Originally Posted by
BearX220
I am eying one-way rail travel for Mrs. BearX220 and myself in early spring, Waverley to KCS. Intend to buy discount first class in advance, and given the overall context of our itinerary we will have to make the trip on a particular date. Which raises the question: what does one do if labor action results in cancellation of our service? Plan B could be a flight, car rental, or coach, but will they all be rammed / oversubscribed / unavailable if disruptions come on short notice (to say nothing of costing a mint)?
I would be very grateful for your stories of rollover strategies to cope with short-notice cancellations and any prudent travel resiliency tips in these chaotic days. TIA of course.
What is "KCS"?
Assuming you mean Kings Cross, or at least somewhere in London:
1a - Sometimes rail strikes only affect one company out of the many. You can get from Edinburgh to London on LNER direct, on Lumo (same route, cheaper), or on Avanti West Coast via Glasgow. At the moment the latter service is a chaotic mess and best avoided, but it is an alternative. It's a long journey. I am less sanguine than other posts about the strikes being resolved quickly; the government is normally driven by the needs of London commuters to settle these things, but the WFH revolution has happened and rail strikes no longer cripple London.
1b - There's also the Caledonian Sleeper train to London. Interesting experience. Sadly *extremely* unreliable even when there are no strikes.
2 - You could just buy a flight to London.
3 - If you just want a cheap fallback, you could buy EDI-DUB and DUB-London (choice of airports at London) tickets on Ryanair. The connection won't be guaranteed, but Ryanair are pretty reliable - much more so than BA domestic. You could get the tickets for both parties for under £100, cheapest fare, and then add extras (bags etc) later if it turns out you are going to use the flights.
Be careful to plan how you will get to and from airports, if you opt to fly while trains are on strike.
4 - I would strongly recommend against road transport for this journey.