Edinburgh to London to Heathrow to Flight home

Grace, You should be fine. As long as you get to the airport 2-3 hours before your flight, you will be good. I connected from heathrow to gatwick once in under an hour and I had less than 2 hours before my flight. I would plan out which stations you will be transferring to and from in london to make you journey less of a headache. If you can, buy tickets ahead of time. Let me know if you have any other questions. Evan

Grace, You should be fine. As long as you get to the airport 2-3 hours before your flight, you will be good. I connected from heathrow to gatwick once in under an hour and I had less than 2 hours before my flight. I would plan out which stations you will be transferring to and from in london to make you journey less of a headache. If you can, buy tickets ahead of time. Let me know if you have any other questions. Evan

I'm not as optomistic as the previous poster. On a good day, with a fair wind, I'd say you'd just about squeek it. Its your going home flight so you want a good clear 3 hours at Heathrow. If you catch a Piccadilly Line train from Kings Cross St Pancras just as you get to the platform it will take 55 to 60 minutes depending on which terminal at Heathrow. You still have to walk from the arrival platform at Kings Cross (assuming East Coast train from Edinburgh - there are others) down to the Tube station and down to the platform. Trains are frequent but you often have to wait a few minutes. You have to get to the departure gate at Heathrow. Are you stopping to cash in your Oyster Card? Then you say its a weekend. Weekends are when both the main line and Underground railways have engineering works which can cause delays, detours, and line closures. Have you checked if your planned route will be affected? What if your train from the northern nation is late? Then you say its July. This year we have a small sporting fixture towards the end of July in East London and in many other parts of the country. There have been delays at the airports with Border Controls and other officials who have difficulties filling all the places required, and people will be taking pre-Olympic leave. Plus school is either just out or just about to be out. If I were counting on a flight taking me home which would cause me money and stress if I were late to it or missed it I would do it differently.

Which station is your train arriving at? I pray Paddington as then you could hop on the Heathrow Express for the 15 minute jaunt to the airport. Agree with Nigel, everything has to go perfectly for you to have the necessary leeway to make your flight on a weekend in July. Any chance you could arrive earlier in the day from Edinburgh?

I'm with Nigel. You need to be at Heathrow a full three hours before a flight across the Atlantic. Here are some options: 1. Leave Edinburgh Waverley at 06:20 and arrive at London King's Cross at 11:02. Take the Tube from King's Cross to Heathrow. 2. The night before you fly home, take the Caledonian Sleeper, departing Edinburgh Waverley at 23:40 and arriving at London Euston at 07:03. Take the Tube to Heathrow. 3. On the day before you fly home, take the last train to London, departing at 17:30 and arriving at 22:24. Spend the night in London. Take the Tube to Heathrow in the morning. If I were doing this, I'd go with #3. It's always wise to spend your last night in the city from which you will fly home. That way you don't have to deal with any of the potential problems listed by Nigel.

I'm with Nigel and Tim on this one. Stoppages are not unknown on British trains. Once we were riding from London to Glasgow. A train broke down ahead of us, and we sat for nearly two hours until a solution was found. Such an event could cause you to miss your flight.

I do agree that if you are able to come in the evening before it would be preferable as you really have no time to spare if your train is delayed or anything else happens. I usually get to LHR 2.5 hours before I fly home. I always check-in online the night before. That saves waiting in the check-in queue. However, I always spend the night before my flight in London. If you are arriving from Edinburgh at Kings Cross, I think it will be fastest to take the tube (Piccadilly line). However, you need confirm that there are no engineering works that weekend on the Piccadilly line and you also really should have a tube ticket or Oyster card in hand so that you don't have to queue to buy a ticket. The tube ride will take an hour. You are going to have some walking to get from the rail station to the tube station and again at Heathrow it will be a bit of a walk to the terminal. Optimistically, this means you will be at Heathrow about 2.5 hours before your flight ... but that does depend on the train being on time and if there is any delay you could risk missing your flight.

To avoid the possible (in the case of UK trains) the highly possible risk of a train delay, stay in London overnight. We always stay overnight in the city of departure when flying back home.

Thank you all for your kind responses to my question. I indeed took the 7:30 am train from Edinburgh to London. We arrived at St Pancras at 11:55 am. ( Before I left for the trip I checked the national rail website www.nationalrail.co.uk/ for any tube closures and printed out the re-route directions.) We took the tube to Paddington and the Heathrow Express to Terminal 1 and 3. We took the tran to Terminal 4 and arrived at 1:05 pm. approx. 3 hours before our flight! I love Brit Rail and would travel by trains & tube anytime!!!!!!