Help!!!!

Will that train run on the 17th? You may need to shift a day on either side and the 19th is now a bank holiday. Or can you extend your current car’s rental?

On National Rail, I see tickets for evening of the 17th, so that is probably your best bet. Even if you need to buy new tickets and then get refunded for yours on the 18th, you would lose the least amount of time in Edi this way. Then all you need is an extra night of lodging in Liverpool on the 17th. And hopefully you either have refundable lodging or insurance for the cancelled night in EDI for the 17th. So Mona is probably right.

Edit: I also looked at Arnold Clarke and they have no automatics available, even if you could make it to Liverpool by their closing time of 1:30 that day.

Andrea, did you try the Rome2rio webpage. When you plug in the cities and date, if you scroll down on the left and click on car hire I saw two automatics for that date. One through Alamo and one through Enterprise. Also, we have booked cars through booking.com. Try them too. Good luck

Does Nigel own a taxi🙃

Is your cancelled ticket through Newcastle or Carlisle? I think there are two rail companies that leave Edinburgh in opposite directions but can theoretically get you to Liverpool if either are operating, with a connection.

The main problem you're facing is engineering work being done that day between Edinburgh and Newcastle. Buses will replace the trains for those services not cancelled.

However, I may have some good news for you. Trains from Glasgow to Liverpool are running on the 18th. It's an easy trip from Edinburgh to Glasgow and takes about an hour. (Trains from Edinburgh arrive at Glasgow Queen Street. Your train to Liverpool departs from Glasgow Central. It's a five minute taxi ride or short bus ride between stations.)

Deep breaths.

Is the ticket on Avanti West Coast or on TPE or Northern?

I expect it is on Avanti. If so, you will seen my comments when we were expecting strikes about the basket case that Avanti is at the moment. Because they have cut way back on their services they don't make many friends.

Also remember that Liverpool Lime Street is a difficult station for Scotland because access is only from the south, so trains have to curve around or make changes.

I can see a routing at 10:51 on the 18th from Edinburgh Waverley via Carlisle to Warrington Bank Quay arriving at 13:40 on Avanti on its way to London; a walk to Warrington Central (maybe take a taxi); and a train from Warrington Central at 14:13 on a Northern train from Manchester Oxford Street to Liverpool Lime Street, arriving at 14:56.

Is that the one you got the email about?

Best plan is to go into the station when you get to Inverness and have them work it out for you..

ok, breathe.

Edinburgh to Manchester on https://uk.megabus.com/ (dep 07.00 arr 12.50 - £9.99

Then train Manchester to Liverpool https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Thanks to all for your swift responses. I appreciate the advice.

Our tickets are on TransPennine Express from Edinburgh Waverley to Liverpool Lime Street with a change at Preston (Lancs). The train was to depart at 10:13 and arrive in Liverpool at 13:14. When we arrived in Inverness this afternoon we went to the train station and spoke to a very helpful employee. She said we should be able to use our existing tickets for a train at 10:51 on Avanti West Coast. It arrives at Warrington Bank Quay at 13:40. We would then need to get to Warrington Central for a train on Northern that departs at 14:13 and arrives at Liverpool Lime Street at 14:35. She advised us to talk to someone at the train station when we arrive on Wednesday.

She explained that TransPennine Express has staffing shortages because of employees with Covid and some other issues and have had to cancel trains. She also said that all seat reservations had been cancelled on trains because of the impending strikes that have now been called off. It appears that it would be possible that we would not have seats, which isn’t ideal for such long stretches. We aren’t spring chickens any more.

Leaving Edinburgh a day early (Saturday) isn’t possible because a friend we are traveling with is going to be seeing a relative that day who lives nearby. It has to be on the Saturday because he works, and he’s a big reason we’re going there. We will be turning our car in this Tuesday evening in Inverness and taking the train to Edinburgh on Wednesday. I just looked at rental car possibilities on Booking.com, which I didn’t even know rented cars. We need an automatic big enough for 4 average sized adults, 4 carryon suitcases and 4 backpacks. It’s a challenge. We had a Toyota C-HR in Ireland that was tight with the luggage, but manageable. When I told the car hire company in Scotland what we needed she reserved a Nissan Qashqai for us. When we went to pick it up in Glasgow the guy said it wouldn’t work for us, but he upgraded us to a Volvo XC 60 for a very small amount extra. It has worked out well.

Diane, I happen to know that Nigel does not own a taxi. I’ve been in his car, and unless he’s gotten a new one since late 2019 it definitely wouldn’t fit 5 people and the luggage. I’m sure he has better things to do anyway.😬

Frank II, I’m intrigued about the idea of taking the train from Edinburgh to Glasgow and from there taking the train to Liverpool. I know where both of those stations are in Glasgow because we stayed not too far from them and it would be easy enough to walk from one to the other. I’m guessing the tickets wouldn’t be linked to each other and if the first train is delayed we would be out of luck if we missed the second train. I just looked the tickets up and the leg from Glasgow-Liverpool all show “Not available to buy.”

Yes Nigel, I’m taking a lot of deep breaths and hoping things will all work out. Thanks for always being a voice of reason.

Well Andrea, think of it this way: in figuring all this out, at least you speak the local language. Imagine if you were someplace in Turkey. Good luck!

10:51 on Avanti West Coast. It arrives at Warrington Bank Quay at 13:40.

great minds think alike...

I think we could all squish in if luggage is ok on the hood!!

That would be very squishy.

I just wanted to report back to let anyone who’s interested know the outcome of our train saga. We spoke to various people at different stations and received almost as many different answers. We took our original train, but instead of getting off to change where the ticket said we continued to Manchester Oxford Rd, then took the train to Liverpool from there. Unfortunately that second train was crowded and standing room only for the hour long trip. But we made it, so that’s all we can ask for.

Thanks again for all the help.

Is it too early to chuckle and say what a great "Jams are fun" story this will make?

Glad it worked out.... several deep breaths later!

Glad you made it! Travel this year is full of adventures….. some a bit more stressful than others. 😂

Glad that the squishing part of the ride was only an hour, and that you made your destination on your original desired day !

love the success

All’s well that ends well. Larry, you are exactly right that our advantage was that we are in English speaking countries right now. It would have been more of a challenge elsewhere.

Andrea, is Scouse English? Some do wonder...

Andrea, since I speak American I can only say that I’m somewhat fluent in English but not 100%, therefore I’m unqualified to answer your question.