East Coast Main Line: London to Edinburgh, Stop by Stop

Planning to take the train from London to Edinburgh and wondering whether to stop off on the way?

The East Coast Main Line runs through York, Durham and Newcastle, then along the Northumberland coast, and any of them makes a good stop. The cheapest tickets cover only one train, so you need to plan your stop before you book rather than decide on the day.

This guide goes through the stops in order, with what is close to each station, how long we would allow, and three ways to fit the stops into a trip. Ticket and ticket-type information is at the end. If you are still deciding between the train, a flight and driving, our guide to getting from London to Edinburgh compares them.

TIP: if UK train tickets are new to you, our Guide to UK Train Travel explains tickets, railcards and passes step by step, and includes 12 complete UK train itineraries.

The route on a map

Route at a glance

Stop	Station	Train time from the stop before	How long we would allow
A. London	London King’s Cross	Start
B. York	York	About 2 hours	1 or 2 nights
C. Durham	Durham	About 50 minutes	A day, or 1 night
D. Newcastle	Newcastle	About 12 minutes	A day, or 1 night
E. Northumberland coast	Alnmouth or Berwick-upon-Tweed	About 30 minutes to Alnmouth, 45 to Berwick	2 or 3 nights, with a car
F. Edinburgh	Edinburgh Waverley	About 45 minutes from Berwick, or 1 hour 30 from Newcastle	2 days or more

These are typical times on trains that call at each station, and they vary by service. The fastest through trains miss out some of these stops and reach Edinburgh in a little over four hours.

The route, stop by stop

A. London King’s Cross

Trains on the East Coast Main Line leave from King’s Cross, which is next door to St Pancras International. Six Underground lines run through King’s Cross St Pancras station below. If London’s stations are new to you, our guide to the main London train stations explains how each one works.

What to look out for

• The main departure board on the concourse, where your platform is shown before departure
• The Platform 9¾ trolley, also on the concourse
• St Pancras International is next door if you are arriving by Eurostar

B. York

About two hours from London, York is the easiest place to break the journey and our first choice if you only have time for one stop. The city walls are right outside the station and York Minster is about a 15-minute walk.

What to look out for

• The city walls, which you can walk for free. The full circuit takes about two hours, and a short stretch still gives you great views. Access is by steps.
• York Minster, which has an entry charge
• The Shambles, York’s best-known medieval street, which is quieter early in the day
• The National Railway Museum, free and right beside the station
• Clifford’s Tower, the keep of York Castle, with a view over the city from the top

Where we stayed: Abbey Guest House in June 2026, about a ten-minute walk from the station. It is our favourite of the four places we have stayed in York, and from our front room we could watch the trains crossing the river.

York can be seen in a day, and a night or two makes it far more relaxed. Our York travel guide goes through the city in detail.

C. Durham

Durham is about 50 minutes beyond York. Just before the station, the train crosses a viaduct above the city, and the cathedral and castle are on the right, on their hill above the River Wear. From the station, it is about a 15-minute walk to the cathedral, and the last stretch is uphill.

The cathedral is the main reason to stop, and combined with the castle, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

What to look out for

• Durham Cathedral. Guided tours run most days, and the tower is 325 steps for a view over the whole city.
• Durham Castle, part of the university, is only open by guided tour. Tours do not run every day.
• The riverbanks, where the path loops around the peninsula below the cathedral
• The Market Place and the old streets that run down from it to Elvet Bridge

Worth the detour: Beamish, the open-air museum in County Durham. We visited in June 2026, by car, and it is probably the best open-air museum I have been to anywhere in the world.

Our Durham travel guide covers the city and the surrounding county.

D. Newcastle

Newcastle is about 12 minutes north of Durham. The train crosses the River Tyne on its way into the station, with the city’s other bridges on the right. The Quayside is about a 10-minute walk from the station.

What to look out for

• The Quayside and its bridges, with the Tyne Bridge right above you
• Newcastle Castle, the Norman keep that gave the city its name, a few minutes from the station
• Grey Street and Grainger Town, the 1830s streets at the centre of the city, with Grey’s Monument at the top
• The Baltic, a contemporary art gallery in an old flour mill on the Gateshead side, across the Millennium Bridge. It is free to enter.

