If you have visited Edinburgh you may wonder why anyone would want to leave. It has the largest expanse of Georgian buildings, a castle, a lovely old town and a great selection of pubs. However for various reasons the people of Edinburgh are often forced to travel to London.  Once this was a simple matter: and now there are a bewildering aray of options for the traveller. 

 

For that 9am meeting

Travelling on business? Need to be in London by 9am? Oh dear. Never mind. The downside is that you have a selection of the worst that public transport has to offer. The upside is that you probably aren't paying for it all yourself. 

The Sleeper: when money is no concern.

It may surprise you to find that the most expensive, and most convinent option is the train, and not just any train: The Sleeper. The UK is a small country and as such their are very few rail journeys long enough to last a full nights sleep. The sleeper train, runnning from Edinburgh to London is the one exception. You turn up at Waverley at 11pm, enjoy a drink in the pub, and board your train. When you wake up you are in London, it's 7am, and you are refreshed and ready to do a days work. And you can take your bicycle, there is nothing that confuses Londoners more than their Scottish colleague turning up on their bicycle. The downside of course is cost, if you book in advance you maybe lucky, but realistically you are likely to spend a lot of money to get this berth. Not that it matters to most users of the sleeper as they are travelling on expenses. 

Early Morning Easy Jet: when Money is definately a concern

If your employer is less generous you will find yourself at Edinburgh airport, at 5am and shivering, waiting to check into the 6.20 easyjet flight to one of London's airports. Edinburgh airport is of course not actually in Edinburgh, it's about 5 miles out of town.   When your colleague on the sleeper is waking up at Euston station you will find your self at an one of London's airport. There will be one definining feature of this airport, despite it's name being 'London xxx airport' you will find it is not in London. It maybe in Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton or Standstead, the one thing that these places haver in common is the fact that they are no where near London. You have to drag your bleary eyed self to a train station and spend another £20 or more on a ticket to London itself. At the end of the day you'll have to repeat the entire excercise again. 

Like cutting it fine? Take the first train

If you can arrange your meeting for 10am, rather than 9, you have a whole other option.  Make it to Waverley station by 5:40am (roughly the time you'd be checking into Easy jet) and you can catch the train that will get you to London for 9.40am. Only stopping at Newcastle, this train has many advantages over the easy jet flight. Firstly it will take you from Edinburgh to London, instead of 'somewhere near Edinburgh' to 'somewhere near London', secondly you just have to sit in a seat for the journey, without having to trail from check in desk to flight, to train to other train, to London. On the downside it's exortionately expensive, because it's a peak fare to London.

A bit more cash to spare? Fly to London City Airport. 

It is a little known fact that there is an airport actually in London: only 30 minutes away from central london. Both British Airways and Virgin Altlantic fly to London City. The fares aren't as cheap as easy jet, but with advance booking it's affordtable. Certainly if you are spending someone elses money. 

Spending your own money? 

If you aren't travelling on business, and don't need to arrive for 9pm things are a bit cheaper. With some advance booking and flexiblity you'll be able to get a cheap train ticket, or Easy jet fare. 

The cheapest way? - Go by coach 

At the time of writing the cheapest way to get from London to Edinburgh is by Megabus: the low cost coach option that advertises tickets for as low as £.1.50. If you book in advance you should be able to get a cheap deal. They also have an overnight sleeper where you can lie down. What's the downside? Well it takes 10 and an half hours, which rules out a day trip.