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Easiest way to get from London to Southport for Open Championship July '26

Posted by (Lansing, MI) on

My brother and I will be coming to England in July to attend The Open Championship golf tournament. I have been to the U.K. a few times before but don't have extensive experience with the rail system.

I am contemplating flying into London and then taking the train from London to Southport. Southport is a small seaside town in the northwest, about 45 minutes or so north of Liverpool from what I can tell (my apologies to any U.K. readers if I am mistaken).

Does anyone have any recommendations for the correct rail company/line(s) as to how to get from London to Southport? I've taken Avanti West from Euston to Edinburgh before and that wasn't too bad of a journey. Is it a situation where we'd take a line from London to Manchester or Liverpool and then connect from there?

Or is our best plan to fly into Manchester/Liverpool directly (bit of an added cost) and take the train from there?

Finally, should I book the rail tickets in advance or should it be fairly easy to arrive at the station and purchase from there on the day of? Thank you for any advice you can offer!

Posted by
3526 posts

This is easier than you may think.

Just go to https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

There is no need to break your head about which company you would need to book with. Just look up the trip and then follow the link to booking.

Buying tickets in advance does give you some savings, but do pay attention to the ticket conditions. If you can travel off-peak and need to get back to London afterwards and Off-Peak return is probably a good option.

Posted by
10865 posts

If you flew into Manchester then you catch a frequent train from the Airport to Manchester Oxford Road, then another from Oxford Road to Southport. The beauty of that route is that you don't have to worry about buying Advance Tickets and which day or train is cheaper than any other. You just turn up at the airport and buy a ticket.
It's simply a commuter train. Always the same fare- £24.30 period return.

To Liverpool I think you'd need 3 flights from Detroit (on one ticket if you can)- a local one in the US, then a transatlantic probably to Dublin, then Dublin to Liverpool, so a touch messy.

Then at Liverpool, you take a very short bus ride to Liverpool South Parkway, then a train to Liverpool Central, change there for Southport, But those too are just commuter trains, always the same fare, turn up and buy. A through single fare from the airport (including the bus is £10.60. In reality you would buy a Merseytravel Saveaway there and then for £6.50 each way.

Royal Birkdale is just south of Southport but I imagine they will provide special buses from Southport.

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