Glasgow to Edinburgh

Scotrail train.

Take the Airport Bus #500 every 15 minutes to Glasgow Queen Street station, cost £8.50 each, pay by contactless-
https://www.firstbus.co.uk/sites/default/files/public/node_images/First%20GAE%20A5%20Lft%20with%20Timetables%20March26_0.pdf
then
Take a train every 30 minutes (every 15 minutes in the peak) from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley or Haymarket (depending where your hotel is), journey time 50 minutes-
https://www.scotrail.co.uk/sites/default/files/assets/download_ct/20221201/xHqeI_Vdc25cNJnnP5nx_YII3VmuGGByM9a1Tu7jjC4/sr366_glasgow-edinburgh_via_falkirk_high.pdf

Buy a single ticket at the station for £14 before 4.30pm, then £16.10.

There are no advance fares, so no point to buying ahead of time.

Alternatively stay on the #500 to Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station then catch a Citylink coach #900 every 15 minutes, journey time 1 hour 24 minutes, cost £9.60- buy at the Bus Station ticket office.

There is no through transport from Glasgow Airport to Edinburgh

Ok thank you very much!

Two stages - coach/bus from the airport to Glasgow Queen Street then train to Edinburgh Waverley

The #500 bus is the only useful service from the airport, there are 2 other local bus routes (rarely of tourist use) . There are just 3 coaches a day- at 1230. 1404 and 1704 (the first one has come from Campbeltown, the others from the Isle of Skye)

Thanks everyone!

The bus to Glasgow Queen Street and then the train is probably the best. There is a railway station near the airport, Paisley Gilmore Street, but has a number of problems. It links into Glasgow Central, which is a great railway station, but is not the station for Edinburgh which is Queen Street. Plus Paisley Gilmore Street is in Paisley, which is very much a Parson's Egg of a town. Airports tend not to be in the best places as ads for their country, I have yet to go to a main airport that going into the centre is not somewhere you think 'why am I here?'

We did that last year, the airport bus https://www.firstbus.co.uk/greater-glasgow/routes-and-maps/glasgow-airport-express to Queens Street then a train to Edinburgh. Glasgow airport is small and efficient and after you walk out of the terminal, look for the big purple bus.

Thank you Allan!

Take a train every 30 minutes (every 15 minutes in the peak) from
Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley or Haymarket (depending
where your hotel is), journey time 50 minutes-
https://www.scotrail.co.uk/sites/default/files/assets/download_ct/20221201/xHqeI_Vdc25cNJnnP5nx_YII3VmuGGByM9a1Tu7jjC4/sr366_glasgow-edinburgh_via_falkirk_high.pdf

Buy a single ticket at the station for £14 before 4.30pm, then £16.10.

There are no advance fares, so no point to buying ahead of time.

I had found the ScotRail app where I thought advance fares could be bought; am I misreading that? Thanks in advance.

Many Scotrail routes have Advance Fares, but not all.
This route seems to be too short and too frequent to have advance fares.
Given how much competition there is with the bus between the two cities you might have thought they would offer them, but they don't.
It's like the line to Dumfries- that is a long journey and there is a competing bus but there are no advance fares.
It must just be a decision taken by Scotrail that they will gain more revenue by keeping fares high, than they would gain passengers by offering advance fares.

isn31c, thanks for taking time to reply. It's helpful. =)

Thanks everyone, this is great information!