car service from Ft. William to Edinburgh

I just emailed several of the taxi services in Ft. William and it's nearly double to cost of taking the train!!

The train it is, then.

Which Sunday - there is a Sunday service confirmed up to 24 Sept

https://bustimes.org/services/913-edinburgh-fort-william

Or you could take a more frequent bus to Glasgow and then a bus or train to Edinburgh

https://bustimes.org/services/914-glasgow-fort-william

Hi, Deborah,

Go with the train. It's 51 pounds, under five hours, and travels through some spectacular scenery that you wouldn't see from the road.

Best wishes,

Mike (Auchterless)

Can't say I'm surprised - the prospect of them getting a return fare is close to nil.

The train is spectacular in places so definitely worth taking that

Hey Mike. You mean the train from Ft. William direct to Edinburgh?

Hi, Deborah,

No, there's no train directly from Fort William to Edinburgh. You'd take the train to Glasgow Queen Street, then another train to Edinburgh. Just looking at ScotRail fares from Fort William to Glasgow for a Sunday in September, and it looks as though the one way fare is 36 pounds 20. Then the fare from Glasgow to Edinburgh Waverley is 14 pounds 70.

I think that there are four or five trains a day from Fort William to Glasgow on a Sunday, and the trains to Edinburgh run about every 15 to 20 minutes.

The straight through fare one way from Fort William to Edinburgh is 61 pounds, so it looks as though you'd save 10 pounds for each person in your party by purchasing separate tickets for each leg of your journey.

Hope that helps! I wish that Stuart (isn31c) was still on this forum so he could pitch in with his expert advice!

Best wishes,

Mike (Auchterless)

Hi again, Deborah,

It looks as though there are only two trains daily out of Fort William on Sundays in September, so please disregard what I said earlier about several trains per day. That's only during the week. So your best bet, if you want to arrive in Edinburgh at a reasonable hour, would be to take the 11:40 train from An Gearasdan.

Hope that schedule fits with your plans.

Best wishes once again.

Mike (Auchterless)

I agree with Mike- 2 day trains, of which only the 1140 is a sensible time, costing £36 + £14 as Mike stated.

You can also book (on the Scotrail website, only) on the seated coach of the Caledonian Sleeper- 1900 from Fort William, arriving EDI at about 0100 Monday- not that you would want to do that, but it's an option.

Alternatively take the Citylink coach at 0910, 1110, 1310 or 1410- much the same journey time, change Glasgow, cost £44.40, or the through coach at 1600- that one costs £29.80 and is a 4 1/2 hour journey.

Thanks again!

So checking the Scotrail website, if we take the 11:40 train from Ft. William into Glasgow, we would need to change trains in Glasgow to continue on to Edinburgh. But our hotel is at the Edinburgh Airport and the train doesn't go there, at least not the Scotrail line. Would we be better to get a bus back into Edinburgh Airport so we can easily get to our hotel?

Would we be better to get a bus back into Edinburgh Airport so we can easily get to our hotel?

Yes https://bustimes.org/services/air-edinburgh-airport-glasgow

No train line goes to the Airport. You could either get off the train at Haymarket and get the Lothian air link back to the airport, or walk up the hill from Queen Street station to Buchanan Bus Station and catch the AIR coach direct to the airport.
You'll see it stops where all the hotels are shortly before the terminal.

Time wise there's little in it. Convenience wise I wonder if it's worth just catching one of the buses from Fort William to Glasgow, then a straight transfer between coaches at Buchanan.

The Lothian air link you'll see also stops outside the hotels, whereas on the tram you would have to walk back.