Train From Liverpool Lime St. - London Euston Question

It means there is a train that departs later than the train you are looking at and "overtakes" your train and arrives in London before your train. So your journey is slower—it may involve more changes or a slower route.

Buy your tickets from any of the train operating companies - Avanti West Coast; LNER; Scotrail, etc. etc. - they sell each other's tickets at the same prices. Nothing wrong with Trainline but they will add a small additional fee.

The companies are a distraction. If you take a direct train it will be the fastest. (Run by Avanti).
I can see those direct trains for as low as £34.50 before railcard discount that day.
There are lots of slower and cheaper options, possibly as low as £20.
Such as Merseyrail to Chester, then Avanti; or Northern to Warrington Bank Quay then Avanti; or London North Western all the way changing at Crewe, Stafford or Birmingham. But all those are slower routes, so get overtaken by the direct fast Avanti trains at 8 and 43 minutes past each hour.
Take one of those and it will be the fastest option.

Much of the route is 4 track, so fast and slow lines in each direction. Thus trains calling at local stations use the slow lines while express trains pass them on the fast lines.

You can try splitting fares but later in the week I will do a TR on a journey I did on Thursday on a 4 way split fare, where that went spectacularly belly up, and how I recovered the situation.
Keep it simple and buy a through fare, the cheapest possible through Avanti journey.

Thank you both so much for your quick replies. We don’t have railcards for this trip because we will only take two trains, from Manchester airport to Liverpool and from Liverpool to London.

Isn31c, I don’t see any trains at the prices you mentioned. Where did you find those? We can’t check into our London accommodation until 4:00 so I’m trying to find a train that arrives in London after 3:00.

I was looking on the Northern rail website, e.g. 1243 from Liverpool, arrive Euston 1503 is £37.50.
The 1143 is £41.

Got it! I was looking at the price for two people I think, which is what I need. Thanks again.

For tickets, Trainline’s fine but they charge a small fee. If you wanna save a bit, just book directly through Avanti West Coast, it’s the same train either way.