How can I travel between St Andrews and Birmingham?

crazyvish

Hi,

My cousin is a fresher at St Andrews university (first time in this country). He is planning to visit me (Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham) for a couple of weeks during his Christmas vacation.

Can anyone please help by suggesting the cheap & best plan of route to take (train / bus / flight) ?

He is intending to start on 17th Dec and be back by 2nd Jan.

He doesn't have any travel cards on him. He only has his student ID card from the university. He applied for an NUS extra card but will take at least 2 weeks before he gets it to his hand! Any advise on the travel plan is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Vish.

agrinnall

Cheapest option is probably bus to Edinburgh then Megabus to Birmingham for £1 (if available).

googler

Rail option would be Leuchars to Edinburgh Waverley by Scotrail, then Virgin Cross Country from Edin to Birmingham New Street.

Won't be £1 for the Edin - B'ham leg, though.

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Mr_Singleton

Drive..... you know it makes sense.

elverson

He should be able to get a through ticket from Leuchars to Sutton Coldfield -for long journeys like this it's usually cheaper to book specific trains in advance. See https://www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Flybe run direct flights from Edinburgh to Birmingham - https://www.flybe.com.

[Deleted User]

The train from Leuchars to Four Oaks costs £84.50 if you've got a young person's railcard. BUT.. it's £89.10 for a return ticket.

The young person's railcard costs £30.

He could get the train/bus over to Perth, then the megabus down to Birmingham new street. That's much cheaper and would cost £20-30 each way. However, there's only one bus a day, each way, and it's overnight. And a bus.

crazyvish

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'll speak to my cousin and see what's feasible for him.

@Mr_Singleton, Unfortunately he cannot drive

[Deleted User]

It's worth saying that the price of travel tends to go up towards Christmas, and you're better booking sooner, rather than later.

securityguy

"He doesn't have any travel cards on him"

It's likely to be worth buying a 16-25.

There's is one train a day each way which runs direct from Leuchars to New St, which is cheaper on advances (although it's a bit slower than changing in Edinburgh).

If flying, look at Aberdeen as well as Edinburgh. St Andrews Taxis does a deliver and pickup service from St Andrews to EDI for eighty quid per car, which might be worth it if you have four people to share (St Andrews will have a lot of people heading to the airport for Christmas!)

Travelling to Scotland on the 2nd of January will be entertaining, as it's a bank holiday there and the service might be a bit sketchy.

Kite2010

googler wrote: »

Rail option would be Leuchars to Edinburgh Waverley by Scotrail, then Virgin Cross Country from Edin to Birmingham New Street.

Won't be £1 for the Edin - B'ham leg, though.

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At Edinburgh the OP will have the choice of either Virgin up the West Coast to Birmingham, or the slower Cross Country service which goes up the East Coast turning right at York to head towards Birmingham via Leeds, Sheffield & Derby, which would take a bit longer.

Prothet_of_Doom

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