Train from London to Bath to Edinburgh

Heathrow to Bath: Take the Heathrow Express to London Paddington. Take a Great Western train from Paddington to Bath Spa.

Depending upon your departure time, your best route from Bath Spa to Edinburgh Waverly might include going via London or it might include going via Bristol. See the timetables at the National Rail site.

You may find that backtracking through London is easiest in terms of direct connections. We traveled Bath Spa to Edinburgh Waverley last October and took an alternate route: Bath Spa to Bristol Temple Meads to ?? Birmingham, perhaps? to Edinburgh. We had plenty of time for our transfers, but of course we had to tote our bags and twice had to ask assistance to find the right track for our connecting trains. Like you, we traveled with BritRail passes and one thing I will say is that the British Rail employees were kind and helpful on every step of the trip, advising us on the best routes at the time of our arrivals and never hesitating to answer a question or guide us to the right place. We altered our route twice on our UK trip based on such advice, because the BritRail pass allowed us the flexibility to simply change routes when we needed to.

If you go from Bath to Edinburgh via London, you will need to take either the Tube or a taxi from Paddington to King's Cross, the departure station for trains to Edinburgh Waverley.

You should really considering following Steve's advice about the National Express coaches when going from Heathrow to Bath. I made that exact trip last November and it was nice to get off of the flight and be able to catch a single bus that dropped us off in the middle of Bath instead of having to make multiple transfers to travel by train.

Are you set on having Britrail passes? I have generally found it to be cheaper to buy point to point tickets. You can explore your options on sites like:

www.seat61.com
www.thetrainline.com

You can look at the different departure times to find the cheapest tickets. You can then compare those costs to the cost of the pass.

Not being a big fan of buses for more than say....2 minutes....you can take a bus from Heathrow to Reading then catch the train to Bath.

From Bath to Edinburgh....I'd choose the way via Bristol.

the nationlrail site is the one to use.
You don't have to back track to London to do Bath-Eboro.
If you have set dates you want to use, also try posting on moneysavingexpets travel forum , with your day/time.The gurus of split ticking might find you very cheap fare
For part of the route you may be able to use megatrain, think they run limited services Birmingham -Edinboro, at rock bottom prices.
If you ahve the brit pass, you might also want to incorparate the Settle to Carlise track, very scenic

Ann - There is a 6am train that leaves Bath for Edinburgh with 0 changes for as little as £32.00. There is a 10am train that leaves Bath for Edinburgh with 2 changes at Bristol Temple Meads and Birmingham New Street for as little as £42.50

But since you have a BritRail pass, I guess fares don't matter.

If you want to look at train schedules Click Here

A BritRail pass is good on the Heathrow Express. Assuming that Ann sticks with having a BritRail pass, it makes more sense to me for her to take the HEX to Paddington and a Great Western train from there to Bath than to buy a bus ticket from Heathrow to Reading and then take a Great Western train from there to Bath.

Frank II has the solution. And there is a direct train from Bristol Temple Meads to Edinburgh.

I just did a timetable comparison. If I were to leave Heathrow at the same time on either the RailAir bus to Reading or the Heathrow Express to Paddington, the first train to Bath Spa I could catch at Paddington would be the same one I would end up taking from Reading. Ann will not save any time taking the RailAir bus. And if she uses her BritRail pass on the HEX, she won't have to buy a bus ticket.

Thank you for your responses, you've given me a lot to think about.