I want to get my bike up to Scotland later this month for a weeks riding. I live in Devon and have done this before but the connections have been a stress filled nightmare. Is there a way of finding direct trains to a destination? I would happily go out of my way to just get on one train with my bike.

What I’m looking for is a way of entering the destination station and then seeing what options I have for a direct train.

Just use TheTrainline.com journey planner. Enter your start and end points and it lists the options including the number of changes.

That’s not what I am after as I do not know my start point. I want to know all direct start points from a given end point

I think cross country have an Exeter to Edinburgh service

There’s the Inverness-Penzance service. Not sure if it runs in the other direction 😏

There’s defo an Edinburgh to Plymouth service.

Edit – well there used to be, but I can’t see it on trainline anymore.
The exeter – edinburgh service runs at least 3 times a day.

And stops at:
13:41. Tiverton Parkway
13:53. Taunton
14:35. Bristol Temple Meads
14:44. Bristol Parkway
15:15. Cheltenham Spa

Thanks but is there a way of finding all these services. Exeter to Edinburgh looks good

It’s only cross country that run a direct service from Exeter/Plymouth to Glasgow. What you need is an old fashioned timetable, like this one:

https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/media/4191/scotland-north-east-to-south-west-and-south-coast-may-2020.pdf

I don’t think you can get to this immediately on google etc.
You could call National Rail enquiries or go to your nearest main line station.
Other than that, a few quick searches using the national rail website should give you some answers:
– there aren’t many main line stations in devon so that helps
– for each of them, choose your arrival station, travel dates, and in advanced search click direct services only
That shouldn’t take more than 20 mins in total and you can do it from your armchair.
Not the answer you were looking for but it’s probably the next best.

I doubt it since what you are asking doesn’t make sense in terms of rail journeys which are point to point. Not knowing your start point seems weird as well TBH. Also Scotland is pretty big so …

Generally if you stick to one side of the country or the other you’ll have a better chance of finding a service that is no-change. I couldn’t find a service that didn’t involve a change which may be because things are messed up due to Covid-19. I can’t remember making any journey north of the Central Belt that didn’t involve a change – the West Coast mainline terminates at Glasgow Central while the West Highland Line service starts at Glasgow Queen Street for example.

Just to add to recent post – the only stations in Devon which might fit the bill are, from memory…Exeter, Plymouth, Taunton & Tiverton.
That’s based on hearing train announcements travelling between Newcastle to Bristol; heading N trains went on to Edinburgh/Aberdeen/Inverness and S of Bristol to the stations above.

I think this search has value to cyclists. You know your destination(s) and want options for getting there that are direct. I’d seriously ride for a day to achieve that. I do know how to use the standard searches but it interests me to know the end to end routes. I have access to the National Rail api and will have a dig to see if it can be engineered.

Ooh. You might be onto a winner of an idea there.

There’s the Inverness-Penzance service. Not sure if it runs in the other direction 😏

Not any more, was scrapped quite a few years ago. There is still Aberdeen to Penzance, the longest train journey in the UK.
And there is Inverness to London, either East Coast or the sleeper.

Could try Real Time Trains for finding routes. It will show you all arrivals/departures for a particular station, and where they are going.
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/

There used to be a Bournemouth-Glasgow direct train, no idea if it still runs now.