How to take a rail journey from London to Birmingham

Final Destination: Birmingham New Street or Edinburgh or Blackpool or Glasgow

All trains also call at: Coventry and Birmingham International
If you will be heading to the Birmingham city center book tickets to, and leave the train, at Birmingham New Street.
The station at Birmingham International is outside the city and serves the airport and the National Exhibition Centre.

Avanti West Coast (usually) provides the most frequent and fastest train service between the UK's two largest cities of London and Birmingham.

The alternative service, provided by London North Western Railway between London Euston and Birmingham New Street, is around a minimum of 35 minutes slower; though that travel time difference is compensated for by cheaper ticket prices
So those trains are often the cheapest option for a journey from Euston station to New Street station.

Also the Desiro trains, used by London North Western Railway, aren't as fast as the Pendolino train and have no catering services.
So when factoring in the price difference of First Class tickets, consider that the Avanti West Coast First Class price includes complimentary food and drink (usually).

Though typically the cheapest prices of all when taking a train between London and Birmingham, are available on a completely different route taken by trains operated by Chiltern Railways.

It's also worth checking the locations of the start and finish points of your end-to-end journey, as those Chiltern Railways services depart from and arrive at different stations to these Avanti West Coast trains.
They leave from Marylebone station in London and arrive at Moor Street and Snow Hill stations in Birmingham.

The fastest trains on that route are typically 25 mins slower than these Avanti West Coast services, but that time difference won't be such an advantage, if those other stations are more convenient.

On board the Avanti West Coast trains:

More information is available by clicking the train details, but the key things worth knowing when taking these Pendolino trains are:
(1) They achieve their high end-to-end journey speed by tilting around curves in the railway line.
So if you are prone to motion sickness, taking preventative medication prior to boarding can be a good step to take.

(2) Also once the train has commenced its journey, if you have a seat reservation, you (typically, pre-pandemic) don't have to spend the duration of the train ride in the seat(s) you have been assigned for your ticket to be valid.
If for any reason you want to move seats and the train isn't exceptionally busy, check whether alternative seats haven't been reserved during your journey - and if that is the case, you can transfer to them.

(3) Coach C on the trains used for these services is (usually, pre-pandemic) set aside for travellers without reservations - and this coach can often be less busy than the other coaches on the train.

Book Early And Save: Yes

Tickets Available from: 24* weeks ahead for travel on Mon-Fri; up to 12 weeks ahead for weekend travel.
*This booking ahead period is longer than that offered by the majority of British train operators.

If you want to travel at the cheapest possible price, look for the 'Advance' tickets, though pay special attention to the more restrictive T&Cs of using this type of ticket.

Though something to be aware of when booking tickets, particularly for journeys by Avanti West Coast with its extended booking periods, is that the more expensive Off Peak and Anytime type of tickets can be placed on sale before the Advance tickets will be available.
If that is the case, it won't mean that the 'Advance' tickets have sold out, instead you won't see them, because they haven't have been placed on sale yet.

Though partially due to the frequency of the train service, you usually won't have to book months in advance to obtain the cheapest possible price for a London to Birmingham train journey, particularly if you won't be travelling at business hours.

However, Advance tickets for travel by Avanti West Coast aren't taken off sale until around an hour prior departure; so it's worth checking to see if they're still available for the train you'll be taking before heading to the station, because if you book last minute at the station only the more expensive Off Peak or Anytime tickets will be available.

Travelling on Saturday-Sunday

Maintenance work on the railway 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 around 10 - 12 weeks ahead and the cheaper 'Advance' 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 Avanti West Coast website.

Making an end-to-end journey will still be possible, 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.

Choosing a departure

There are likely to be significant differences in prices between departures on your travel date, it's often possible to save more than £20 by taking an earlier or later train.
When heading north, the trains which depart London in the middle of the day tend to be cheaper.

If you can be flexible with your travel times and dates, it's a good idea to use the Best Fare Finder service on the Avanti West Coast website

Reservations

When you book an Advance ticket for a London to Birmingham journey with Avanti online, you will be automatically assigned a seat(s) - because you will have to travel by that specific departure
Because Off-Peak and Anytime tickets (usually) allow the freedom to choose between departures, you can request complimentary reservations when booking these tickets - find out more about this.