Our pick: the Angel of the North, just south of the city in Gateshead. We drove out to see it again in June 2026. It stands on the site of a former colliery, and as a coal miner’s granddaughter, I look forward to seeing it every time I come back.

On a second day, Hadrian’s Wall is the obvious addition. It is in our top 10 places to visit in North East England, along with the Angel.

E. The Northumberland coast (Alnmouth and Berwick-upon-Tweed)

North of Newcastle, the line heads for the Northumberland coast, and from around Alnmouth the sea is on the right. The two main coastal stations are Alnmouth and Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Alnmouth, about half an hour from Newcastle, serves Alnwick, four miles inland. Berwick, about 45 minutes from Newcastle, is the last station in England, and the train reaches it over the Royal Border Bridge.

Not every train calls at both, and Lumo calls at neither, so the calling points matter when you book.

Northumberland is my home county, so I am biased about this part. It is also the stop where a car matters most. The castles, beaches and villages are spread along the coast, and a hire car (a rental car in the US) is the practical way to link them. Our Northumberland Coastal Route guide covers the drive from Alnmouth to Holy Island.

Without a car there are two options. From Alnmouth station, the X18 or X20 bus reaches Alnwick in about 10 minutes. The other is to come back from Edinburgh for the day on a small-group tour. Doug took Rabbie’s Alnwick Castle, Northumberland Coast and the Borders tour in June 2026, with three hours in Alnwick and a stop to see Bamburgh Castle from the beach, and called it a fabulous day.

What to look out for

• Alnwick Castle and The Alnwick Garden. The castle closes over the winter.
• Barter Books, a huge second-hand bookshop inside Alnwick’s old railway station
• Bamburgh Castle, above a long sandy beach
• Holy Island, which is cut off by the tide twice a day, so every visit is planned around the published safe crossing times. I have been visiting since I was a little girl.
• Seahouses, for fish and chips and the boats to the Farne Islands. I spent many happy summer days here as a child with my dad and brother.
• Berwick-upon-Tweed’s Elizabethan town walls, which circle the old town

Take your time: two or three nights with a car is about right. Our Northumberland travel guide, things to do in Alnwick and guide to Holy Island will help you plan them.

F. Edinburgh

From Berwick it is about 45 minutes to Edinburgh, with the sea still on the right for the first part. Waverley station is in the middle of the city, between the Old Town and the New Town. The walk up from the station to the Royal Mile is steep.

What to look out for

• Edinburgh Castle. Day tickets often sell out, so it pays to book ahead.
• The Royal Mile, which runs downhill from the castle to Holyrood, with the narrow lanes called closes leading off both sides
• St Giles’ Cathedral, halfway down the Royal Mile. It is free to enter, with a donation suggested.
• Victoria Street and the Grassmarket, below the castle. We took the photo above from the Vennel steps, off the Grassmarket.
• The National Museum of Scotland and the National Gallery, which are both free. We visited both in June 2026.

Where we stay: Elder York Guest House, a few minutes’ walk from Princes Street, is where we usually stay. There is no lift, and it is three flights up, so it suits you better if you travel light.

Our guide to things to do in Edinburgh has itineraries for one to four days.

Three ways to travel this route

One stop: York

The simplest option is the train to York, a night or two there, then on to Edinburgh, about two and a half hours further. If you only have a few hours, York still works. With your bags left near the station, there is time to walk a stretch of the walls and reach the Minster.

Two stops: York then Durham

This is what we would choose if we have time for two stops. Durham is under an hour beyond York, and you can see the cathedral, castle, and riverbanks in a day or with an overnight stay.

The longer version: about a week on the way

Newcastle and Northumberland take more time. A week on the way to Edinburgh could look like this:

• York, 2 nights
• Durham, 1 night
• Newcastle, 1 night
• The Northumberland coast with a hire car, 2 or 3 nights
• Then the train (or drive) on to Edinburgh

If you would like help fitting this into a longer trip, the UK Train Travel Q&A with Doug is a 30-minute call for train questions like these.

Tickets, seats and luggage

Who runs the trains

LNER runs most of the trains and serves every stop in this guide, although not every LNER train calls at Alnmouth or Berwick.

