Trains to Edinburgh
Plan Your Journey
This section will link to a site that gives timetable information for all rail journeys in the UK. If you want, you can then register and it can check availability and prices for your chosen dates and let you book online.
Enter your starting point and destination (EDINBURGH WAVERLEY or EDINBURGH HAYMARKET) in the form on the left of the screen, with your travel dates, then click "Get Times".
Now click here to plan your journey.
Trains From London or the East Coast
The East Coast main line runs from King's Cross station in London to Edinburgh Waverley station. They offer a more or less hourly service during the day. If you want to travel overnight, First Scotrail offer the Caledonian Sleeper service from London's Euston Station.
Trains From the South and West
Virgin Trains and Cross Country operate trains from the west and Midlands. First Transpennine Express run trains from Manchester Airport to Edinburgh.
Trains Within Scotland
First Scotrail run the entire Scottish rail service. The most frequent service is between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and it takes only 45 minutes which is faster than by car. There are also good services from the other main cities of Stirling, Dundee, Perth, Inverness and Aberdeen. In general the further you go the slower it gets, and if you want to go to or from Thurso on the north coast, for example, you could find your journey taking 8 hours or so which is about 3 hours longer than by car.
Edinburgh Stations
Edinburgh has two stations used by the inter city trains, Waverley and Haymarket. This section will guide you as to which one you should plan to arrive at.
Waverley Station
This is the main station, situated in the valley between the Old and New towns. It has around 20 platforms and most people will terminate their journey to Edinburgh here. Platform numbers were changed at the end of 2006, this article uses the new numbers.
In the station there is a taxi rank near Platform 11, and a Europcar car rental office near platform 4 (only open during normal office hours though). The station also has a WH Smith newsagent, Boots chemist and Marks and Spencer food store as well as a bar and various other food and drink outlets.
Should you choose to leave the station under your own steam, there are exits to the West (road & Pedestrian ramps to Waverley Bridge), North (Steps to Princes Street), South (steps to Market Street) and East (Footbridge to Calton Road). It would be less than 10 minutes walk to the Mount Royal, Thistle, Balmoral, Carlton, Scotsman, Radisson Sas and Ibis hotels, and the Jury's Inn, as well as the new Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel.
Haymarket Station
This is a smaller station with 5 platforms (the fifth, bizarrely known as platform zero, was built in 2006 to accommodate increased traffic and got its name through being located next to the existing platform 1). Almost all trains that go north or west out of Edinburgh stop here. It is situated to the west of the centre and would be less than 10 minutes walk from the Apex European Hotel, Grosvenor Hotel, Premier Travel Inn, and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. The Eglinton Youth Hostel that used to be near here has closed to make way for the new Edinburgh Central Hostel. Taxis and buses stop outside the station. This station is the recommended station to use for the airport - you can change to the airport bus outside the station.
This station is absolutely hopeless if you depend on wheels (luggage, wheelchair, pushchair etc) as it has steps to all platforms and no lifts or escalators. You can press a button to get a door opened to use platforms 0 and 1 without steps - only useful if you are travelling East and your train arrives on the right platform! Toilets are down some stairs on platform 4. There is one sit-in cafe on platform 4 and a separate coffee kiosk on platform 2/3.
If you are changing in Edinburgh from the north to travel west, or from the west to travel north, it can be better to change here than to continue into Waverley. It gives you a longer connection time and less walking between platforms as it is a smaller station.
Copyright (c) Neil McKenzie 2005-2008
