Edinburgh has four mainline train stations: Edinburgh Waverley, Edinburgh Haymarket, Edinburgh Gateway and Edinburgh Park. Booking sites and most apps show only “Edinburgh” for the main one. That always means Waverley. For almost every visitor, Waverley is the right station to book.
The other three exist for specific reasons. Haymarket is the West End station and a useful boarding point for ScotRail trains to Glasgow, Fife and the north, with the Edinburgh tram running right past the door. Edinburgh Gateway and Edinburgh Park are tram-and-rail interchanges on the west side of the city, mostly useful when you are arriving from Edinburgh Airport and heading straight on by train. Most travellers will never need them.
If a booking page shows only “Edinburgh”, open the train details and confirm the station before you pay. Most of the time you will see Waverley. When you see Haymarket, Gateway or Park instead, that is a signal worth checking.
| Station | Where it is | What it is good for |
|---|---|---|
| Edinburgh Waverley (EDB) | City centre, in the valley between the Old Town and the New Town | Almost every trip; default for visitors |
| Edinburgh Haymarket (HYM) | West End, on Haymarket Terrace | West End stays, Murrayfield, ScotRail services to Glasgow and the north, tram interchange |
| Edinburgh Gateway (EGY) | Gogar, west of the city, near the airport corridor | Tram-to-train interchange for journeys to Fife, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness |
| Edinburgh Park (EDP) | South Gyle business area, west Edinburgh | Tram-to-train interchange for ScotRail services towards Glasgow and central Scotland |
Edinburgh Waverley
Use Waverley by default. It sits in the valley between the Old Town and the New Town, with exits onto Waverley Bridge, Market Street and Princes Street. From the main concourse you walk straight out into the centre. Edinburgh Castle is up the hill to the west. The Royal Mile is a short walk away.
The full name on Network Rail and ScotRail signs is “Edinburgh”, with the station code EDB. Most booking systems use this. LNER, the operator running most London services, calls it Edinburgh Waverley on its station pages. They are the same place.
Waverley is the bigger and busier of the two city-centre stations. Network Rail owns and runs it. There are 20 platforms in two halves of the trainshed, plus a long, glass-roofed concourse with shops, refreshments, and accessible toilets including a Changing Places facility. The First Class lounge is on the main concourse.
What is around Waverley
Step out onto Waverley Bridge and you are between Princes Street Gardens to the west and the Balmoral Hotel to the east. The Royal Mile is up Cockburn Street. Princes Street and the New Town tram stops are a couple of minutes’ walk away. Most central hotels are within 15 minutes on foot. The concourse is busy at peak hours, so plan a bit more time than the map suggests.
Facilities, accessibility and parking
Step-free access reaches every platform, with lifts from the main concourse. Passenger Assist is available and is worth booking in advance for a smooth pickup; staff help is available roughly from 04:00 to 00:45 Monday to Saturday and from 06:00 to 00:45 on Sundays. The ticket office runs from 06:00 to 22:00 Monday to Saturday and from 07:00 to 22:00 on Sundays.
Driving in is the awkward part. The New Street car park alongside the station has 617 spaces, but city-centre traffic and the limited drop-off area mean a taxi or tram is usually easier.
Operators and main directions
Waverley is the only station in Edinburgh where every long-distance operator stops. That includes:
- ScotRail for Scotland: trains to Glasgow Queen Street roughly every half hour via Falkirk High, to Tweedbank on the Borders Railway, to Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth, Inverness, Fife, and out to North Berwick and Dunbar on the east coast.
- LNER for the East Coast Main Line: roughly one train per hour to London King’s Cross, plus a handful of long-distance services to Aberdeen and Inverness.
- Lumo for cheaper London King’s Cross services: about five trains per day, with simpler fares than LNER but no first class.
- Avanti West Coast for the West Coast Main Line to London Euston, via Carlisle, Preston and Birmingham. This is the slow way to London and runs roughly every two hours.
- TransPennine Express for Newcastle and Manchester Airport.
- CrossCountry for Birmingham, Bristol, Plymouth and the long route down to Penzance, plus services to Glasgow Central.
- Caledonian Sleeper for the overnight train to London Euston and the Highland portions to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William.
