How to take a journey by train from Edinburgh to Birmingham

How to travel by train from Edinburgh to Birmingham

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Edinburgh to Birmingham by train

There are two options for taking a rail journey from Edinburgh to Birmingham:

1: The faster, but less frequent trains, are operated by Avanti West Coast; and the scenic route lives up to the name of the rail operator as it takes a westerly course through Carlisle and Preston with more than an hour of stunning landscapes to be enjoyed from the train.

  1. The trains operated by CrossCountry spend the first half of their journeys traveling along the East Coast route, which lives up to its name with some wonderful sea views.

Neither route is automatically cheaper than the other, it is the demand per departure which impacts on the prices, so the best means of saving money is to travel at less busy times.

Routes you can take to go from Edinburgh to Birmingham

When travelling between most cities by train there is only one logical option, though on other journeys there is a choice between different trains or alternative routes. If different options are available you can use the info to decide which is best for you.

Choose one of the following options:

Route Information

Option 1: travelling with Avanti West Coast
Travel Time (approx)

4hr 13min

Frequency

Daily

Travel Info

Monday to Saturday = 7 x trains per day
Sunday =5 x trains per day

Route Information

Option 2: travelling with CrossCountry
Travel Time (approx)

4hr 58min

Frequency

Daily

Travel Info

10 x trains per day
The usual timetable pre-pandemic was 1 or 2 x trains per hour, but between 09:30 and 15:30 the departures are currently every other hour.

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