For the past few days I have been trying to call National Rail Enquiries and the Great Northeastern Railway in England by direct dialing them from my home phone here in the US.
I dialed 011+44+345 484950 for Natioanl Rail Enquiries and 011+44+08457225225 for the Great Northeastern Railway, and each time I got a recorded message to the effect that the call that I dialed couldn't go through etc., etc., etc. Does anybody have a direct dial phone number to either the National Rail Enquiries or the Great Northeastern Railway that will work from the US?
We plan to travel from London to Edinburgh on Sunday, October 21, returning on October 24, and I wanted to find out if we could make seat reservations over the phone to be picked up in London later and the availability of thru trains from London to Edinburgh on October 21 - a Sunday. Since seat reservations are complementary on most of the train operting companies in Great Britain I thought I would try to call and make them over the phone here at home so I wouldn't have to pay $10 - $11 per reserved seat.
I got conflciting information about trains running from London to Edinburgh on Sunday, October 21 when I visited both web sites. According to the National Rail Enquiries and the Great Northeastern Railways' web sites trains leaving London King Cross on Sunday, October 21, up to 12:30 PM, would require a change to a railroad replacement bus at New Castle to continue on to Edinburgh. Yet the BritRail web site shows thru trains from London to Edinburgh on Sunday, October 21, with a travel time of approximately 4 1/2 hours starting early in the morning
The international number for UK National Rail enquiries is +44 20 7278 5240 (this is just for enquiries, not ticket sales, reservations etc).
The international number for GNER telesales is +44 191 227 5959
The timetable info from the National Rail enquiries website should accurately reflect temporary changes due to planned engineering work, so I'd take that as the 'correct' version. I just checked the dates myself on the GNER 'timetable alterations' page - http://www.gner.co.uk/GNER/Traintimes/TimetableAlterations/ - and the situation is that London Kings Cross - Edinburgh (and beyond) trains are being diverted after Newcastle via Carlisle. The buses are serving intermediate stations on the normal Newcastle - Edinburgh via Berwick-on-Tweed route. If you wanted more variety, you could always travel out from London Euston via the west coast route and back via the east coast route to Kings Cross.
Note that if you are buying tickets with reservations online through GNER (rather than using a railpass etc) you can choose to collect them from a station ticket machine e.g at Kings Cross, but I don't know if the system accepts bookings from outside the UK. As you are booking well in advance you may be able to get some good deals on advance purchase single tickets via the online system.
Hope this helps - just ask if you need more advice (and have a good trip).
Tony
Hi tony
Thanks for the diredt dial number to National Rail Enquiries. The number worked. I got through to National Rail Enquiries, and they told me that track work will be conducted on the East Coast Mainline between Newcastle and Edinburgh on Saturday and Sunday October 20 and 21. We are flying into London Heathrow from Budapest after a river cruise on the Danube, and we are planning to go to Edinburgh on October 20 before we return home.
As much as I don't like it we have pretty much decided to fly between London and Edinburgh instead of taking the train. We arrive at London Heathrow at 14:15 and the last train for Edinburgh leaves at 17:00 which might be a tight connection. National Rail Enquiries told me a train replacement bus is scheduled to connect with that train at Newcastle and take its passengers to Edinburgh and the intermediate stops between Newcastle and Edinburgh. However, if we stayed overnight in London and took a morning train to Edinburgh we could go directly to Edinburgh without having to take the bus from Newcastle. Apparently some of the thru London Edinbugh trains are being diverted over the line from Newcastle to Carlisle, and the on to Edinburgh. I understand the InterCity125's are being used in thru service between London and Edinburgh on weekends while the track work is going on.
Again thanks for your help.
Rudy
Rudy, that is tad tight timewise. You will have to clear Customs at Heathrow. The last time I cleared UK Customs at Heathrow I stood in a room with about 2000 inbound passengers fresh off transatlantic flights from the USA and we lost ALOT of time in that blasted line. The baggage claim below that room was a horrorshow of unclaimed baggage piling up in the corners.
That was a long time ago for me, I remember that day as if it happened yesterday.
I'd agree that the Heathrow - Kings Cross connection time on Sunday is probably a bit tight (it takes more than an hour on the Underground (Piccadilly Line), 'Heathrow Express' train is much faster to Paddington (20 mins) but then you need to use Underground or taxi to get to Kings Cross), so allowing for immigration/baggage collection delays it might be risky.
The NRE journey finder suggests taking the 15:53 'Heathrow Express' to get the 17:00 to Newcastle (and there is a connecting train from Newcastle to Edinburgh, as well as a bus - the telephone enquiry people aren't always as good as they should be.....it's basically just call centre using the same info that you can access online at http://nationalrail.co.uk ).
Have you thought about using the overnight 'Caledonian Sleeper' train to Edinburgh ? - see http://www.firstgroup.com/scotrail/content/caledoniansleeper/index.php - these depart from London Euston around 23:00 on Sundays to Edinburgh.
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