The Edinburgh Tour Guide
Two cities, forty-odd miles apart, and more services between them than almost any pair in Britain. It should be the easiest journey in Scotland to research, and instead it is the one where the most-repeated number is wrong. It is not 50 minutes.
Take the coach unless you have a reason not to. Citylink's 900 is £10 day return against £16.80 on the train, its quickest run is 1h19 against a ScotRail average of 1h15, and it is the only one of the two that runs through the night. The train is the better call if you want Queen Street, where the average is 1h07, or if you are travelling at a time the coach is busy.
Coach
£10 return
Train
£16.80 return
Either way
~1h 15m
The 50 minutes everyone quotes is the fastest train, not the average
This is the number that gets copied from guide to guide, and we had it on our own day trips page until today. Here is what the operator that runs the overwhelming majority of these services publishes on its own route pages:
| From Edinburgh Waverley to | Average journey | Trains a day | Fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glasgow Queen Street | 1h 07m | up to 103 | £16.80 return |
| Glasgow Central | 1h 15m | up to 100 | £16.80 return |
| Both direct, no change. First train 05:18, last train 23:45. ScotRail notes that its figures are based on a Monday timetable and that journeys can run longer at weekends and on bank holidays | |||
One hour seven, and one hour fifteen. Not fifty minutes. The fifty-minute figure is real, but it describes the fastest services, and it is repeated most enthusiastically by operators who only run the fast ones. If you are budgeting a day trip, budget an hour and a quarter each way and you will never be the person running for a connection.
For what it is worth, that is still a remarkably easy journey: at 203 trains a day between the two Glasgow stations, this is one of the few routes in Scotland where you can simply turn up.
Two Glasgow stations, same price, and the difference is not speed
Almost every page about this route quietly assumes there is one Glasgow station. There are two that ScotRail runs direct trains to, they cost exactly the same, and the average journey times differ by eight minutes. That is not a meaningful difference, which is liberating: it means you can choose on geography.
- Queen Street puts you at the top end of Buchanan Street, by George Square. If you are going into Glasgow to walk around the city centre, this is the one.
- Central is a few streets further south and is the station for onward trains towards Ayrshire and the south. If Glasgow is a staging post rather than the destination, check which station your next train leaves from before you book.
The coach is £10, and it runs all night
The service is the Citylink 900, and its own published figures make an awkward case for the train:
| Citylink 900 | ScotRail | |
|---|---|---|
| Return fare | £10 day return | £16.80 |
| Journey | 1h 19m at its quickest | 1h 07m to 1h 15m on average |
| Frequency | Up to every 12 minutes at peak | Up to 203 a day |
| Runs overnight | Yes, 24 hours | No. 05:18 to 23:45 |
Read the first two rows together. The coach saves you £6.80, which is 40% of the fare, and costs you about four minutes against the average train to Central. For a pair of cities this close, that is not a trade-off, it is just a cheaper ticket.
And this is the row that decides a whole category of trip
The 900 runs 24 hours a day, every day. The last train out of Edinburgh is 23:45 and the first is 05:18, so there is a five and a half hour window every night when the coach is the only way across. If you are going to a gig in Glasgow, staying for dinner, or heading to an early flight, that is not a detail. It is the whole answer, and almost nobody writes it down.
Three practical things from Citylink's own page. You can buy from the driver, though they warn that services can be full of pre-booked passengers, so booking ahead is safer. Luggage is one large case plus one hand bag free, with extra items at £5 each. And if you are a Scottish resident, NEC and Young Scot NEC cards are valid on all Citylink services, which makes this free for under-22s and over-60s, exactly as it is on the St Andrews buses.
FlixBus and Megabus also run between the two cities, and the 900 itself appears on Megabus's site as well as Citylink's. We have only verified Citylink's published fare, so that is the only coach price on this page. If you find cheaper, take it.
The money-saving advice you will read elsewhere is a year out of date
Half the pages on this route still tell you to travel after the morning peak to save money. That advice stopped being true on 1 September 2025, when ScotRail abolished peak fares permanently and cut Anytime Single and Return tickets to the equivalent Off-Peak price.
On this route the effect was large: the Anytime Day Return went from £32.60 to £16.80, a cut of 48%. It is now the same fare at eight in the morning as at two in the afternoon. There is no longer any reason to sit in a cafe until 09:15, and if a guide tells you to, you know how old it is.
So which do you take
The coach, for most visitors most of the time. It is £10, it goes city centre to city centre, it runs every twelve minutes at busy times, and the four minutes it costs you against the average train are not worth £6.80.
