Hi,
I will be traveling with my two sons (11 and 13) from Heathrow airport to Bath in mid December. We would like to take the train. We will stay there two nights. We then want to take the train to Edinburgh stay for three nights and take the overnight sleeper train from Edinburgh to London and leave for an 11:00 am flight back to the states the next morning. I am having trouble figuring out the train travel schedules and rates. The National railway site of the UK is not working properly. Should I just get the tickets while I am there, or is there a significant savings to purchase ahead of time? Has anyone done the sleeper train From Edinburgh? Any tips? What about the Bath to Edinburgh train trip and pretty scenery?
Thanks,
Leslie

First of all - there is no train from LHR to Bath. You must either take the bus to Reading and then a train to Bath, or the heathrow express into London Paddington and then a train to Bath. The Express/train from Paddington would be a little more expensive but also a little faster.

I would do something slightly different since you apparently aren't planning on spending any time in London. The sleeper train might be an adventure -- but it only gets you to Euston Station and then you have to take the tube or a taxi to Paddington to catch the train to LHR.

I would take the train from London to Bath, the train from Bath to Edinburgh, but then I would FLY from Edinburgh to LHR in the early morning of your return flight.

This would save you a lot of hassle schlepping luggage through three train/tube stations. And it would be less expensive than the sleeper train.

Just fly EDI to LHR and then fly home . . . . .

There is no National railway website.

If you're referring to www.nationalrail.co.uk (though there are other sites operated by other organisations, such as qjump), it was working fine two minutes ago. But it does have a permanent problem dealing with sleeper services: the Edinburgh service is at www.firstscotrail.com.

Your problem with this itinerary is that you're looking at three separate single journeys with three different operators, so you're likely to be paying the full fare on each leg - which is usually virtually the same as the return fare.

Others might have a strategy for getting round this. But you're likely to find it a lot cheaper to get two return fares, London-Bath and London-Edinburgh, than to go your triangular route. Given that the Bath-Edinburgh route is operated by the worst, slowest, least reliable train company (Virgin) on the worst tracks, while the other two routes are operated by professional train companies on well-maintained, fast tracks, travelling via London is likely to take about the same time anyway - and is a great deal less vulnerable to delays and cancellation.

If my proposed strategy works, you'll get good deals by booking ahead on the trip to Edinburgh, but this really isn't necessary on the trip to Bath.

Topping because I answered your post but it still showed as 12:42 a.m. with no responses (another of the Fodors glitches)

Try www.thetrainline.com

But for heaven's sake, don't rely on our trains! Reliable they're not! You might also want to think about looking at flights because our trains are often more expensive. Best bet is probably www.easyjet.com

The sleeper is expensive as another poster said - and will be worse because there are three of you. You only get a guaranteed cabin to yourself if you travel first class; all second class cabins are two-berth, so you run the risk of having to share with a stranger - not necessarily of the same gender. I agree, fly to Heathrow. Easyjet doesn't fly to Heathrow (and I wouldn't trust them anyway if I had to make a connection), but BA (www.ba.com) & bmi (www.flybmi.com) both do & have early morning flights. Personally I prefer bmi.

This may be a situation where the 4 day BritRail Flexipass makes sense. Especially since they are selling them for 25% off for travel til the end of February. On the sleeper train, the pass would cover travel, but not accommodation.

As to Flanner's comments about reliabilty, in the first 6 months of 2004, Virgin (the worst, slowest, least reliable train company) had on time performance of 74.4%, while GNER's (professional train companies on well-maintained, fast tracks) performance was 74.1%.

P.S. The sleeper doesn't have showers. There are showers at Heathrow but would you want to risk not having time to use them, before a transatlantic flight ? Plus the extra hassle of opening & repacking bags.

If you're planning to use the sleeper, you should look at the Scotrail website. They often have special offers for these services. The compartments all have two berths, but if you pay for a single-berth compartment, the upper bunk is folded away. If you have to share a two-berth compartment with a stranger, it will always be someone of the same sex (this is normal practice everywhere in Western Europe) but there are usually cheap fares that allow you to have a single-berth compartment without paying too much.

Geoff, when I first considered using the sleeper alone, the booking clerk said they couldn't guarantee a cabin-mate of the same gender, although they would arrange it so if possible and you may even be lucky enough to end up with a cabin to yourself. But there are no guarantees. So I've only ever taken the sleeper with my husband : I wouldn't fancy sharing with a stranger of either gender. To quote from my conversation with the booking clerk...

Me : "How do you know you won't be sharing with someone who might assault or rob you ?"

Clerk : "Well, you don't - it's not a very nice thought, is it ?" !!!

Hi,
Thanks for the update. What is a berth, that you would be sharing? A bed, a cabin? I am not sure what you mean. I forgot to mention that on the way back my husband will be with us on the sleeper train, if we indeed use that option. He will fly to meet us in Edinburgh, after a business meeting in Ireland. Would the four of us be able to be in a berth or berths together? My two boys are quite keen on taking a sleeper train, nothing like that around home. i don't know maybe we should just fly. The two round trips out of London don't sound too bad. Still thinking.
Thanks,
Leslie

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The BritRail OffPeeak Family Pass may be of interest to you. Each kid 5-15 gets a free pass for each adult pass. You could buy for $199 4 day pass (to be used in two month period) and cover all your travel, including Heathrow Express to and from London. 2 adults pay $199=$398, kids go free. I'm sure this is the cheapest possible rail way for you to go if you compare prices online, plus with pass you can hop any train any time, no restrictions like discounted online tickets. Passes can't be bought in UK, buy here thru Rail Europe or Budget Europe (800-441-9413, whome i've bought passes from many times, they are real experts and will answer all you questions. Caledonia Sleeper will cost you 40 pounds each for adults, not sure of kids, for two private doubles adjoining each other with door in between.

Note in above scenario your hubbie will only use train Edinburgh-London and London-Heathrow Express to airport but your overall savings will warrant him buying a pass as well. At least think of the pass before buying highly restricted online tickets. (Heathrow-Paddington 20 mins; Paddington-Bath hourly (takes 90 mins).

I'm not comfortable with the idea of needing to get from someplace else to London on the day I'm leaving for home. Considering the reliability of National Rail (and the weather if flying to LHR), there exists a not insignificant chance of missing your flight. Here's what I'd suggest:

Spend your last night in London (being close to Paddington if you're planning on the Heathrow Express would make sense) and you'll get there in plenty of time to hang around for two hours waiting to board.

Ditto to the above and Calendonia Sleeper night trains i think don't ever run on Sat night and could be late. Park yourself in London a day before you flight. Strikes, train accidents blocking lines are always possible; even London tube strikes, where even taking a taxi from Euston, where Scottish night trains arrive to Paddington for Heathrow Ex could be a hard find with suffocating traffic.

Oh Caroline, the very next time I get some "strange response" from a customer rep. here in the States I will remember "not a very nice thought is it?" Good heavens, if that is not the understatement of the year I don't know what is.

A berth is a bunk. Each cabin contains 2 bunk beds, one above the other. They are very narrow.

If you are sharing a sleeping compartment with a stranger, it will always be with someone of the same sex. If any booking clerk thinks otherwise, they don't know their job. Sleeping berths on ships and trains in Western Europe are always booked in this way: if you share, it will be with people of the same sex.
In the UK, you used to have to pay the first class fare to get a single-berth compartment, but that is no longer the case. When I travelled overnight from London to Plymouth this year, I was quoted £20 in a shared compartment or £30 in a single-berth compartment, in both cases with a second-class train ticket.