| Into central London | |
|---|---|
| Train time (mins) | 45–60 |
| London terminus for train | London Liverpool Street |
| Train cost per adult (£) | 10–23 |
| Driving time (mins) | 60–130 |
| Taxi cost per vehicle (£) | 86–126 |
| Ride share cost per vehicle (£) | 75–216 |
| Coach cost per adult (£) | 7–20 |
We checked these figures in October 2026. The Travel page explains how we measured them.
For families
- Stansted’s tips for travelling with babies: the Family Room is after security, next to the prayer room, and has baby changing, feeding cubicles and a child-sized toilet; Stansted has no play area.
- Security with a baby: liquids must be 100ml or less, but you can take enough baby milk and food for the journey, and families with children under 3 can use the assistance lane.
- Stansted’s Little Flyers Club: pick up free activity booklets and stickers in the terminal, or print puzzles at home.
- Passport control: children aged 8 or over who are at least 120cm tall can use the eGates with an adult, and other children queue with you for a Border Force officer.
For autistic travellers
- Stansted’s Airport Awareness booklet (PDF, 2016): a step-by-step picture guide for autistic children, written with advice from the National Autistic Society; the airport no longer links to it and some details are out of date.
- Stansted’s video on autism: a 3½-minute video of a father and his autistic son going through check-in, security and the departure lounge.
- Stansted’s walkthrough video: a 9-minute video of the whole route, from the drop-off to the plane and back through passport control to the arrivals hall.
- Stansted’s page on non-visible disabilities: collect a Sunflower lanyard, which tells staff you may need extra help or time, from the Assistance reception in Zone A; you don’t need to book.
The front of Stansted Airport’s terminal. The railway station is directly beneath it.
London Stansted is in Essex, about 40 miles north-east of Charing Cross by road, so allow about an hour to get into town by train, and an hour or more by road. The railway station is directly beneath the terminal and the coach station is a 2-minute walk away. Both are step-free; take the lifts (elevators), as the ramps are a little steep.
Getting into London
We checked these fares in October 2026.
By train
A Stansted Express train at London Liverpool Street. The trains are white, with red stripes and a yellow nose.
The Stansted Express is the quickest way in, taking about 48 minutes to Liverpool Street (for the Tube and the Elizabeth line), or nearer an hour before 9am on weekdays. Trains run every day from about 5.30am (5.55am Tuesday to Thursday) until the last train at 12.30am, every 15 minutes for most of the day. They also stop at Tottenham Hale for the Victoria line. You can bring a folded buggy (stroller). Fares start at £9.90 if you book ahead, or £21 for adults paying by contactless on the day. Children aged 5 to 15 pay half fare, and under-5s travel free.
Buying tickets for the Stansted Express
Paying by contactless
A yellow card reader on a London Underground ticket gate. Adults touch in on one at the start of the journey and touch out at the end.
- Adults can pay for the Stansted Express by touching a contactless bank card, or a phone or watch with Apple Pay or Google Pay, on the reader at the ticket gates at the airport and again at Liverpool Street or Tottenham Hale.
- Oyster cards don’t work on the Stansted Express.
- Each person travelling on contactless needs a separate card or phone, but a phone or watch counts as a different card from the bank card linked to it, even on the same account, so one parent can pay for two people, one touching in with the card and the other with the phone.
- Use the same card/phone every time, and keep your phone charged, or you risk overpaying.
- Hold only one card or phone to the reader, and keep other cards away from it, or the reader may charge the wrong one.
- Many cards from abroad work, but your bank may charge an overseas transaction fee.
- Contactless only charges adult fares, so see Children’s tickets below for what children pay.
Children’s tickets
- Under-5s travel free with a paying adult, and children aged 5 to 15 pay half the adult fare, for example £11.50 for an Anytime single (one way) ticket.
- Children aged 5 to 15 need a paper ticket or e-ticket, because contactless only charges adult fares.
- The Group Offer, booked online, is a return for three people for £75.80 or four for £101, and children aged 5 to 15 can be part of the group as long as at least two adults are paying.
- A Family & Friends Railcard costs £35 a year and takes a third off adult fares and 60% off children’s on Off-Peak and Anytime tickets for up to four adults and four children, though not on weekday morning peak trains or on Advance or Group tickets.
- Young people aged 16 and 17 pay the adult fare, or half with a 16-17 Saver (£35 a year), which works at any time of day but needs a paper ticket or e-ticket rather than contactless.
Paying at the airport
- Adults pay £21 on the Stansted Express by contactless at the ticket gates (£23 if you touch in between 6.30am and 9.30am on a weekday).
