Getting from Liverpool to Edinburgh
· Updated · BootsnAll
Liverpool is the Beatles, the docks and two football clubs that share a city and very little else. Edinburgh is the Scottish capital, built on volcanic rock with a castle on top of it, and in August it hosts the largest arts festival in the world.
They are about 220 miles apart, and unlike most journeys in this part of Britain, this one takes a bit of planning, because there is no fast direct line.
Trains from Liverpool to Edinburgh
Reckon on three and a half to four hours. Some services run direct from Liverpool Lime Street; on others you change, usually at Preston or Wigan, onto a West Coast Main Line express heading north.
Direct trains are less frequent than the changing ones, so do not fix on a direct service if it costs you three hours of waiting. A ten minute change at Preston is not a hardship.
This is a long enough journey that the fare difference between booking ahead and buying on the day is substantial. Advance tickets are released around twelve weeks out and tie you to specific trains, including the connection. Off-Peak is flexible within hours, Anytime is fully flexible and expensive. A railcard takes a third off.
Split ticketing is particularly effective on long cross-border journeys. Buying Liverpool to Carlisle and Carlisle to Edinburgh for the same trains frequently beats the through fare.
Look times up on National Rail Enquiries and buy from the operator. Britain's train companies are transferring into public ownership under Great British Railways through 2026 and 2027, so search by route rather than brand.
The scenery, which is the reason to take the train
North of Lancaster the West Coast line runs up through the Lune Gorge and over Shap summit, with the Lake District fells on one side, and then crosses the Scottish border at Gretna. It is one of the great railway journeys in Britain and nobody tells you about it because they are all looking at their phones.
Sit on the left going north.
Coaches
National Express and Megabus run the route in around six to seven hours, sometimes overnight, for a good deal less than the train. The overnight coach saves you a night's accommodation, which in Edinburgh in August is worth a great deal.
In August, book everything early. The Festival and the Fringe fill the city and every form of transport into it.
Flying and driving
There are flights, and on a three and a half hour rail journey between two city centres they make very little sense once you add the airports at both ends.
Driving takes around four hours up the M6 and A74(M). Edinburgh is a poor city to have a car in: the centre is medieval, parking is scarce and expensive, and the Park and Ride sites on the edge are the better plan.