Scenic route
Highland Main Line
Edinburgh → Inverness · Scotland
Highland Main Line in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 300 km
- Fastest time
- ≈ 3 h 30 min
- Average speed
- 86 km/h
- Top speed
- 145 km/h
- Operator
- ScotRail
- Train
- ScotRail Inter7City HST
- Countries
- Scotland
- In service since
- 1863
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Over Druimuachdar Pass at 452 m — the highest main line in Britain — threading the Cairngorms from the capital to the Highland capital.
How this line was checked
- The 190 km this route shares with OpenStreetMap relation 1257824 is drawn from that relation's own nodes, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 93.6% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 10 m); the longest stretch away from it is 5.5 km
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: ScotRail timetables — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
More scenic routes
- Glacier Express
“The world’s slowest express”: 291 bridges, 91 tunnels and the 2,033 m Oberalp Pass at an average of 36 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bernina Express
A UNESCO World Heritage railway: 7 % grades with no rack, the Brusio spiral, and the highest rail crossing of the Alps at 2,253 m.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bergensbanen
Northern Europe’s highest main line: over the bare Hardangervidda plateau at 1,237 m, through 182 tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - West Highland Line
Regularly voted the world’s most scenic railway: around Rannoch Moor and over the 21-arch Glenfinnan Viaduct of film fame.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in United Kingdom · Scotland.
Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Edinburgh → Inverness · Inverness → Edinburgh.