Treat the frequencies above as orientation. Specific calling patterns and times change with each timetable, so check your exact train on the operator’s site or National Rail Enquiries before booking.
| Operator | Where its trains go from Waverley | Typical service |
|---|---|---|
| ScotRail | Glasgow, Fife, Borders, Stirling, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness | The dominant Scotland-wide operator |
| LNER | London King’s Cross via Newcastle and York | About one train per hour |
| Lumo | London King’s Cross | About five trains per day, low-cost |
| Avanti West Coast | London Euston via Carlisle, Preston and Birmingham | About one train every two hours |
| TransPennine Express | Manchester Airport, Newcastle | A few trains per day |
| CrossCountry | Birmingham, Bristol, Plymouth, Penzance; Glasgow Central | Roughly hourly southbound |
| Caledonian Sleeper | London Euston, Aberdeen, Inverness, Fort William | One overnight train per night per route |
Edinburgh Haymarket
Haymarket is the second city-centre station, in the West End, with the entrance on Haymarket Terrace. The station code is HYM. ScotRail manages it; Network Rail owns it. There are five National Rail platforms and two Edinburgh Trams platforms outside, so the tram interchange is genuinely a few steps away rather than a walk across town.
Pick Haymarket when your hotel, conference or onward trip is in the West End or near Murrayfield, or when your specific ticket shows Haymarket. Trains to Glasgow on the ScotRail Express call here as well as at Waverley, and most LNER trains to London stop at Haymarket on the way out. For a traveller staying near the EICC or Murrayfield, boarding at Haymarket can save 15 minutes versus walking or tramming across to Waverley.
The mistake to avoid is choosing Haymarket because the fare looks the same as Waverley, then taking a tram into the centre anyway. If your stay is in the Old Town, the New Town or Leith, Waverley is closer. Check your hotel’s tram or walking distance to each station before you commit.
Edinburgh Gateway
Edinburgh Gateway is in Gogar, west of the city, near the airport corridor. The station code is EGY. ScotRail manages it. Gateway opened in 2016 specifically as a tram-and-rail interchange, and that is what it is good for. The ticket office sits on platform 2 and is open Monday to Saturday from 06:25 to 22:00, and on Sundays from 09:00 to 22:00.
Use Gateway only as an interchange for trains heading to the north of Scotland: Fife, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness. If you are coming off an Edinburgh Trams service from the airport and your next train calls at Gateway, you can change here instead of riding into Waverley and back out. For a city break, Gateway is a long way from anywhere you would actually want to stay.
Before you book Gateway, confirm your specific train calls there. Many northbound ScotRail services stop, but not all do, and turning up at Gateway for a train that goes straight to Haymarket and Waverley would be an avoidable detour.
Edinburgh Park
Edinburgh Park is the other tram-and-rail station on the west side of the city, in the South Gyle business area, station code EDP. ScotRail manages it. There is a ticket machine, free Wi-Fi and step-free access to the platform, but no staffed help, no ticket office and no waiting room of any size.
Use Edinburgh Park when you are interchanging with the tram for a ScotRail service towards Glasgow Queen Street, Falkirk, Stirling, Dunblane or central Scotland. Several ScotRail trains in those directions call here, and from the airport tram it can save a trip into the centre.
For most visitors, Edinburgh Park is not a useful arrival station. If your hotel is genuinely in the Gyle business area, it works. Otherwise, change at Haymarket or Waverley where you have more services and more staffed support.
Other Edinburgh-area stations
A handful of small commuter stations also fall inside the Edinburgh area on the National Rail map: Brunstane, Newcraighall, Slateford, Kingsknowe, Wester Hailes, South Gyle and Curriehill. These are local halts, used mainly for short ScotRail services into Waverley. Only use them if your accommodation is genuinely closer to one of them than to Waverley or Haymarket.
When you search a route on a booking site, these smaller stations are usually filtered out unless you set them as the origin or destination by name. That is the right default for most travellers.
Getting between Edinburgh Airport and the city by train
There is no train station at Edinburgh Airport. The link between the airport and the city is Edinburgh Trams, not a train.
Trams run roughly every seven minutes through the day from the airport, stopping at Edinburgh Gateway, Edinburgh Park, Haymarket and on to the city centre. The closest tram stop to Edinburgh Waverley is St Andrew Square, around a two-minute walk along Princes Street to the station.
If your onward train calls at Haymarket, Gateway or Park, you can change directly between tram and train at the same site. If your onward train is at Waverley, take the tram to St Andrew Square and walk the last block. The airport sells combined tram-and-train tickets at the check-in hall, and the same combined tickets are available at most stations and online; one ticket can be cheaper and easier than buying separately, but it depends on the operator and the day.
Buses run the same corridor and are slower but cheaper, with Lothian Buses and the Airlink 100 service the most common option. Take the bus if you are travelling early in the morning, late at night or with a buggy and an awkward set of bags. Otherwise, the tram is faster and more predictable.
Sleeper trains from Edinburgh
The Caledonian Sleeper is Edinburgh’s only overnight train. It runs from Edinburgh Waverley, and the rolling stock splits into two products: the Lowland Sleeper to London Euston, and the Highlander, which divides on arrival to serve Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William.
You can travel in a reclining seat, a Classic Room (a basic two-berth cabin), a Club Room (with an en-suite shower) or the larger Caledonian Double. All require a separate reservation on top of your ticket or rail pass. A BritRail, Interrail or Eurail pass on its own does not get you a berth. Book the berth at the same time as your travel where you can.
