What is the fastest and cheapest way to get from Stansted Airport to the city centre?

Stansted Express trains offer convenient and fast connections to Liverpool Street, while buses offer cheap connections on much more direct routes to the whole of central London.

	Price	Journey times	Frequency	Link to buy
Stansted Express train	From 9,90 gbp	47 minutes	10-30 minutes	stanstedexpress.com
Bus National Express	From 7 gbp	90-120 minutes	5-15 minutes	nationalexpress.com
Bus Terravision	From 12 gbp	90-120 minutes	5-20 minutes	terravision.com

Train Stansted Express to London

The fastest service is the Stansted Express, which takes 50 minutes to Liverpool Street station.

Get the cheapest tickets online for £9.90 with a purchase at least 4-5 months in advance. Buying online shorter in advance (days to about 2 months) will cost GPB 14.50 to 21 gbp. Return tickets are sold at a discount of 1 to 2 gbp.

A ticket purchased at the station costs 20 gbp. Trains run from 3:30 to 11:30 pm every 15 to 30 minutes and the ticket is for a specific day, not a connection.

Trains stop at London Liverpool Street station in the city centre and at Stratford and Tottenham Hale stations on the outskirts of London.

• Journeytime to Liverpool Street: 47 minutes
• Frequency: 10-30 minutes
• Fares: 9,90 gbp to 21 gbp depending on time of purchase
• First connection from Liverpool St. - 4:40
• Last connection from the airport - 00:30
• Official website: stanstedexpress.com

The advantages of the train are its speed and, if bought in advance, the lowest price. The disadvantage is that it only stops at 2 stations in London and doesn't run 24 hours a day.

Bus

Buses are the cheapest option for getting to London and offer more stops than the train. As well as London, buses run from Stansted to other cities.

To central London

Advance tickets (4-5 months) are available from 7 gbp on the web: nationalexpress.com.

Buses normally run once every 15 to 20 minutes for 24 hours. However, beware of journey times, you will usually be travelling more than 2 hours to the centre.

Buy a ticket - Nationalexpress.com

A big advantage of buses is that there are many more stops around London, so compared to the train you can get to many destinations directly from the airport without changing trains, see the stop map below.

The bus stops are on the ground floor outside the terminal, all clearly signposted from the airport exit and you'll walk no more than 200 metres.

You can usually get the cheapest tickets for 7 gbp if you buy at least a month in advance, with the price rising to 16 gbp as the departure date approaches.

Tickets for 7 gbp However, you can only buy tickets to certain stations in London and only with National Express: Liverpool Street, Bethnal Green, Bow Road, Mile End, Shoreditch, Stratford, Whitechapel.

• Journey time: around 100 minutes
• Frequency: 5-15 minutes
• Fares: 7 gbp to 16 gbp depending on time of purchase
• Operating hours: both companies run 24 hours a day
• Buy tickets from 7 gbp: Nationalexpress.com
• Buy ticket from 14 gbp: Terravision.com

Tickets purchased online do not need to be printed, just confirm on your mobile.

For all carriers, tickets can be purchased more conveniently online in advance. Tickets are bought for a specific time, but in the event of a flight delay, it is usually no problem to board a later flight if there are seats available. Please note that you should keep your ticket, whether bought on the spot or printed, for the entire journey, as it may not be checked until you get off the plane!

To Cambridge

There are direct trains from Stansted to Cambridge by Crosscountry approximately every hour and you can buy a ticket from 7,75 gbp.

There are also National Express buses every two hours to this university town, from 10 gbp.

The train to Cambridge takes 35 minutes, the bus about 50.

Luton, Heathrow and Gatwick airports

Direct bus services from Stansted to all three airports are provided by National Express.

• The journey to Heathrow takes between 2 and 2.5 hours, you pay from 19 gbp to 28 gbp and the intervals are about 40 minutes,
• To Luton , buses run about every 1-2 hours, the journey takes 90 minutes and costs from 14 gbp.
• To Gatwick we drive 3 hours in ideal traffic, buses run every 2 hours and cost from 25 gbp, with a change from 11 gbp
• Buy a ticket via National Express

A cheaper route is via central London using easyBus (from £2.99) and the tube (2,40 gbp off-peak and 2,90 gbp at peak times respectively).

For City Airport, the quickest way is to take a bus to Stratford and then the DLR light rail (see tfl.gov.uk/modes/dlr) direct to the City.

To the surrounding towns and villages

Several bus routes stop directly outside the terminal, serving nearby towns and villages. On average they run once every hour or two, with tickets usually costing around 8-10 gbp.

Lines:

• X30: Chelmsford, Southend, Southend Airport, 24 hours, every 30 to 60 minutes,
• 42A: Takeley, Banrston, Broomfield, Chelmsford, Galleywood, 5:15am-7pm, every 60 minutes,
• 133: Braintree, Takeley; 6:00-0:15, every 60 minutes,
• 308 and 309: Bishop's Stortford, Thorley: 3:00-0:00, every 30 minutes,
• 508: Takeley, Bishop's Stortford, Harlow: 7:00-18:20, every 30 minutes,
• 509: Parsonage, Bishop's Stortford, Harlow: 6:30am-7:30pm, every 30-40 minutes,
• 510: Bishop's Stortford, Harlow: 24 hours, 30 to 60 minutes.
• Map of local bus routes

To other English cities

There are frequent direct bus services from Stansted Airport to other cities across England. The most frequent connections are to Birmingham, Norwich, Leicester, Northampton and many more. Almost all services are operated by National Express, which has a 'the sooner I buy, the cheaper I go' rule.

Buy tickets at nationalexpress.com.

Car rental at the airport

If you're heading straight from the airport to the English countryside, hiring a car is the most flexible option. Alamo, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz, National and Sixt are all based right in the terminal.

Prices start at 35 gbp per day for a week's rental.

Compare offers - book a car at STN Airport

Transport in London

As the airport is over 60 miles from London, there is no conventional public transport and no London Transport tickets apply for travel to Stansted.

To find out how transport works in the British capital, see our guide to London - transport.