Directly to York from Heathrow

Tube to King's Cross then train to York. He needs to buy the ticket to York prior to getting on the train. It's the least amount of changes.

Some will tell you to take the Heathrow Express to Paddington then the tube to Kings Cross. It's a waste of time and money. Just take the Piccadilly line to Kings Cross.

There is a snack bar on the train to York but not a sit down dining car. However, there are plenty of places to get food at Kings Cross and he can picnic on the train. He won't be the only one doing it.

If he travels first class, they do offer a light meal at the seat. It's included as are all beverages.

As soon as he is through Heathrow he wants to buy a ticket on his phone on the LNER website or app, to York. Advance tickets are available until shortly before departure. It is now 11pm UK time and there is still good advance availability from first train tomorrow morning from £27.10 'Advance' fares.
Oddly those fares are cheaper than if he booked weeks in advance- that goes against all the rules- last minute really cheap fares. I didn't know that happened.
But any day there are last minute advance fares!
Once he leaves Heathrow on the tube allow 90 minutes just in case the tube gets delayed.
Its slightly less than 2 hours to York. Not a massively exciting journey.

The last minute advance fares apply all across the LNER network, only £40 last minute Edinburgh to London, even less on Lumo.

Is your son’s flight booked? If not, it will be a lot easier to fly into Manchester and take a train direct from the airport to York.
On the cheapness of tickets for tomorrow that’s probably because today and Saturday should have been strike days and the day in between would have been disrupted. So it wasn’t possible to book trains on these 3 days until a week or so ago. I’m seeing similar good value tickets on the West Coast Mainline for my wife on Saturday.

Hi mistime -

When looking for the train to York on the departure boards at Kings Cross, your son should include looking for the trains to Edinburgh as York is a stop on that line. Also they don’t announce the platform until just a few minutes before departure so he’ll need to be ready - with the rest of the passengers scrutinising the the boards - to proceed rapidly with the masses to the train. All that’s missing is a starting gun! (I exaggerate of course but not much!).

The route from Manchester to York is by TransPennine (final destination Newcastle upon Tyne generally) but the line has a reputation for poor service with multiple cancellations. Also compared with LNER’s line it is slow. So, while in theory it’s quicker from Manchester, it may ultimately be false economy. You pays your money and takes your chance I suppose.

Ian

Thank you so much for the feedback on all this. He does not have his plane ticket yet, but I think it might be better to have him fly into Heathrow, given what Ian said.
Thanks for the advise on the trains up to York.
At Heathrow does he look for a particular line going to King’s Cross? Does it go directly?

The Piccadilly line goes from Heathrow to Kings Cross. It is the only tube line at Heathrow.

Within Kings Cross station there are places where your son can buy food to take on the train.

Wonderful! This sounds very straight forward. Thanks everyone!

Hi again mistime -

The Piccadilly line takes just over an hour to get to Kings Cross. Getting a seat at Heathrow should be easy but, dependent on time of day, the train will fill up as it crosses central London. At Kings Cross there’s a bit of a walk to the mainline station - follow the signs - but this is because Kings Cross main line station is at street level and the Underground, is, well, underground!

Ian

Thanks again Ian! This clarifies where he should go! He is so excited to be visiting England and Scotland.

Recently did roughly this.
Do note, it's a good 50 mins + on Piccadilly line.
There is food in Kings Cross, but there's also a wealth of interesting food just outside it.

It's a two hour and change trip up to York, so might not be worth hitting anything outside the station, but Pizza Union, Bar Pepito, and Aux Pains du Papy are within steps, and Pizza Union and Aux Pains have quick service if he has half an hour, he can grab to go.

It was easy enough for Red Eye exhausted Max and wife to accomplish without fighting, which is a usual thing for us to do in train stations.

since the airfare hasn't been booked yet I want to suggest another option to consider, especially if the flight you find arrives sometime in the evening. Have him stay at a hotel in London such as one from the Premier Inn chain which are pretty affordable and are all over the city including near Kings Cross, then take the train to York the next morning. This lets you buy the train ticket in advance which is usually cheaper than the walk-up fare and by splitting up the trip like this it makes things a bit easier for the traveler. We've pushed on with train connections after a flight before but have come to prefer a bit of a gap between flight & train.

Thank you everyone for your excellent suggestions and info. Our son did just get his plane ticket and it arrives at 11:15 at Heathrow.
We had thought about his staying in London overnight but since he is young and more energetic than we are, and because we will be looking forward to spending time with him, he decided to just get the train to York the same morning his flight arrives.

"The route from Manchester to York is by TransPennine (final destination Newcastle upon Tyne generally)"

Equally likely to be Scarborough or Middlesbrough.

Grand Central also operate Kings X > York, its a less frequent service. But, better trains and potentially cheaper too.

Although it's academic as he is now flying to Heathrow, if you fly into Manchester then catch a TPE train direct from the airport it's final destination will always be Saltburn, other than the trains between 2100 and 0100 which terminate at York, and the first train of the day at 0359 (0422 on Saturday) which is to Scarborough.
Due to capacity problems TPE no longer terminate at Middlesbrough but run on to Saltburn.

"Due to capacity problems TPE no longer terminate at Middlesbrough but run on to Saltburn"

Only the Lime St trains that call at Victoria. The airport/Picc services terminate at Middlesbrough.

I wish Laughing Spam Fritter would actually look at Timetables before giving wrong information, just as I did this morning- I checked my facts.
Airport trains extend to Saltburn as stated, Lime Street starters are alternately to Hull and Newcastle, and Piccadilly starters to Newcastle and Scarborough.
The 1940 from the Airport on Saturday only is the only Middlesborough terminating service, even the late night ones back from Saltburn extend to York.
Service patterns have evolved.
Northern also now have far fewer services terminating at Middlesborough than was previously common- often running through to various destinations on the Whitby line to turn round.

" wish Laughing Spam Fritter would actually look at Timetables before giving wrong information, just as I did this morning- I checked my facts."
Stu,

I travel on the trains, and do not study the timetables. When I arrived into MAN last week and caught a train to terminating at Middlesborough to Huddersfield also two weeks before it happened the same. Strange that.