Book early if you want a Club Room, an en-suite or the Caledonian Double, because these categories sell out before the seats do on busy nights, especially in summer and over public holidays. The whole point of the Sleeper is arriving rested, so the cheapest seat is rarely the right choice if you can stretch to a cabin.
Tickets, operators and UK rail passes
Edinburgh’s stations share one National Rail ticketing system, but each operator has its own fare structure. The cheapest fare to London depends on the train you choose, not the station.
LNER and Lumo both use dynamic Advance pricing on the East Coast Main Line: cheaper the earlier you book, more expensive close to departure. ScotRail mixes walk-up Anytime and Off-Peak fares with cheaper Advance tickets on its longer routes. Avanti West Coast also uses dynamic fares for the slower London Euston service. Caledonian Sleeper fares depend on the cabin type, the date, and how far ahead you book.
A few practical points to check before buying:
- An Advance ticket on LNER, Lumo or Avanti locks you to one specific train. Get the operator and the time right before you pay.
- A flexible Off-Peak Return on ScotRail can be cheaper than buying two singles, especially on short Scottish routes.
- If your plans change, change-of-journey fees vary by operator. Lumo is the strictest.
For visitors using a rail pass, both the BritRail Pass (for non-UK residents) and the Interrail or Eurail Great Britain Pass cover most National Rail operators that serve Edinburgh, including ScotRail, LNER, CrossCountry, Avanti West Coast and TransPennine Express. The Caledonian Sleeper recognises rail passes, but the berth or seat itself is still a separate reservation, and Lumo, as an open-access operator, has its own rules on which passes it accepts, so check before you turn up.
If you only need one or two long-distance trains while you are in Britain, buying individual Advance tickets is usually cheaper than a pass. The pass starts to pay off when you have several long trips inside a short window.
Frequently asked questions
How many train stations are there in Edinburgh?
There are four mainline National Rail stations in Edinburgh: Edinburgh Waverley, Edinburgh Haymarket, Edinburgh Gateway and Edinburgh Park. A handful of smaller commuter stations, such as Brunstane, Slateford and South Gyle, also lie inside the city on the National Rail map, but most visitors will only ever use Waverley or Haymarket.
Which Edinburgh train station should I use?
Use Edinburgh Waverley for almost every trip. It is the city-centre station, has the most operators, and is what booking sites mean when they show "Edinburgh". Choose Edinburgh Haymarket only when your hotel or onward train is in the West End, or your ticket specifically lists Haymarket. Use Edinburgh Gateway or Edinburgh Park only for tram-to-train interchanges from Edinburgh Airport.
Are Edinburgh Waverley and "Edinburgh station" the same?
Yes. On National Rail signs and most booking sites, the station is simply "Edinburgh", with the code EDB. LNER, Trainline and many travel writers call it Edinburgh Waverley, which is the historical name. Either way you are looking at the same station between the Old Town and the New Town.
Is there a train to Edinburgh Airport?
No. Edinburgh Airport does not have a National Rail station. The link to the city is Edinburgh Trams, which runs roughly every seven minutes through the day and stops at Edinburgh Gateway, Edinburgh Park, Haymarket and on into the centre. The closest tram stop to Edinburgh Waverley is St Andrew Square, about a two-minute walk.
Which Edinburgh station does the Caledonian Sleeper use?
The Caledonian Sleeper uses Edinburgh Waverley for every service. The Lowland portion runs to London Euston, and the Highlander divides on arrival at Edinburgh to serve Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William. The berth or seat is a separate reservation from your ticket or rail pass, so book the cabin at the same time as your travel where you can.
Which operators run trains from Edinburgh to London?
Three operators run direct London services from Edinburgh Waverley: LNER, with roughly one train per hour to King's Cross via the East Coast Main Line; Lumo, with about five lower-cost trains per day to King's Cross; and Avanti West Coast, with a slower service to Euston via Carlisle, Preston and Birmingham. The Caledonian Sleeper offers the only overnight option, with one departure to London Euston each night.
Is Edinburgh Waverley step-free?
Yes. Edinburgh Waverley has step-free access to every platform, with lifts from the main concourse and a Changing Places toilet. Passenger Assist is available and is worth booking in advance for a smooth pickup; staff are on hand from roughly 04:00 to 00:45 Monday to Saturday and from 06:00 to 00:45 on Sundays.
Do I need to change stations between Waverley and Haymarket in Edinburgh?
Usually not. Most LNER trains to London and ScotRail Express trains to Glasgow call at both Waverley and Haymarket on the same journey, so if your ticket lists either station you can normally board at the one closer to you. Check that your specific train calls at the station shown on your ticket before you board.