- Everyone needs a ticket for the buses that replace trains during engineering works, even adults who would otherwise pay by contactless.
- The Stansted Express sells tickets at a desk in baggage reclaim (7.30am to 10.30pm), a ticket office in arrivals (6.15am to 11.30pm) and the station ticket office under the terminal (6.30am to midnight), and its ticket machines work 24 hours a day.
- You can buy children’s tickets and use a Railcard at the ticket offices and machines, and ticket offices take cash as well as cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, while only some machines take cash.
- You can’t buy a ticket on the train, and anyone travelling without a ticket, or a card they touched in with, can be charged a penalty fare of £100 plus the single fare (£50 plus the fare if paid within 21 days).
- The Stansted Express ticket machines are Greater Anglia’s, and its video on using them is in English, though YouTube offers automatic dubbing and captions in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish and other languages.
Booking ahead online or in an app
- The cheapest Stansted Express fares are Advance single (one way) tickets from £9.90, sold only on its website from 3 days to 6 months ahead, and you usually need to book at least 3 months ahead to get the £9.90 price.
- Book online at least 2 hours before you travel, and the ticket comes by email to show on your phone, add to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, or print, but staff won’t accept a screenshot.
- The Stansted Express app doesn’t sell tickets, but the Greater Anglia app, from the company that runs the Stansted Express, sells train tickets with no booking fee.
- Stansted Express explains booking online, though not its ticket machines, in Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Español and Polski.
Tickets to avoid
- Stansted Express Advance and Anytime tickets are valid on any train on the day they’re booked for, until 4.29am the next morning, so a flight that lands late the same day is fine, but Advance tickets can’t be changed or refunded if your flight moves to another day.
- The last Stansted Express usually leaves the airport at 12.30am, so if your flight is due in late, a coach ticket is safer, as National Express and Flibco coaches run through the night.
- Stansted Mountfitchet is a different station, in a village about 3 miles from the airport, so check that your ticket is for Stansted Airport.
- Off-Peak single (one way) tickets from the airport aren’t valid before 9.30am on weekdays, and at other times an adult who buys an Anytime single (one way) ticket (£23) pays £2 more than with contactless (£21).
- Trainline usually adds a booking fee of 59p to £2.79 (none for same-day bookings in its app from the UK, and different fees for bookings from abroad), and it can’t sell the £9.90 Advance fares.
By coach
A National Express coach in central London. The coaches are white, with blue and red lettering.
National Express runs round the clock to Victoria, Liverpool Street, Stratford, Baker Street and other stops. The fastest coaches between the airport and Liverpool Street take about 70 minutes. Fares start at about £7 to Liverpool Street or Stratford, or £9.50 to Victoria, if you book about four weeks ahead. Children aged 3 to 15 get 25% off, and one under-3 per adult travels free. Each passenger can bring one large case (up to 20kg) plus hand luggage.
Buying tickets for National Express coaches
Children’s tickets
- National Express takes 25% off Standard and Fully Flexible fares for children aged 3 to 15, and one child under 3 per adult travels free (book any others as children).
- Young people aged 16 and 17 pay the adult fare, though a Young Persons Coachcard (£30 a year, for ages 16 to 26) takes a third off Standard and Fully Flexible fares; National Express’s travel shops hand it over straight away, but one ordered online or by phone comes by post (£3) and can take up to 7 days, so order it at least a week before you travel.
Paying at the airport
National Express’s ticket office at Stansted Airport’s coach station.
- You can’t touch in with contactless on National Express coaches, so everyone, adults included, needs a ticket.
- National Express has a ticket office in the coach station, a 2-minute walk from the terminal, with staff from 6am to 2.30am and ticket machines that work 24 hours a day.
- National Express drivers sell tickets for cash only and may not have much change, so buy your ticket before you board.
Booking ahead online or in an app
- National Express sells coach tickets on its website and app, and sends you an e-ticket to show on your phone.
- Tickets to Victoria cost £9.50 on most coaches when we booked about four weeks ahead, mostly £12.50 three weeks ahead, £15.50 to £17 less than two weeks ahead and £18.50 for a Standard ticket on the day.
- These prices include a £1.50 booking fee, which you don’t pay if you’re logged in to a National Express account.
Tickets to avoid
- National Express’s Standard tickets, the cheapest it offered on this route when we checked, can’t be refunded, and changing one costs £5 plus any difference in fare and works only before the booked coach leaves, so if you book ahead, add Change & Go (£5 per adult and £2.50 per child each way), which lets you board any coach up to 12 hours before or after the one you booked, if there’s room.
