Heathrow bus: local TfL routes, the night bus, and when to use them

For most search purposes, "Heathrow bus" means a local Transport for London service: short hops around the western London suburbs and out as far as Kingston, Croydon, or Harrow on the Superloop express routes. These are red double-deckers and single-deckers, with a flat fare, a contactless reader by the driver, and stops every few hundred metres. They are not the same as the long-distance coach services (National Express, FlixBus) that also call at the airport, and they are not hotel shuttle buses or the free inter-terminal coach. The page covers the local TfL side; the rest is linked out.

Where the bus is genuinely useful: a short trip to Hounslow, Feltham, Kingston, Richmond, Southall, Hayes, or one of the rail stations on the way to a place the airport's own trains do not reach. Where it is not: any trip into central London during the day. The rail trio (Heathrow Express, Elizabeth Line, Piccadilly Line) covers central London faster and, in the Piccadilly Line case, almost as cheaply once you factor in the time. The bus comes into its own at night, when the trains stop running and the N9 becomes the only direct public-transport option to town.

The adult fare on any London bus is £1.75, flat, regardless of distance. A one-mile hop from Heathrow Central Bus Station to Hatton Cross is the same fare as the full SL7 across to West Croydon. Bus and tram fares are frozen at £1.75 until 1 November 2026, when the single fare rises to £1.85 with a £5.55 daily cap, under the fares decision announced in July 2026.

The Hopper fare extends a single £1.75 payment to unlimited bus and tram journeys within one hour of the first tap. The system tracks taps automatically, so as long as you use the same contactless card or device each time, the second and subsequent journeys inside the window cost nothing extra. A temporary Weekend Hopper running from 25 July to 31 August 2026 lifts the one-hour limit on Saturdays and Sundays during that window, allowing all-day unlimited travel for one fare; the regular hour-long Hopper covers the rest of the year.

Payment is contactless only. Tap a bank card, an Apple Pay or Google Pay device, or a pay-as-you-go Oyster card on the yellow reader as you board. There is no second tap on exit; the journey is closed at the next tap, and TfL works out the day's cap overnight. Cash has not been accepted on London buses since July 2014 and that is not coming back.

Children and concessions

Children under 11 travel free on London buses with an accompanying adult; no card is needed. Children aged 11 to 15 with a Zip Oyster photocard travel free; 16 and 17-year-olds with a Zip Oyster pay half the adult fare. Without a Zip card, anyone aged 11 and over pays the standard £1.75. Visitor families with children old enough to need a card should arrange a Zip Oyster in advance through TfL if the trip is long enough to justify the admin; for a one-off visit, paying the adult fare is usually simpler.

The 60+ London Oyster photocard and the Freedom Pass give free travel on TfL buses for older residents and certain other eligible groups during published hours. These do not apply to visitors from outside London.

The Heathrow Free Travel Zone has ended

An earlier scheme made certain local bus and rail journeys free within the airport area. The Heathrow Free Travel Zone ended on 12 June 2021 and has not been reinstated. If a guide still mentions free local bus travel from the airport, it is out of date. Pay the standard fare.

Heathrow Central Bus Station is the main local-bus interchange at the airport, between Terminals 2 and 3. It is a proper named facility with bays for terminating and through services, covered seating, and live departure boards. Most TfL daytime routes that serve the airport call here, and the night N9 starts at Terminal 5 but also stops at the Central station.

The main daytime services from the Central station, current at the time of writing.

The Central Bus Station is signposted from the arrivals halls of Terminal 2 and Terminal 3, with a short covered walk from each. National Express and other coach services use the same site, so do not be surprised to see coaches and buses sharing bays. The Heathrow Express, Elizabeth Line, and Piccadilly Line all stop directly below the bus station at Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3 rail station, which is the cleanest interchange point at the airport for combining bus and rail.

