Train to Stansted Airport: from London, Cambridge and the Midlands

The airport has its own railway station directly under the terminal, and three kinds of train use it. The Stansted Express, run by Greater Anglia, is the fast service to and from central London. CrossCountry runs direct trains north to Cambridge, Peterborough, Leicester and Birmingham. And ordinary Greater Anglia services link the airport with the local towns along the line. Whichever you take, it stops in the same place: the station is a two-minute walk from check-in.

For most travellers heading into London, the Stansted Express is the obvious choice, covered in full on its own page. The value of this page is the rest of the picture: the direct route from Cambridge and the Midlands that many people do not realise exists, and the cheaper local fares that save money on the short hops. Everything below is the durable timetable and fare detail; for live running, check the official sources linked at the end.

The main rail routes to the airport station, with typical direct journey times and the operator on each.

London times and the £9.90 floor are from the operator; the Cambridge, Midlands and local times and fares are widely quoted across rail booking sites rather than published by the airport, and all advance fares are limited and move with demand. Check the live price and timetable for your date before booking.

The Stansted Express is the direct train from central London, every 15 minutes through the day. It reaches the airport in about 48 minutes from London Liverpool Street and roughly 37 minutes from Tottenham Hale, which is the quickest London station for the airport. Those two cover most of the city once you change: Liverpool Street for the City and the Elizabeth Line, Tottenham Hale for the Victoria line and King's Cross. Stratford is still listed by the operator but no longer has a through train, so a rail journey from there changes at Tottenham Hale and the A9 coach is the direct option instead.

Advance singles start from £9.90 to Liverpool Street when booked well ahead, against around £25 on the day, so book early. The full timetable, every ticket type and the booking detail are on the Stansted Express page. If you are weighing the train against the coach or a taxi from London, the Stansted to London comparison puts every option side by side.

This is the route most people miss. CrossCountry runs direct trains to the airport station from Cambridge in about 30 minutes, with no change, and the same line continues north to Peterborough, Leicester and Birmingham. From Birmingham the direct run is roughly 2 hours 40 minutes. Some Greater Anglia services also work the Cambridge route, so there are frequent departures through the day. The same line runs north east to Norwich, and the Norwich to Stansted guide covers that journey in full, including where the change is unavoidable and what the coach costs instead.

Two things to know before you book. Advance fares on this line are low, often under £10 from Cambridge, but they are limited, so book ahead for the best price. And CrossCountry does not accept contactless for the fare, unlike Greater Anglia, so buy a ticket at the station or pre-book online rather than tapping in. The direct Cambridge link is also a useful fallback when the London line is closed for engineering, when the advised route into the capital is often via Cambridge and King's Cross.

If you are starting from one of the towns on the line, you do not need a Stansted Express ticket. Greater Anglia runs frequent services to the airport from Bishop's Stortford, Harlow Town and Stansted Mountfitchet, each a short hop of about 10 to 15 minutes. Ordinary Greater Anglia fares for these stops are a few pounds, well below the price of an Express ticket for the same stretch of track.

The saving is the point here. From Bishop's Stortford, for example, the journey is only a few minutes and the local fare is a fraction of the Stansted Express fare, with trains running very frequently through the day. For these short trips, buy the standard Greater Anglia ticket, not an airport-branded one. Contactless works on Greater Anglia, so you can simply tap in for the local hop.

Stansted Airport station sits directly beneath the terminal, about a 2 minute walk down lifts, escalators and ramps from the check-in and arrivals area. Follow the signs for the railway station inside the terminal. There are ticket machines and a staffed rail information desk, and the station is open daily except Christmas Day, with step-free access throughout and fitted induction loops for hearing assistance.

One common mix-up is worth heading off: the airport station is not the same as Stansted Mountfitchet, the village station a few miles up the line. If your ticket or sat nav says Stansted Mountfitchet, that is the town, not the airport. For the airport itself, the station is the one under the terminal, and for season-ticket holders driving to it, the nearby car parks are on the parking page.

The cheapest fares are Advance singles, sold from 3 days to 6 months before travel and limited in number, so the rule across every route is to book early. To London, that means a Stansted Express Advance single from £9.90; from Cambridge and the local towns, the equivalent advance and standard fares are lower still. Buy online ahead of travel for the best price, or use the machines and desk at the station on the day.

Payment trips people up more than the fares do. Contactless works on the Stansted Express and other Greater Anglia trains, but Oyster cards are not valid to or from the airport. The gates at Liverpool Street will let you tap in with an Oyster, so you can arrive with no valid ticket and face a Penalty Fare of £100 plus the fare, cut by £50 if you pay within 21 days. Use contactless or buy a ticket, and keep Oyster for your onward journey across London. CrossCountry, as above, does not take contactless at all.

For most journeys the train is the fastest and most reliable way to the airport, but it is not always the cheapest, and it does not run around the clock.

Against the coach. The National Express coach is cheaper, from around £7 to central London booked ahead, and runs 24 hours a day, but it is slower at 75 to 95 minutes and can be held up by traffic. For speed or an onward connection, take the train; for the lowest fare or an overnight flight, the coach.

Against a taxi. A taxi or minicab is door to door with no changes, but at roughly £75 to £120 to central London it makes sense mainly late at night, with heavy bags, or split across three or four people. The full comparison across every mode is on the Stansted to London hub.

The line is generally reliable, but two things are worth planning around. If your train is delayed by 15 minutes or more, you can claim money back under Greater Anglia's Delay Repay scheme, so keep your ticket. And several weekends a year, engineering work means buses replace trains for part of the route, which can add an hour or more, with the London trip sometimes rerouted via Cambridge and King's Cross.

Because live running changes by the hour, this page does not carry today's status. Check National Rail Enquiries and the live Greater Anglia service updates before you travel, especially at weekends. The refund rules and the fallback options are set out on the train disruption page.