Lumo runs between London and Edinburgh, calling at Newcastle and Morpeth, and does not stop at York or Durham. It is standard class only, with a reserved seat for every passenger.

Grand Central runs between London and York on its way to Sunderland. CrossCountry and TransPennine Express trains also run between York, Newcastle and Edinburgh, which helps with the shorter hops.

Doug’s video of the day he took Grand Central to York, LNER from York to Newcastle and Lumo from Newcastle to Edinburgh is below.

Tickets when you are stopping off

• Advance tickets are the cheapest and are valid only on the train you book. They do not allow a break of journey, so one London to Edinburgh Advance ticket will not let you get off at York and continue later.
• 70min Flex is an LNER ticket between London and Newcastle, Berwick or Edinburgh, where LNER no longer sells Off-Peak tickets. It lets you take your booked train or another LNER train up to 70 minutes either side, which is too short a window for a stop.
• Anytime tickets let you break the journey but they are the most expensive.

So the simplest plan is a separate ticket for each leg: London to York, York to Durham, and so on. Advance fares for the long legs are lowest when booked well ahead, and you can buy the short hop from Durham to Newcastle on the day. Separate tickets may add up to more than one through fare, depending on your dates. Trainline shows every operator on the line in one search.

Railcards and passes

Overseas visitors can buy a railcard. The Senior Railcard, for anyone aged 60 or over, and the Two Together Railcard both take a third off most fares, with some time restrictions, and both can be bought online as a digital card.

A BritRail Pass is the other option. It is accepted by LNER and Lumo and lets you get on and off along the way without buying a ticket for each leg, which suits this itinerary. Lumo asks pass holders to reserve a seat. Whether a pass costs less than separate tickets depends on how many other train journeys you are making. Our BritRail Pass guide explains the pass types and their pros and cons.

Seats, and which side to sit

Heading north, the right-hand side of the train has the views. Durham Cathedral from the viaduct, the Tyne bridges at Newcastle and the sea from around Alnmouth onwards are all on that side. LNER lets you choose a seat when you book with them directly. When Doug travelled with Lumo, the booking didn’t let him pick a side, and a fellow passenger kindly swapped so he could sit by the right-hand window.

Luggage

LNER asks that you carry your own bags. Small and medium cases go overhead or under the seat, and large suitcases go in the racks at the ends of the coach. Lumo sets a luggage allowance for each passenger, which matters if you are travelling with large cases.

For a few-hour stopovers, luggage storage services such as Stasher have drop-off points in shops and hotels near stations in York, Durham and Newcastle.

Where to stay along the route

York

In addition to Abbey Guest House, we stayed at The Bar Convent, a working convent close to the station and one of the nicest places we have booked anywhere in the UK. Our guide to where to stay in York covers all four.

Durham

Our Durham travel guide lists hotels in the city.

Northumberland

Alnwick, Bamburgh, Seahouses and Berwick are all possible bases with a car. Our guide to the best places to stay in Northumberland covers ten of them and who each one suits.

Edinburgh

In addition to Elder York Guest House, we stayed at Virgin Hotels Edinburgh on Victoria Street in the Old Town, about an eight-minute walk from Waverley.

Our guide to the best places to stay in Edinburgh goes through the city area by area.

Seeing Northumberland on a tour

If you would rather not drive, the Rabbie’s Alnwick Castle, Northumberland Coast and the Borders day tour is the one Doug took. It leaves Edinburgh Bus Station at 8.45 am in a 16-seat mini-coach and returns around 6.15 pm, with stops at Kelso, Alnwick, and Dunbar, plus a view of Bamburgh Castle from the beach. Entry to Alnwick Castle is extra. Code UKTP10 takes 10% off at checkout.

Our Rabbie’s Alnwick Castle tour review has the details of Doug’s day.

Listen to the UK Travel Planning podcast

• Episode 26: London to Edinburgh by train, on planning the journey, including a few hours in York and what to do with your luggage
• Episode 219: Before You Visit York, with Sinead of York Travel Expert, on how long to stay and what to book
• Episode 163: Discover North East England, with Alex Iles, covering Newcastle, Durham, Hadrian’s Wall and Holy Island
• Episode 213: What It Is Really Like on a Rabbie’s Tour, with Graham, who was Doug’s driver-guide on the Alnwick day