Scotland has a good rail
network which covers most of the country. The lowland services manly run from Glasgow and
Edinburgh and cover all points in Scotland, A shuttle service between the main cities runs
every 30 minutes and is normally fast and reliable.
In some remote areas of the
highlands trains do not run as frequent, some stations will only have trains running every
few hours or so, and many of the smaller stations operate a part time service with trains
stopping at peak times only, and may even closed on a Sunday.
Occasional
Rail Traveller
Fares
Train fares will vary
according to class of ticket you want and your destination.
The fare system is very
complex and confusing at the best of times, there are many money saver options to pick
from, Day Returns, Day Savers, Weekend Savers, Family Savers, Super Savers, Apex, Super
Apex and so on... The best way to go about getting the cheapest rail ticket is to simply
ask for it, it seems to work for me.
Note: When you but your
ticket, it does not mean that you are guaranteed a seat. If you want to be sure of a seat,
you will need a seat reservation, but most of the time you will get a seat without any
problems.
Frequent Rail Traveller Fares
Savings within Scotland can be
made with Scotrail Rover and Travelpass tickets. For example the Highland Rover is £39
and the Festival Cities Rover costs £29. These give you unlimited travel within certain
regions. The Freedom of Scotland Travelpass allowing unlimited travel throughout the
country on trains plus some buses and ferries is £69. (Telephone: 0345 484950) for more
details.
Scotland To London
Since there are now so many
cheap flights from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow, the rail companies have had to do
special deals to compete. Sometimes you can get tickets for as little as £42 return. It
takes between 4-8 hours to travel from Edinburgh to London on a day-time train and 5-9
hours from Glasgow to London (depending on what train you get).
The main
railway lines within Scotland are:
Between Edinburgh and Glasgow
From Glasgow south to Dumfries
From Glasgow south to Stranraer (via Wemyss Bay, Largs, Ardrossan, Irvine, Troon,
Prestwick, Ayr, Girvan).
From Glasgow north to Oban
From Glasgow north to Fort William and on to Mallaig
From Edinburgh north to
Inverness (via Stirling, Perth, Pitlochry, Blair Atholl and Aviemore)
From Edinburgh north to Inverness (via Dundee, Aberdeen and Nairn)
From Inverness north to Thurso
From Inverness west to Kyle of Lochalsh
One of the most scenic rail
routes in the UK is the West Highland Line from Fort William to Mallaig.
More
information on rail travel in Scotland
