelling by rail at weekends (it's something I do most weekends, so it's become second nature!)

Network Rail and the TOCs have been told in no uncertain terms to improve their performance through engineering works, and they've become pretty good at doing so, looking at maintaining route knowledge for diversions (a not insignificant task in itself) and keeping a restricted service running through a track being worked on. The results have been largely positive, although some incidents have caught them out.

Between London and Edinburgh, trains can be diverted via the Hertford Loop, via the Fen Line, via the Joint Line (and Newark-Lincoln), via Leeds or the old mainline, via the Durham Coast Line, via the Tyne Valley, and through all sorts of obscure local loops. And all of these have happened over the last year, to avoid bustitution.

But the most important thing is to stay informed. It's not difficult to do - the train operators, timetables and National Rail site will tell you at the same time tickets become available, and there are posters in every affected station.

via the Tyne Valley
To Carlisle then via Carstairs to Edinburgh - I couldn't believe how boring it was which when you consider the splendours around it must have taken some skill to miss them all

I recently flew from Gatwck to Edinburgh and it only took about 1 hr 15 in the air which was much quicker than a 4/5 hour journey on a train. Once at the Edinburgh airport there is a bus service called AirLink that will take you right into the center of the town. It takes about 20 - 25 mins and is only £6 return.

You may say getting to an airport is a hassle and there is the added cost potentially of parking your car, but travelling by train you still need to get to King's Cross and pay for that part of the journey.

For that distance a cheap EasyJet is the best way to get there.

I recently flew from Gatwck to Edinburgh and it only took about 1 hr 15 in the air which was much quicker than a 4/5 hour journey on a train. Once at the Edinburgh airport there is a bus service called AirLink that will take you right into the center of the town. It takes about 20 - 25 mins and is only £6 return.

You may say getting to an airport is a hassle and there is the added cost potentially of parking your car, but travelling by train you still need to get to King's Cross and pay for that part of the journey.

For that distance a cheap EasyJet is the best way to get there.
OP's arriving at LHR, and possibly with checked bags. The cost in time and money of getting to LGW and paying for bags with U2 will negate the savings. I personally prefer the train (and I'm basically equally close to LGW and King's Cross in terms of public transit time), but assuming airfares out of LHR are tolerable, I'd probably take that route.

And like most "well known facts" it's wrong. In most cases there WON'T be any scheduled problems and so denying yourself the chance to travel without checking first is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Anyhow a question for OP - why did you book to London if you wanted to be in Edinburgh?

Do you work for a TOC or ATOC or Network Rail? It did give a great impression of the UK rail network when my friend tried to reach Coventry a few years ago and on each weekend they stayed and tried to travel there was a replacement bus service. So then a few years later they tried to come up on the Hereford line and see me when back in the UK again. Sadly there was a bus service to Moreton In Marsh from either Oxford or Didcot I think. The impression given from these experiences was that trains didn't work at weekends.