London-Liverpool trains

[jno]

Is there any such thing as a fast train? From anywhere round the London area would do, but I haven't been able to find anything much less than 4 hours.

[Fitzer]

If you stick London as departure and Liverpool as destination in National Rail's website it comes up with Euston to Lime Street in 2hours 32 mins

[Tichfield]

Tomorrow morning:

Example

Euston 10:15

Lime Street 12:47

[mushroom25]

on saturdays the journey time is as you state around 4 hours - this is due to engineering works & is unlikely to get any better before December.

[jno]

thanks, folks. I was trying thetrainline but it was giving me much longer times.

[buildersmate]

That's odd.
I tried it, punching in just 'London' and 'Liverpool' on the same trainline site and it came back with all the fast trains out of Euston that take around 2hr40mins.
Something fishy about the way the site worked for you - it's normally OK(ish).

[jno]

yes - I was actually looking to book ahead for next month, but somehow the faster trains seem not to be listed. There are maintenance work alerts listed for some but not for all. At the moment all trains are fast. Then for a while it's fast trains north, slow ones south; then all are slow . Maybe trains just naturally slow down in August; or maybe there are just a lot of track works but they forgot to mention some. I am a bit baffled by it. It might be quicker to walk.

[dzug]

If you were to post the dates it would be a lot easier to diagnose what you are doing wrong (though I can't see what that could be) or to try and explain what is odd about the dates you have chosen.
I can't replicate your problem but really don't want to try every single day in August.

[jno]

don't blame you, dzug. I don't actually have any fixed dates, I was just trying to find one - preferably a Tuesday or Wednesday - when the trains were quick both ways. (The idea is to see the Klimt exhibition.) As of yesterday, there didn't seem to be any all August. I'll keep trying, though, as things change... with luck.

[dzug]

How about 12 August then to take a Tuesday at random - hourly fast trains both ways. A tad over 2.5 hours.

Between the fast trains there are slower trains - with a change. These are only shown because they are quicker than waiting for the next fast train

[jno]

many thanks, dzug... now why on earth didn't that work for me? I did try that date... all I can think is that when I clicked on 'same date' for the return journey it didn't register (this has just happened again) and it was actually returning me on some unspecified day next century when fast trains will be abolished.