train travel to (and in) Scotland
Scotland is connected to the wider British rail network, making it easy for visitors travelling by train to continue their journey from England.
There are 2 rail routes into Scotland - the West Coast Main Line which runs from London Euston to Glasgow, and the East Coast Main Line which runs from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh. Virgin Trains and GNER operate the cross-border rail services, and tickets can be booked at thetrainline.
For travellers arriving from Europe, Eurostar runs to London Waterloo from where you can join the British rail network to Scotland.
One increasingly popular option is to take the overnight Caledonian Sleeper from London Euston to Scotland, so that you can sleep through your journey and arrive in Scotland first thing in the morning. Again, tickets can be bought from thetrainline.
For visitors intending to do most of their travelling by train, Rail Europe offer a number of good value BritRail passes that allow you to hop on and off trains across the British network or combine rail travel with car hire.
Even more so than with the road network, the further north you go in Scotland, generally the less rail services there are, partly because of the difficulty in running rail services through the mountainous areas.
The majority of services within Scotland are operated by First ScotRail, interspersed with the Virgin and GNER trains that continue north beyond Edinburgh.
The scenic West Highland Line (also operated by First ScotRail) runs north from Glasgow Queen Street to Mallaig, taking in some breath-taking scenery on it’s way between the west coast and the Highlands, and even has a glass roof for maximum enjoyment of the views. As before, tickets can be bought from thetrainline.
More details on rail travel can be found in the stravaiging.com train tickets shop
