Transport from Scottish universities if you live in the south?

[Pumpkin354]

Hi, just looking into viability of St Andrew’s and Edinburgh given transport times and costs. Wouldn’t want Dd to not be able to come home if needed during term time. Obviously flying makes sense (live near Stansted) but interested to hear about actual costs and ease of travel from anyone whose DC has been to either of these? Thanks

East coast main line to Edinburgh is good - book in advance and it’s v affordable. Edinburgh is probably easier and cheaper to get to than many English universities. St Andrews more difficult you’d need to get a train or bus from Edinburgh - closest station is Leuchers

Can’t speak for Edi or StA but Glasgow has been tricky for train travel recently because of Avanti not releasing schedules or bookings for weekends. DS has been driven once, flown once (cheap and quick but not if lots of luggage) and got the train a few times, mainly via Northern cities visiting friends on the way.
we are visiting him on Feb & as a weekend is involved it looks like we are likely to have to drive, where we’d rather get the train but nothing showing at the moment that isn’t about £200 return!

We live in StAndrews but DD2 went to Bristol. She mostly flew apart from when we drove her there and back again with her stuff. The trains from Bristols wee far to long and tedious not to mention expensive. She didn't come home very often apart from holidays and we rarely visited her. It was all fine though. She was having fun and we didn't need to see her a lot.

Also to add DD2 now lives in London and prefers to get the train home. A railcard make all the difference to costs.

We are in Edinburgh and Dd is at Bristol. Easyjet is direct, quick and can be quite cheap and I believe they fly to stansted from here too.

DC was at Edinburgh when we moved to the south coast - flying was the only real option, with a return EasyJet flight being much cheaper than the train fare - often less than £30 each way.

@Withholdingvitalinfo DD's ex BF was at Glasgow, and she used to visit regularly. She found the cheapest way to get there was via Leeds and travelling on the Settle Carlisle railway and then changing at Carlisle. It was considerably cheaper this way.

Thanks for this - DS has done this route a couple of times as he stays with a friend at Leeds Uni.

Edinburgh Airport has trams every 9ish mins to the city. DD has found travel from South West easy and quick. Approx 4 flights a day yo choose from.

LNER can be less than £50 each way with railcard from Edinburgh, Lumo trains (if less frequent) are cheaper.

We found that taking bus/tram out to airport, waiting time at airport and security there is little difference in door to door travel tine overall. Luggage allowance more generous on trains.

In our case, it was more than 7 hours by train to a station an hour’s drive from us, at a higher price than EasyJet.

@WarningToTheCurious - we’d prefer her to take the train but for the reasons you’ve given it just makes little sense.

Megabus have an overnight bus if you need cheap.
The most I've paid is £40 return from Glasgow-London, they go from Edinburgh too.

DD graduated St Andrews in 2021 and we live in Essex. I would generally do the big drive twice each year although she had a flatmate with a car who lived in Cambridge so she would drive down with him at Christmas and Easter breaks and one summer when her landlady allowed them to store their stuff in her garage. I'd pick her up from Cambridge. She also took the train and flew to Edinburgh from Stansted once or twice.

@Maggiethecat We’re the wrong side of London for the train to be viable. DC had it off to a fine art - bus to the airport (usually cutting it fine for the 40 minute check in), 90 minute flight and then either an hour on the train to us or we picked up.

Your DD will be eligible for a 16-25 railcard (even if she's over 25, as she's a student) which will reduce rail fares by a third.

I'm not familiar with the St Andrews route, but for standsted to Edinburgh, it's worth checking both rail and air as the price varies for both.

The train can be v. pricey but there are sometimes some great deals on the train, the best we've had over the years was £28 for a first class ticket, London - Edinburgh - that includes free coffee on the way! (And you can take a third off that with a rail card).

For the best deals, search London: All stations (i.e. not Stansted) to Edinburgh - they often don't show up if you put the whole route in. I look on thetrainline.com and also on the train operators' websites - LNER and Lumo.

You can also get cheap tickets on split ticket websites. I haven't used it but I see the trainline have started doing it:
www.thetrainline.com/trains/great-britain/split-tickets

OP, I know you didn't mention Heriot-Watt university, but they give students from the "other" UK nations a travel-home bursary of £1500 a year. I don't know if other Scottish unis do the same.

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jul/22/scottish-universities-offer-cash-incentives-to-lure-other-uk-students

Seems to be scholarships at most of the universities mentioned.