Heathrow Express: the fast train from Paddington

Heathrow Express is a non-stop train between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport. There are no intermediate stops. It runs every 15 minutes, takes 15 minutes to the central station for Terminals 2 and 3, and a few minutes more to Terminal 5. No other train to the airport is faster.

It is run by Heathrow Airport Holdings, the company that owns the airport, rather than a national rail operator, and it sits apart from the rest of the network. It is not covered by Travelcards, it sets its own fares, and it shares track with the Elizabeth Line and Great Western trains only as far as Hayes before dropping into the dedicated Heathrow tunnel. It is one of three rail routes to the airport, alongside the Elizabeth Line and the Piccadilly Line, all covered on the train to Heathrow page.

The trade-off is straightforward. Heathrow Express is fast, frequent, and comfortable, with step-free boarding, luggage racks, power at every seat, and free Wi-Fi. It is also the priciest train to the airport if you buy on the day, at £25 for a standard single. Booked well ahead, the same trip can cost £10, which changes the picture entirely.

The price depends on how far ahead you book and which class you travel. Standard class is branded Express, and there is a higher Business First class. The table below sets out the current fares; advance tickets undercut walk-up, so book your date ahead on the Heathrow Express site to lock the lower rate.

Cheapest fare: book in advance

The lowest fare is the Advance Discounted single, from £10. You buy it online or in the Heathrow Express app, usually around a month before you travel, and the cheapest tickets are limited in number and sell out. An advance ticket is tied to the date you choose but not to a specific departure, so you can still take any train that day. It cannot be refunded.

On-the-day single

If you turn up and buy, a standard Express single is £25 at any time of day. It is valid on any train on the day of purchase. This is the fare you pay if you tap in with contactless or Oyster without booking ahead.

Business First

Business First is £32 for a single. It buys a quieter carriage with 1 plus 1 seating and a little more space, plus access to a small lounge at Paddington before departure. On a journey this short the main thing you are paying for is the calmer carriage, so it suits travellers who want to work or decompress rather than anyone chasing a faster trip.

Same-day and open returns

A same-day return is £30 in standard and £36 in Business First, which is cheaper than two singles if you are coming straight back. A standard open return, valid for a later return date, is around £40. For most one-way airport trips a single is the right ticket.

Child and family fares

Children aged 15 and under travel free when they are with a paying adult, which makes the train a strong deal for families. In Business First a child travels free only if the accompanying adult also holds a Business First ticket. There is no separate child ticket to buy in standard class.

Railcards

Heathrow Express accepts several railcards. The 16-25, Senior, and Family and Friends Railcards give a third off the full Express Saver fare, in either class. The Network Railcard discount applies only after 10:00 from Monday to Friday, and at any time at weekends and on public holidays. Buy your ticket before boarding, online, at a machine, or from a mobile sales advisor at the station, and carry the railcard, because it is checked alongside the ticket. The current rules are on the Heathrow Express railcards page.

Group bookings

One person can book for up to nine people in a single transaction. Groups of three or more adults travelling together can use the Group Saver promotion, entered as the code 3RDOFF, for a discount on the off-peak Express Saver fare. It does not apply during the peak windows, which are 06:30 to 09:30 and 16:00 to 19:00 from Monday to Friday.

The cheapest fares come from booking ahead online or in the Heathrow Express app, which is also where the £10 advance singles are sold. You receive a digital ticket with a barcode that you scan at the gate, so there is no paper ticket to collect. Booking a few weeks out is the single biggest saving you can make on this train.

If you have not booked, you can buy from a ticket machine or a mobile sales advisor at Paddington or at the Heathrow stations, or simply tap in with a contactless card, a phone, or a pay-as-you-go Oyster card. Tapping in charges the standard £25 single automatically. Travelcards are not valid, daily fare caps do not apply, and there is no zonal discount, so tapping in always costs more than a booked advance ticket.

Trains run every 15 minutes throughout the day, in both directions, so you rarely need to plan around a specific departure. Turn up and the next train is usually within a few minutes. Exact times shift with engineering work and seasonal timetables, so check the official Heathrow Express timetable before you travel.

First and last trains

The first train leaves Paddington at 04:34 from Monday to Saturday and 04:55 on Sundays. The last train back from Terminal 5 leaves at 23:57 every night. Because the service is so frequent, the practical effect is that the train is running whenever you are likely to have a flight, with only the very earliest departures and latest arrivals falling outside its hours.

The journey from Paddington to the central station for Terminals 2 and 3 is a flat 15 minutes. Terminal 5 is six minutes further on, for a total of 21 minutes from Paddington. Coming back into London the times are the same in reverse. The line is about 15 miles end to end.

Heathrow Express stops at two stations at the airport. The first serves the central terminals, and the second is Terminal 5. Both sit directly below the terminals, with lifts and escalators straight up into the check-in halls, so there is no walk between the platform and the building.

Terminals 2 and 3

The central station, Heathrow Central, serves both Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. The two terminals share the same station and a short walk or a covered route connects them. Most travellers for T2 or T3 get off here.

Terminal 5

The train continues from Heathrow Central to a separate station at Terminal 5, which is the British Airways and Iberia terminal on the western edge of the airport. The extra leg adds about six minutes, for a total of 21 minutes from Paddington.

