How to take a rail journey from Edinburgh to London

Final Destination: London King's Cross

Some trains also call at: Doncaster and Peterborough

The Edinburgh to London King's Cross rail service has been transformed - on Mondays to Fridays there will now be 2 x trains per hour during the day and after 41 years of service, the 125 trains have ceased operating on the East Coast main line!

Aside from environmental considerations there are two very good reasons for opting to take the train from Edinburgh to London

(1) Edinburgh Waverley station has a fabulous location in the heart of the Scottish capital, so you will be departing from the city centre,
(2) Much of the Edinburgh to London train journey is glorious.

The alternative overnight train:

Travel by these daytime trains and you won't arrive in London until at least 09:40, but the overnight train is scheduled to arrive in the capital at 07:07.
The overall journey time will be around three hours longer, but you will be travelling on Europe's newest overnight train service.

Though note that the overnight train arrives at Euston station and not at King's Cross station.

Travelling after February 10th:

LNER is undertaking a trial for a new approach for long-distance rail tickets on the London to Edinburgh route instead of Advance, Off Peak and Anytime tickets travellers can choose between

1: Fixed Tickets - like Advance tickets they can only be used on the specific departure selected when booking, hence the new name.
This type of ticket can't be refunded from two hours after booking, if you subsequently change your travel plans, or miss the train in circumstances not to do with a connecting train.
A £10 admin fee will be payable if you want to exchange your ticket to a different departure to the same destination, to that which you selected when making your booking PLUS you will ALSO be charged any price difference with the new ticket you'll then have to purchase.

2: Semi Flexible aka 'the 70 Min Flex tickets:
When booking you will choose a specific departure, but can then swap the ticket to an alternative departure leaving 70mins before or after the chosen train, without incurring additional charges.
If you instead want to choose a different departure outside of those 70 min windows, you will need to pay the £10 admin fee and the price difference if the alternative train you select is more expensive.
This type of ticket can't be refunded from two hours after booking.

3: Fully Flexible
When booking you will choose a specific departure, but can then swap the ticket to an alternative departure leaving at anytime on your travel date, or on the day before, or after.
The tickets are refundable up to 28 days from your ticket’s expiry date, but if you don't choose another journey you will be charged a £10 admin fee.

Travelling before February 10th:

If you want to travel at the cheapest possible price, look for the 'Advance tickets', though the two key things worth knowing about booking and using 'Advance' tickets are:

(1) This type of ticket can't be refunded if you subsequently change your travel plans, or miss the train in circumstances not to do with a connecting train.

(2) A £10 admin fee will be payable if you want to exchange your ticket to a different departure to the same destination, to that which you selected when making your booking PLUS you will ALSO be charged any price difference with the new ticket you'll then have to purchase.

Also what is unusual about booking with LNER is that Advance tickets are now available online up to only 5 mins before departure.
They will have sold out sooner on the most popular trains, and the earlier you can book the cheaper they will be - but before buying walk-up Off Peak or Anytime tickets at a station, just prior to departure, it's worth checking on your phone to see whether Advance tickets are still available, before heading to the ticket counter or machines.

Travelling on Monday - Friday:

Tickets are usually available 12 weeks ahead of the travel date.

However, when you look up a journey you may see dates further ahead on the calendar, but you'll be informed that tickets aren't yet available for those dates.
On the LNER website you'll be prompted to sign up to a Ticket Alert service - if you will be using a PC, over on the right on the screen you'll be taken to, you'll see the furthest date ahead that tickets can be booked for.

Travelling on Saturday-Sunday

Tickets are usually available 12 weeks ahead of the travel date, but maintenance work on the route is periodically undertaken at weekends and if it is scheduled on your travel date, it can affect when tickets will be released for sale.

If you're looking up a journey less than 12 weeks ahead and tickets aren't available, it can be a good indication that works will be impacting on your travel date.
It can be worth checking this on the National Rail website - enter LNER as the operator.

Making an end-to-end journey will still be possible, so it can be worth signing up to LNER's ticket alert service, though you MAY ultimately have to take a substitution bus service for part of the trip.
It's the confirmation of these alternative travel arrangements which can hold up the release of the tickets for sale.

Reservations:

When you book an Advance ticket for a London to Aberdeen train journey, you will be automatically assigned a seat(s), but if you book the other types of ticket ahead, you can request a complimentary reservation - more info on this

Seat reservations aren't automatically included when booking Off Peak or Anytime tickets online, but you can add the complimentary reservation, once you've made choice of departure, either when booking or afterwards.
When booking walk-up tickets at a station ticket counter, if the Advance tickets aren't available for the next departure, confirm whether a seat reservation has been added to the booking of an Anytime or Off Peak ticket, in theory reservations will be available until around 5 mins pre-departure.

If you will be using a rail pass, including a Britrail or Eurail pass, you should be able to obtain a reservation, at no charge, from a ticket counter up until 5 mins before the departure; keep this in mind as it is not the norm when using rail passes in Britain.

Receiving Your Ticket(s) booked with LNER

The four options for receiving your ticket(s) are:

(1) You will receive a booking reference number on your order confirmation email and you can use this reference number to collect ticket(s) from a ticket machine.
Some stations will have dedicated ticket collection machines, but standard ticket machines will also have an option for collecting pre-booked tickets.

You will need to enter your reference number into the machine, so make sure you'll have easy access to it when you are using the machine.
You will also need to insert the specific credit or debit card you used when making the booking, so have that with you too.

