Travel advice from London to Liverpool

What do you want from 'best'?
The cheapest is bus with www.nationalexpress.com but it will be twice the time of a train journey.

It is possible to get discount advance tickets by train if you go online at www.virgintrains.co.uk 13 weeks before the day you intend to travel. Be aware that these tickets are strictly limited to a specific train and if you miss that you will have to buy a new ticket at full fare. So this is a good idea if you have been staying at least one night in London, but probably not if you are arriving in London by air or Eurostar and want to go to Liverpool immediately.

You can also take a London Midland train changing in either Birmingham, Crewe or Stafford which can be less expensive than the Virgin West Coast (new name for Virgin since they landed other franchises) but somewhat slower; but in any case way faster than the coach. No way that a coach can reach the 125 mph of thd Virgin nor the 110 mph of London Midland and the driverof a coach has to stop for rest every 2 hours.

Thank you all for the information. I can get a ticket for 25 pounds one way on London Midland. I cannot search yet on the Virgin site since my trip is too far in the future still. Is 25 pound a good price and is the Virgin price ever going to beat it?

Thanks

Virgin West Coast will probably not be cheaper than London Midland, but they will be faster.
Virgin West Coast provides the fast service, London Midland slower stopping trains. Both will be 2-3 times faster, and more comfortable than a bus, and offer more departures per day than the bus.