A Flibco coach at Stansted Airport’s coach station. The coaches are bright green.
Flibco coaches run every 30 minutes, day and night, to Stratford (45 minutes) and Liverpool Street (about 85 minutes), and about hourly from 5am to 10pm to Finsbury Park, from about £7.50 for adults and £5 for children aged 4 to 13. One under-4 per adult travels free, and anyone 14 or over pays the adult fare.
Buying tickets for Flibco coaches
Children’s tickets
- Flibco charges from £4.99 for children aged 4 to 13 and the adult fare from age 14, and one child under 4 per adult travels free if you add them when you book (or the driver will charge a full fare), while any more under-4s pay the child fare.
Paying at the airport
- You can’t touch in with contactless on Flibco coaches, so everyone, adults included, needs a ticket.
- Flibco drivers sell one-way tickets if there are seats left, at a higher price than online, so it’s cheaper to book on Flibco’s website or app, even at the coach stop.
- Flibco has no ticket machines.
Booking ahead online or in an app
- Flibco fares start at £7.49 if you book ahead on its website or app, and when we checked they were £15 to £17 booked online on the day (£17 to £19 for the 11.30pm coach).
- A Flibco ticket is valid on any of its coaches on the date you booked, until 4am the next morning, so a late flight doesn’t mean a new ticket, though a seat on a particular coach isn’t guaranteed.
- Flibco’s website and app come in English, Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Español, Nederlands and Português, each with a page about its Stansted coach.
Taxi
Stansted is outside London, and the airport doesn’t list a London black cab rank. Its official taxi firm, Street Cars, has a desk in the international arrivals hall. You can also compare minicab quotes on the airport’s taxi page. Neither Street Cars nor the airport’s taxi page gives a set fare to London, so get a quote before you travel. The drive into central London takes from an hour to nearly two hours, depending on traffic.
Check with Street Cars about child seats before you book. If the driver of a licensed taxi or minicab doesn’t provide the right child seat, the law lets children travel without one, but only in a back seat, with an adult seat belt if they’re 3 or older and without a belt if they’re under 3.
Paying for a taxi
Paying at the airport
- Street Cars takes cash or card at its desk in the international arrivals hall, where you agree the journey and fare with its team.
- Tipping is up to you, but 10% is standard.
Booking ahead online or in an app
- You can book Street Cars ahead online, in its app or by phone on 01279 211111, and if you give your flight number, it tracks your flight.
- The airport’s taxi page compares quotes from licensed taxi firms through minicabit, with free cancellation, and you pay online by credit card, debit card or PayPal, or pay the driver in cash.
Things to avoid
- Don’t accept a Street Cars quote before checking the waiting time and any airport charges it includes.
Ride sharing
Uber and Bolt both pick up here, and the app shows where to meet your driver (Uber uses row G of the Orange short-stay car park). Uber’s average fare into London in the month before we checked was about £75, or £104 for an UberXL, which takes up to six people.
The Freenow app, owned by Lyft, picks up here too and books both black cabs and minicabs, which it calls Ride. A Ride car takes up to four people at a fixed price shown before you book, and a black cab runs on the meter after showing an estimate. Every black cab takes a wheelchair, and Freenow’s EV and XL black cabs take six people. Prices in the app include an airport pick-up fee of £13, and black cab trips carry a £2 service fee.
Uber, Bolt and Freenow don’t supply child seats; Freenow’s cars have Isofix fittings for your own seat and its drivers can refuse to take a child without one. If the driver of a licensed taxi or minicab doesn’t provide the right child seat, the law lets children travel without one, but only in a back seat, with an adult seat belt if they’re 3 or older and without a belt if they’re under 3.
Booking and paying for a ride share
Paying at the airport
- Uber shows your actual price in the app when you request a ride, and Freenow shows a fixed price for its Ride cars, while its black cabs run on the meter after showing an estimate.
Booking ahead online or in an app
- Uber lets you reserve a Stansted pick-up up to 90 days ahead, at a price you lock in when you book, and cancel free up to 60 minutes before the pick-up time.
Things to avoid
- Don’t accept a ride that a driver offers you outside the Uber app, because it isn’t safe.
Once you’re in town, see Travelling around London for tips on getting about.
🛜 Free WiFi in the terminal and lounges for up to 2 hours in any 24 hours. Connect to the airport’s WiFi and fill in the sign-up page. When the 2 hours are up, you pay for more time or wait until your free time resets.