Terminals 4 and 5 each have their own bus stops, separate from the Central station, served by a smaller subset of routes. These are useful primarily for passengers using those terminals who do not want the extra walk via Central.

Terminal 4 bus stops

The Terminal 4 stops sit on the southern side of the airport, signposted from the arrivals hall. The main routes:

• 285: through to Kingston via Feltham; also continues to the Central Bus Station for T2 and T3.
• 482: to Southall via Hatton Cross. Hatton Cross is a Piccadilly Line station, so the 482 also functions as a bus-to-tube link if you would rather avoid the longer walk at Heathrow.
• 490: to Richmond Pools on the Park via Stanwell, with stops in Bedfont and Hatton.

Terminal 5 bus stops

The Terminal 5 stops sit outside the arrivals hall on the western side of the airport. The main routes:

• 350: to Hayes via Stockley Park, West Drayton, and Harmondsworth, with a calling point at Hayes & Harlington station for the Elizabeth Line. The 350 is the practical bus-to-rail combination for travellers who land at T5 and want to reach the Elizabeth Line without walking back into the central terminals area.
• 423: to Hounslow Bus Station via Hatton Cross and Harlington Corner.
• 482: to Southall via Hatton Cross (the same Southall route that serves T4).
• 490: to Richmond via Stanwell (the same Richmond route that serves T4).
• N9 (night): to central London via Hounslow, Hammersmith, and Knightsbridge; covered in detail in the next section.

TfL occasionally renumbers or reroutes services and adds new ones. The current per-stop list is on the TfL website at the bus stop pages for Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3, Terminal 4, and Terminal 5. If you are travelling soon, check the live page; the page above is the durable map and not a real-time feed.

The N9 is the dedicated overnight TfL service between Heathrow and central London, and the main reason the bus matters for trips into town. It runs between Heathrow Terminal 5 and Aldwych, calling at Heathrow Central Bus Station, then routing through Hounslow, Brentford, Chiswick, Hammersmith, Knightsbridge, Hyde Park Corner, and Trafalgar Square.

When it runs

The N9 operates every night of the week, roughly every 20 minutes through the night; the first and last departures shift with the timetable, so check the TfL page for the night you need. Day route 9, which it covers between Hammersmith and Aldwych, takes over again in the early morning. The practical window for the N9 as the only direct Heathrow option is roughly between midnight (when Heathrow Express stops) and the early hours (when the Elizabeth Line and Piccadilly Line resume). Outside that window, the trains are faster and the N9 makes less sense for central London journeys.

How long it takes

Allow about 75 minutes end to end between Heathrow and Trafalgar Square or Aldwych, longer in heavy traffic. The route follows the A4 most of the way, which is largely clear at night but can be slow on Friday and Saturday late nights as central London empties out. Plan to leave Heathrow well before any onward connection.

Pickup at the airport

At Terminal 5, the N9 picks up at the dedicated bus stops outside arrivals. At Heathrow Central Bus Station, it uses a marked bay along with the daytime services. It does not directly serve Terminal 4; passengers arriving at T4 take the free inter-terminal coach to either T5 or the Central station, then board the N9 there.

Fare

Same as any other London bus: £1.75 flat, Hopper applies. Night buses are not surcharged. For travellers landing late or leaving early, the £1.75 N9 is cheaper than a black cab or Uber by a wide margin, with the trade-off being the time.

Some of the bus routes from Heathrow only really make sense as a feeder to a rail service. The classic example is the 350 from Terminal 5 to Hayes & Harlington station, where you change for the Elizabeth Line. Hayes & Harlington is a short hop in toward London, so the combined trip takes longer than the direct Elizabeth Line from the airport, but it can save money for a traveller already at T5 who would otherwise need to walk to the rail station at the central terminals area.

The 105 to Greenford Station is the other notable combination, connecting Heathrow Central to the Central Line for destinations across central London without going via Paddington. The 285 and 482 both call at Hatton Cross station for the Piccadilly Line, which is occasionally useful if you want to start your tube journey one station out from the airport. The 350's Elizabeth Line connection is the strongest case for a bus-and-rail combo; the others are minor.