Getting to Terminal 4 from Heathrow Express

Terminal 4 is not on the Heathrow Express route. If you are flying from Terminal 4, stay on to Heathrow Central and change onto the Elizabeth Line, which has its own Terminal 4 station, or use the free inter-terminal transfer. Either way, allow about fifteen extra minutes for the change, and a little more at busy times.

The Elizabeth Line is the most common alternative and the one most travellers weigh Heathrow Express against. It is cheaper, at £15.50 a single from central London (a flat rate since 1 March 2026, with no off-peak discount), and it runs directly to several central stations including Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, and Liverpool Street, which can save you a change. It also serves Terminal 4 directly.

The cost is time. The Elizabeth Line takes around 35 minutes to Terminal 5 against about 20 on Heathrow Express, and it stops frequently. If you are starting near Paddington and your minutes matter, Heathrow Express wins. If you are starting near an Elizabeth Line station, or you would rather keep nearly £10 in your pocket, the Elizabeth Line is the better call. Full detail is on the Elizabeth Line to Heathrow page.

The Piccadilly Line is the cheapest way to the airport by rail, from around £5.90 a single with contactless, and it is the only route that calls at every terminal, including Terminal 4. It runs through the night on Fridays and Saturdays. The catch is speed: it is a Tube line with many stops, so the trip from central London takes 50 minutes to an hour.

Set against Heathrow Express, the Piccadilly Line is roughly a quarter of the price and roughly three times the journey time. It suits travellers on a budget, or anyone already on the Piccadilly Line, who is not in a hurry. For an early flight with luggage and a tight schedule, the speed and comfort of Heathrow Express are worth the difference.

It depends on the fare you pay and the trip you are making. At the £10 advance price it is excellent value and the fastest train, so there is little reason to take anything else. At the £25 on-the-day price the calculation is closer, and the cheaper trains start to look attractive unless you are pressed for time or carrying a lot of luggage.

A useful rule: book ahead and Heathrow Express is almost always the right choice out to the airport, where a missed train can mean a missed flight and the few minutes saved matter most. On the way back into London, when you have more time and less at stake, the Elizabeth Line at half the price is often the better value. Many regular travellers do exactly that. If your worry is the security queue rather than the train, see Fast Track instead.

Ten minutes before your train is plenty. The Heathrow Express platforms are at the western end of Paddington, clearly signed from the main concourse and the Underground, and rarely have a queue. Because trains leave every 15 minutes, arriving early simply means catching an earlier train rather than waiting around.

Heathrow Express only runs from Paddington, so the question for many travellers is how to reach Paddington in the first place. From the north of London, see Kings Cross to Heathrow for the connection via Paddington. If you are coming from another London airport rather than central London, the route is different again: see Gatwick to Heathrow for the cross-airport options, none of which use Heathrow Express.

In most cases it does not matter. Heathrow Express tickets are not tied to a specific departure, so if you miss one train you simply take the next, which is at most 15 minutes away. A standard Express single is valid on any train on the day you bought it, and a Business First ticket works the same way in the higher class.

The one thing to watch is the date on an Advance Discounted ticket. It is valid for any train on the date you chose, but not on a different date, and it cannot be refunded or changed if your plans slip. If your travel date is uncertain, the flexible on-the-day single is the safer ticket even though it costs more.

Heathrow Express is reliable most of the time. When it is disrupted, the usual cause is engineering work on the shared Great Western main line between Paddington and Hayes, which tends to fall on Sundays and the occasional bank holiday weekend. During major works a replacement coach runs from Paddington and the journey roughly doubles.

If your train is delayed, Heathrow Express runs its own refund scheme rather than the national Delay Repay system. A delay of 16 to 29 minutes gets you back 50% of the Heathrow Express part of your fare, and a delay of 30 minutes or more gets you a full refund. A delay of 15 minutes or less is not covered. You claim through the Heathrow Express website with your booking reference, and the refund goes back to the card you paid with. For your wider rights when a train is delayed or cancelled, see passenger rights.

Check current disruption →

The carriages are built for airport travellers rather than commuters, with more luggage room and a calmer feel than a standard Tube or suburban train.

Luggage

Every carriage has luggage racks near the doors for larger cases, plus overhead space above the seats. There is no formal luggage limit beyond what you can carry and store safely. Platforms are level with the train at both ends, so there are no steps to lift a case over.

Bikes

Folding bicycles travel free, as do mobility scooters and pushchairs. Full-size, non-folding bicycles are not carried on Heathrow Express, so if you are cycling to Paddington you will need to fold the bike or make other arrangements for the airport leg.

Accessibility

The trains are step-free throughout, with dedicated wheelchair spaces, an accessible toilet, and level boarding from platform to carriage. Staff can provide ramps, and Passenger Assist can be booked in advance through Heathrow Express if you would like help on the day. The step-free route runs all the way from the Paddington concourse to the terminal check-in halls.

Wi-Fi and power

Standard carriages have free Wi-Fi and a USB and power socket at every seat, which is the main reason the higher fare is hard to justify on so short a trip: the basics are already included in standard class. Business First adds the quieter 1 plus 1 layout and the Paddington lounge rather than any difference in connectivity.