Rail passengers hoping to travel between London, Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland over Christmas can now buy tickets for journeys up to early January – and take advantage of faster trains.
LNER, the state-owned rail firm that runs most trains on the East Coast Main Line, has put services in the second half of December on sale – along with the first two days of 2026.
From London King’s Cross to Edinburgh on Tuesday 23 December, the last day with a full service before Christmas, some advance fares for the four-hour journey are currently available at £66.60 – early in the morning or in early evening. Most tickets are priced at £92, though.
These new, faster trains call only at York and Newcastle between the English and Scottish capitals. The drastic timetable changes were described as “the biggest in more than a decade” when they were introduced earlier this month.
For comparison, the “open access” budget operator Lumo has seats on the same route on the same day for between £45.90 and £72.90. Journeys take around 4h 15m.
For all these rail journeys, railcard discounts apply – taking one-third off the cost.
Ryanair flies between London Stansted and Edinburgh on 23 December for between £16 and £41 – though this covers only a small item of cabin baggage, and requires transport between the cities and the airports.
Between Leeds and London on 2 January LNER has plenty of availability at £26.30 one way. “Open access” competitors Grand Central and Hull Trains compete on links from York and Doncaster respectively to London.
David Flesher, commercial director at LNER, said: “We know many of our customers eagerly anticipate the opportunity to plan their festive travel. We are delighted that this year they will have even more choice with tickets going on sale today in preparation for our new December timetable.”
Network Rail has recast the timetable on the East Coast Main Line, increasing the number of trains and cutting journey times – taking two or three minutes off many shorter trips, and eight minutes of longer rides to Durham and Edinburgh.
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