Take the train when one of these is true:
- You want Queen Street specifically. At an average of 1h07 it is the quickest option on this page, and it lands you on Buchanan Street.
- You are carrying a lot. Citylink allows one large case free; the train does not count your bags.
- You simply prefer trains, which is a perfectly good reason for £6.80 and one we are not going to argue with.
And take the coach, without thinking about it, if you are travelling between 23:45 and 05:18, because nothing else is moving.
For how Glasgow compares with the other things you could do with the same day, our day trips guide puts it against the Highlands, Loch Lomond and St Andrews. The short version: this is the cheapest and least demanding day out from Edinburgh there is.
Quick answers
How long is the train from Edinburgh to Glasgow?
Longer than you have been told. ScotRail publishes an average journey time of 1 hour 7 minutes to Glasgow Queen Street and 1 hour 15 minutes to Glasgow Central, on its own route pages, based on a Monday timetable. The 50 minutes you will read everywhere is the fastest service, not the average, and it is quoted mostly by operators who run only the fast ones. Plan on an hour and a quarter and you will not be caught out.
How much is the train from Edinburgh to Glasgow?
£16.80 return, to either Glasgow station, which ScotRail also expresses as £8.40 one way based on a return fare. That is the same price whatever time of day you travel, because ScotRail abolished peak fares permanently on 1 September 2025.
Is the bus or the train better from Edinburgh to Glasgow?
The coach is cheaper by 40% and slower by about four minutes, so for most visitors it is the better buy. Citylink’s 900 is £10 for a day return against £16.80 on the train, and its quickest journey is 1 hour 19 minutes against a ScotRail average of 1 hour 15 to Glasgow Central. The train wins if you are going to Queen Street, where the average is 1h07, or if you simply prefer a train. The coach wins outright at night, because it runs 24 hours and the train does not.
Which Glasgow station should I go to, Queen Street or Central?
Pick on geography, not speed. They cost the same £16.80, both are direct, and the average journey times are 1h07 and 1h15, a difference of eight minutes. Queen Street puts you at the top of Buchanan Street, which is the main shopping street and the George Square end of town. Central is a few streets south and is the station for trains onward to Ayrshire and the south. Between them ScotRail runs up to 203 trains a day on this route.
Is there a night bus from Edinburgh to Glasgow?
Yes, and it is the thing most guides leave out. The Citylink 900 runs 24 hours a day, every day. The last ScotRail train leaves Edinburgh at 23:45 and the first is at 05:18, so there is a window of five and a half hours when the coach is the only way across. If you are at a late gig in Glasgow or catching an early flight, that is the service you want.
Do I need to avoid peak times on the Edinburgh to Glasgow train?
No, and this is the single most out-of-date advice in Scottish travel guides. ScotRail removed peak fares permanently on 1 September 2025, cutting Anytime Single and Return tickets to the equivalent Off-Peak price. The Edinburgh to Glasgow Anytime Day Return went from £32.60 to £16.80, a 48% cut, and it is now the same fare at 08:00 as at 14:00. Any page still telling you to wait until after 09:15 is a year behind.
How often do trains run from Edinburgh to Glasgow?
Constantly. ScotRail publishes up to 103 trains a day to Glasgow Queen Street and up to 100 to Glasgow Central, which is 203 between them, all direct. The first leaves Edinburgh Waverley at 05:18 and the last at 23:45. You do not need to plan around a timetable on this route, which is unusual in Scotland.
Can you do Glasgow as a day trip from Edinburgh?
Easily, and it is the least demanding day trip from Edinburgh by a distance. Budget around two and a half hours of travel for the round trip, £10 by coach or £16.80 by train, and you still have a full working day in the city. Compare that with the Highlands, where the same day buys you about twelve hours on a coach.
About this guide
Written by Diego Fresno, Independent travel writer and researcher. Every figure on this page comes from the operators themselves, read on 2 October 2026: ScotRail's own Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street and to Glasgow Central route pages for the fares, the average journey times, the daily service counts and the first and last departures, and Citylink's own Glasgow to Edinburgh page for the £10 day return, the 24-hour operation, the 1h19 quickest journey and the luggage rules. The September 2025 abolition of peak fares comes from our own day trips guide, where it was taken from ScotRail's published comparison table. Deliberately not claimed: a FlixBus or Megabus fare, because we only verified Citylink's; and a fastest train time, because ScotRail publishes averages and quoting somebody else's best against an average is the exact mistake this page exists to correct. We corrected our own day trips page in the same commit, which previously repeated the 50-minute figure. There is no affiliate link on this page: its answer is a £10 coach ticket or a £16.80 train ticket, bought from the operator, and we earn nothing from either. Verified: August 2026. About the author →