Showing the email you have received to staff at the ticket gates won't get you on to the train, nor will this be valid if you can only show the email to the conductor when you are on the train.

If you forget to bring your ticket(s) with you to the station, but do have the card with you that you used when booking, you can use the machines to collect your ticket(s).

Take your time and take care that you have picked up all your ticket(s) and seat reservations.

(2) Print off the tickets you receive before heading to the station - the instructions for doing this are available here.

(3) Opt to pay an additional charge to have your tickets posted to you; not available when booking tickets from outside the UK.

(4) Mobile tickets - if you select this option when making a booking you will need to download the LNER Travel Buddy app so that you can 'Activate' your ticket.

The LNER website states that 'Advance' tickets will be automatically activated, but there's no suggestion on the LNER website that it will be OK to save the ticket(s) you will receive as a PDF to your mobile device.
So download the app to be sure that you can use a mobile ticket.

The potential to save by splitting tickets on Trainline

It can be worth looking up this journey on Trainline.

It can be possible to save money by using split ticketing, with the booking process being no more complicated than booking conventional tickets - find out more.

Final Destination: London Euston
Note that this is a different station to King's Cross, where the daytime trains arrive.

The train also call at: Watford Junction where connections are available into a train which serves multiple destinations in West London including Shepherd's Bush, Kensington Olympia, West Brompton (connect for Earl's Court) and Clapham Junction.
The daytime trains take a completely different route so do not call at this station.

On Board - summary:

More information is available by clicking the 'train guide, but if you make this journey you will be travelling on Europe's most modern overnight trains.
You can opt to choose from three different types of sleeping cabin, one of which offers the opportunity to travel in a double bed, OR you can travel in reclining seats.

Unusually for UK train tickets, you can book journeys on the Caledonian Sleeper up to twelve months ahead.
If you want a full choice of accommodation in the summer months or around holiday times, it's best to book at least a month in advance.

When making a journey by these Caledonian Sleeper trains, you can choose from three types of sleeping cabin, or you can opt to travel in reclining seats - If you want to travel in the reclining seats, you will in effect only be paying the journey costs.

In common with how tickets are sold to travel in sleeping cabins on other European night train services, there are two elements to the total cost of the sleeping cabin ticket price;

• the cost of making the journey, and
• the accommodation costs of travelling in the cabin.

On these Caledonian Sleeper trains the sleeping cabins have a fixed price, so how the total costs are calculated is dependent on how the sleeping cabins will be occupied.

If you will be making an individual booking you will have sole occupancy of a Club Room or Classic Room - booking a Caledonian Double isn't an option for solo travellers.
Although the total cost per person is more expensive if you will be travelling individually, because if you travel solo you pay the cost for the Club Room or Classic Room, plus a cost for making the journey.
But two people travelling together pay the same charge for the Club Room and Classic rooms, and the additional cost comes from having to purchase two journey tickets.

Paying a higher price for single occupancy of a sleeping cabin is the norm on European night trains, but this particular pricing methodology makes the sleeping cabins on a Caledonian Sleeper service, a comparatively expensive option for solo travellers.

Travelling as a family group:

The costs of adults and children travelling together will be calculated during the booking process - here is the relevant information.

Using Rail Passes:

If you will be using a valid rail pass you can travel in a reclining seat at no additional charge, but you must reserve a place prior to boarding, by calling the Guest Service Centre on 0330 060 0500.

If you want to travel in a bed in a Club Room sleeping cabin, you need to pay a 'Room only supplement' of £170 if you will be travelling solo, or £200 if two people will be travelling together.
If you want to travel in a Classic Room sleeping cabin, the supplement is £120 for solo travellers and £140 if two people are travelling together.

These 'Room only supplements' can be booked online.

Lumo is a relatively new rail operator which offers a more-basic alternative to travelling on LNER's trains.
If you want to travel in Standard Class and...

• are happy to take your own food/drink on board with you
• want access to WiFi during the journey
• won't be travelling with more than one medium suitcase per person
• won't be taking a bike
• and aren't that bothered by seeing the view from the windows (comparatively few of the seats on Lumo trains line up well with the windows)
  ...then travelling with Lumo seems to compare well with travelling with LNER.

The core differences between the Lumo trains and the Azuma trains used by LNER are:

First Class:
LNER = available
Lumo = not available

Bar/bistro car:
LNER = available
Lumo = not available

At seat catering:
LNER = available
Lumo = available, but more substantial items such as sandwiches need to be pre-ordered up to 10 hours prior to departure

Large suitcases:
LNER = yes
Lumo = no

Non-folding bicycles:
LNER = yes, spaces can be reserved
Lumo = no

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings usually open 24 weeks ahead of the travel date.

Lumo only offers two types of tickets for sale: Anytime and Lumo Fixed, which are its equivalent of discounted Advance tickets.
The prices of Lumo Fixed tickets will be cheaper the further ahead that they are booked and in common with Advance tickets they are departure specific, so include complimentary seat reservations.
They can be changed right up to the time of departure for any future without any admin fees, though any price difference to travel by the different departure will be payable.

Something to look out for is that the cheapest price of Lumo Fixed tickets are lower than cheapest prices of Advance tickets sold by LNER for Edinburgh journeys, but these cheapest prices will sell out at different rates on each operator..
So it's worth comparing prices on your travel date(s), particularly if you won't be booking months ahead, you may find cheaper prices available on some LNER departures.