London to Glasgow - Best seat and general advice

[theironroad]

Ignore absolutely everything you've read so far ( except MY earlier post).

Travel north from kings cross to Edinburgh along the east coast and select a seat on the right ( I travel standard, so don't care about first). Do some light reading/ catch up on yoiur tablet or admin for the first couple of hours and as you approach Newcastle, sit back and revel in the magnificent coastal sevenery. If you get into Edinburgh in time, make haste as their is a fast connection to glashow queen St departing in under 15 mins.

If you're returning, take the West coast from glasgow central to carlisle (sit oin left) and then take the longer, but better, Settle and Carlisle line (s&c) south to Leeds. ( again sit on left, butr warning the trains aren't great ...) And travel through some of England's finest scenery, making sure you watch out for the magnificent Ribblehead viaduct.

From leeds, travel direct to kings cross in London.

Nb: part of the s&c between Carlisle to Appleby is a bus at present due to a landslide closing a bit of track.

You won't regret it lol!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is London-Leeds-S&C-Carlisle-Edinburgh a Permitted Route?

 

[theironroad]

Is London-Leeds-S&C-Carlisle-Edinburgh a Permitted Route?

Not sure, but a london terminals to Glasgow stns seems to be, well I've never been challenged.

I sometimes do kgx to edb direct, run over to get the edb to glq train and return ( another day!) GLC to CAR to LDS (s&c) to kgx.

Obviously not on advance tickets...!

 

[berneyarms]

It is on a BritRail pass which the OP could use.

 

[class26]

Thanks for the tip. I'll be traveling during the weekend and seeing as this is a one off vacation trip I'll 'splurge' on a 1st class ticket. I'm thinking if I buy a 1st class ticket in advance with a seat reservation there won't be any point in boarding the train early like you suggest?
Since you do this route often do you have any suggestion as to what side of the train would be best in regards to scenery/sights? Should I go for a window seat to the left or to the right? And do you have any recommendations for a particular 1st class seat?




So London-Edinburgh-Glasgow? If the scenery is that much better it might be tempting, but seeing as I'm on a schedule (although not too tight of a schedule) I'd prefer going the direct route to Glasgow. I'll look into it though. Thanks.

Sorry if this doesn`t fit your schedule but if iut is scenery you are after take the 12.00 from Kings cross to Inverness. The best scenery is north of the central belt. Sit on the right hand side of the train (direction of travel) , especially for the bit south of Edinburgh.

 

[47271]

I do this route often, but rarely first class except on the weekends.

My top tip (may be frowned upon) is to watch realtimetrains.co.uk website for details of which platform the train is at, as it shows this info before it is displayed/announced to the other passengers on the concourse. Sometimes up to half an hour before departure.

Either you get to board the train before everyone and get comfy before it's announced (but this sneak may be thwarted by ticket inspectors at the gate to the platform), or you at least beat the scrum/rush across the station, and can be waiting at the platform first - have your ticket inspected, and board with all your suitcases and minimal barging. This isn't just the EUS-GLC route, and may be obvious I guess.

RTT is a brilliant tool to keep on top of UK trains, but be careful with taking this one too literally.

I'm currently sat in Coach G (obviously) of 2007 Euston-Liverpool. We're in Platform 3, RTT said 16 until the scramble...

 

[Bletchleyite]

At Euston RTT is 99.9% reliable once the platform goes bold (which signifies the train being entered into the signalling system). Prior to that it should be used carefully, sometimes it helps to use it in conjunction with the arrival board.

 

[theironroad]

On arrival at euston today I checked RTT for the platform for the 1230 eus to glc which was shown as 4 ( it may have been 3,) anyway I went to the shop and came back about 10 mins later and refreshed RTT to find it was now platform 13, which was confirmed by the open train times map of euston.

Was one of the first few on the playform, but pretty heavily reserved train, especially in coach a, but all good, with a 20mph slack over lamington viaduct with a bubbling Clyde underneath.....