However, if you buy Off Peak or Anytime tickets just prior to boarding at the station, seat reservations won't be available
That's because reservations at stations need to be booked at least an hour before departure; so also keep that in mind if you will be using a rail pass, including a Britrail or Eurail pass.

Receiving Your Ticket(s)

If you book with Avanti West Coast, you will have up to four options for receiving and using your ticket(s) are:

(1) Using e-tickets: 
Book a ticket online and you will receive an e-ticket attached to your confirmation email.
Avanti West Coast allows multiple options for using these e-tickets, you can print them off OR download them to your mobile device, so when boarding you can access your ticket(s) on your phone and use it to open the ticket gates.

(2) Using m-tickets: 
If you book using the Avanti West Coast trains app, you can activate your ticket within the app and use your mobile device to open the ticket gates.

(3) Collecting from the 'Fast-Track' ticket machines at the station.
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 'Fast-Track' ticket machine.
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.

(4) Opt to pay an additional charge to have your tickets posted to you.

More information is available here.

Comparing these Virgin services with the London North Western services:

When you look up this London to Birmingham service on the Avanti West Coast website, on the journey search results, below the Avanti departures there are separate listings for the slower departures operated by London Northwestern Railway.

So you can compare all the services on this London Euston to Birmingham New Street route and decide whether the journey times and on board facilities justify any difference in price.

Final Destination: Liverpool or Crewe or Birmingham New Street

All trains also call at: Coventry and Birmingham International

If you will be heading to Birmingham city center book tickets to, and leave the train, at Birmingham New Street.
The station at Birmingham International is outside the city and serves the city's airport and the National Exhibition Centre.

Book Early And Save: Yes

Tickets Available from: 24* weeks ahead for travel on Mon-Fri; up to 12 weeks ahead for weekend travel.
*This booking ahead period is longer than that offered by the majority of British train operators

If you want to travel at the cheapest possible price, look for the 'Advance' tickets; though be aware that this type of ticket can't be exchanged or refunded if  you subsequently change your travel plans (though the T&Cs of using Advance tickets have been made more flexible until March 31st).

Choosing a departure

There can be significant differences in prices between departures on your travel date, it's often possible to save more than £15 by taking an earlier or later train.
So when you're initially presented with columns of train departure details to choose from. check the prices of all the ticket types on every departure.
If you want to travel by one of these LNWR services also pay close attention to the travel times, as they can vary by more than 40 minutes.

Reservations:

Seats will be assigned when booking a London to Birmingham journey by London North West Railway services online.

Final Destination: Birmingham* (or Kidderminster)

*Most departures make two station calls in Birmingham, first at Moor Street and then at Snow Hill .

Note that on this route, the trains do not call at Birmingham's main station New Street.

All trains also call at: Banbury and Leamington Spa

Some trains, the slower trains also call at: Warwick for Warwick Castle

Book early and save: Yes

The cheaper 'Advance' tickets tend to be available from around 10-11 weeks ahead of the travel date, but tickets can be booked up to 12 weeks ahead.
So if you look up a journey more than 10-12 weeks ahead and can't see any 'Advance' tickets, it will mean that they haven't been released for sale yet - it won't be because they have sold out.

The two disadvantages of booking an 'Advance' ticket is that they can only be used on the specific departure you select when making a booking - and then if you don't take that train, because you change your travel plans or don't get to the station on time, they can't be refunded.
In response to the pandemic these two usual ticket terms have been amended until September 30th.

The big plus of booking an 'Advance' ticket is the price, they can be more than £20 cheaper than the alternative Off-Peak and Anytime tickets.

Though the 'Advance Ticket's won't be available at all on the busiest departures, so they're not usually an option on trains which leave London between 16:30 and 19:30.

There can also be limited availability on certain travel dates, and these restrictions are listed on the Chiltern Railways website - the lack of 'Advance' ticket availability is usually indicative that services will be disrupted on those dates due to works on the railway.

Seat Reservations:

Chiltern Railways doesn't offer seat reservations on its trains, so aim to be at Marylebone at least 10 mins before departure to absolutely ensure you have a seat.
Though in ShowMeTheJourney's experience seats will be available on the overwhelming majority of departures, but that being at the station early advice particularly applies if you will be leaving London between 16:30 and 18:30.