For trips into central London proper, the dedicated airport rail services (Heathrow Express, the Elizabeth Line, the Piccadilly Line) almost always win on speed and convenience. The bus-and-rail combination is for the edge case of wanting a specific intermediate stop, or for cost-conscious travel where the Hopper covers a multi-leg trip for £1.75.

The word "bus" gets applied to several different things at Heathrow, and they are not interchangeable.

• Long-distance coach: scheduled services to other cities in the UK, run by operators like National Express, FlixBus, and Megabus. Reserved seats, luggage hold, ticketed in advance. They use the Central Bus Station and the Terminal 5 coach stops. Full picture on the coach to Heathrow page.
• Hotel shuttle buses (Hoppa): paid shuttle services running between Heathrow and selected airport hotels, operated by various hotel groups under the Hoppa brand and others. Typically £6 to £10 per person each way, booked through the hotel or directly with the operator. They are not part of the TfL network and do not accept Oyster.
• The free inter-terminal coach: connects the four Heathrow terminals to each other, the most relevant route being Terminal 4 to the Central area because T4 is not on Heathrow Express. Free, frequent, no booking. Detail on the inter-terminal transfer page.
• The Park & Ride courtesy bus: free shuttle between each terminal and its Park & Ride car park, for drivers and the passengers they are dropping off or collecting. Every 15 minutes, free, no booking. Detail on the drop-off charges and pick-up pages.

This page covers only the first kind in detail (the local TfL bus). For any of the others, follow the relevant link.

Every TfL bus in service at Heathrow is low-floor, with a dedicated wheelchair space, a fold-out ramp the driver deploys on request, audio and visual announcements of every stop, and priority seating near the doors. The wheelchair space is shared with pushchair users by an established right-of-way: if both arrive and only one can fit, the wheelchair user takes priority.

To board with a wheelchair, signal to the driver as the bus approaches, then wait at the rear set of doors where the ramp deploys. The driver lowers the bus and folds out the ramp; you wheel in, position in the space facing backwards against the padded backboard, and press the wheelchair bell button when you want to get off. The driver assists with the ramp at the exit too. For audio-only or visually impaired travellers, the on-bus announcements call out every stop and the destination is shown on the LED display at the front and back of the bus.

For other accessibility needs at the airport more broadly, including PRM assistance and step-free routes inside the terminals, the reduced mobility page covers the wider arrangement. The bus itself does the heavy lifting for the bus journey portion.

Honest answer: not very often, for the kind of trip most readers of this page are making. The local bus is brilliant for short suburban hops and for any late-night journey when the trains have stopped, and it is unbeatable on price. For a typical airport traveller heading into central London during the day, the rail services are almost always the better choice.

The bus is the right call when:

• You are going somewhere local, in the western suburbs or out to Kingston, Croydon, or Harrow. The rail services do not serve those destinations directly; the bus does.
• It is the middle of the night. Between roughly midnight and 05:00, the N9 is the only direct public transport into central London, and it costs £1.75 against a £80 taxi.
• You are visiting a specific stop on the route: a relative in Hounslow, a job in Hayes, a hospital in Brentford. The bus goes to the door of a particular street; the train does not.
• Budget is the binding constraint. £1.75 against £5.90 for the Piccadilly Line, £15.50 for the Elizabeth Line, or £80 for a taxi is a real difference, even if the bus trip takes longer.
• You have time and only hand luggage. A two-hour bus trip with one small bag is fine; the same trip with multiple suitcases is miserable.

The bus is the wrong call for a solo traveller with luggage heading to a central London hotel in the morning, for any time-sensitive connection, for trips beyond the bus network, or for anyone who would actively prefer the comfort of a train. For the wider picture across all the modes, see the transport hub.