[Closed] Manchester to Fort William by train

Should be possible with one change - manchester to glasgow and glasgow to fort William. Certainly there used to be thru trains manchester / Glasgow but not very frequent - usually better to change at preston.

Try the trainline.com

Edit

had a look on the trainline and its not that straightforward. dunno where they are getting all the changes from

Had a further look - there are trains manchester to glasgow with one change at preston. and glasgow / fortwilliam is direct. I think where they are getting the other changes is in glasgow as you have to change from The train into Central but the fort william train is out of queen street - so you can do this by getting a train from central to partick then at partick change to the fort william train. In your circumstances it would be easier to cycle to queens street. So It can be done with one change in Glasgow using the rare direct trains from Manchester or two changes - one at preston and one at Glasgow. the two journeys man / Glas and glas / fort W take about 3.5 hrs each

Five minute walk between Glasgow Central and Glasgow Queen St.

6:33/10:16 get to Glasgow Central with no stops. Then ride to Queen Street for the train to Fort Bill.

Central to Queen St will count as a "change"

or two changes Druidh - if you take ( as they intend) the train to partick change at partick option

Hmm - I'd rather board the train at the terminus to be more sure of getting on it with a bike. FirstScotrail have been known to overbook and not all conductors/guards will be flexible enough to still let you on.

Agreed.

Another option would be to use the sleeper. You could get on at Preston (around 00:45), which would take you direct to Fort Bill.
Details here: [url= http://www.seat61.com/CaledonianSleepers.htm#Sleeper%20times ]Caledonian Sleeper[/url]

Bargain Berth tickets from £19 each way available here: [url= http://www.travelpass.buytickets.scotrail.co.uk/BargainBerths/Default.aspx ]http://www.travelpass.buytickets.scotrail.co.uk/BargainBerths/Default.aspx[/url]

You can also get 'red eye' seated tickets. Either way, don't plan on getting much actual sleep, unless you have a good dose of Whisky before hand.

Thank you men. That sleeper option sounds like a plan.

except having checked the bargain berth site, the only english places mentioned are Euston and Carlisle. And Trainline says 235 notes cough splutter

Try national rail enquiries. Website is better than the trainline in my experience.

Dave - you can book from Euston but just get on at Preston.

Check out the small print where it says that you have to change the bike between guards carriages @ 05:00 in the morning if you're travelling to Fort Bill from the South.

05:00!

Check out the small print where it says that you have to change the bike between guards carriages @ 05:00 in the morning if you're travelling to Fort Bill from the South.

🙁

Just get up move the bike & then go get some more sleep [or breakfast]

5am is proper getting up time at this time of year anyway - well, it is for me 🙂

Tried that Geoff.

Got:

"Services from London Euston to Fort William
The services on this route are all fully booked"

...and that's before I put any dates in!