How long does the Stansted Express take?

48 minutes from Liverpool Street, about 37 from Tottenham Hale and roughly an hour from Stratford. Trains run every 15 minutes, seven days a week.

Can I use an Oyster card from Stansted Airport?

No. Oyster is not valid to or from the airport. Contactless bank cards and mobile wallets are accepted on the Stansted Express; Oyster works only for onward travel once you are in London.

What is the cheapest way from Stansted to London?

The coach: advance singles start at £5.00, and services run 24 hours a day to 38 stops, 15 of them in central London.

What if I land after midnight?

The last Stansted Express leaves the airport at 00:30. Coaches run through the night, and a pre-booked transfer is priced the same at 02:00 as at noon, with 60 minutes of free waiting from your booked pickup time.

How far is Stansted from Cambridge?

About 48 km, a 40 to 60 minute drive. Stansted is the closest major airport to Cambridge, and a direct train takes about 30 minutes, a direct coach about 45.

Is there one terminal or several?

One. There is no terminal to identify, no inter-terminal shuttle, and arrivals exits into a single hall, which is where a driver who confirmed a name sign waits for you; otherwise you agree a pick-up point with the driver before you land.

Stansted to London: Express, coach or private transfer

Getting from Stansted to London looks settled until you look at the second leg. The airport sits off the M11 to the north-east, 56 km from the City and the furthest out of the London airports, and it is where the phrase “45 minutes to London” hides the most. The train is genuinely fast, but it arrives at Liverpool Street, which is where your journey continues rather than ends. The coach is cheap and runs all night. A booked car is one leg with no changes.

Here is what each one actually involves, with the operators’ own figures.

The short answer

Option	Time	Price	Best for
Stansted Express	48 minutes to Liverpool Street, every 15 minutes	£9.90 Advance, booked ahead; contactless charges the peak or off-peak single	Solo travellers and anyone near Liverpool Street, Tottenham Hale or Stratford
National Express coach	About 45 minutes from Tottenham Hale; longer from central stops	From £5.00 one way	Budget arrivals, overnight landings, 38 stops including 15 in central London
Flibco coach	About 50–55 minutes to Stratford, 90 to Liverpool Street; every 30 minutes, 24 hours	Varies by stop and date	Liverpool Street, Stratford, Finsbury Park, Wood Green
Private transfer	55–75 minutes door to door	From £70 to central London, fixed at booking	Groups, families, heavy luggage, and Cambridge addresses away from the station

The train: fast, frequent, and not quite door to door

The railway station is directly under the terminal: a two-minute walk, step-free, with lifts and escalators. On an airport where a lot of arrivals come off a remote stand after a low-cost flight, that matters more than it sounds.

Stansted Express runs every 15 minutes, seven days a week:

Liverpool Street, 48 minutes. Connections to the Central, Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City and Elizabeth lines.
Tottenham Hale, about 37 minutes. Straight onto the Victoria line for King’s Cross, Oxford Circus and Victoria.
Stratford, about 1 hour. Jubilee, Central and DLR, plus Canary Wharf.

First and last services: from the airport, trains start at 05:30 (06:00 Tuesday to Thursday) with the last at 00:30. In the other direction, the first train leaves Liverpool Street between 03:40 and 04:40 depending on the day.

Tickets: contactless yes, Oyster no. You can tap in and out with a bank card or phone. Oyster cards are not valid to or from Stansted Airport; they work only for your onward journey once you reach Liverpool Street or Tottenham Hale. Booked ahead, singles start at £9.90 (the airport quotes advance fares from £9.45) and returns at £19.80. Railcard discounts exist but are sold only at ticket offices, not online, and cannot be combined with advance online fares.

One practical limit: only folded bicycles are allowed on the Express.

The coach: cheapest, and it never stops running

National Express coaches serve 38 pick-up points, 15 of them in central London, round the clock, with advance singles starting at £5.00. There are over 100 services a day on the London route, and the London stops are split across several lines:

A6: Golders Green, Finchley Road, St John’s Wood, Baker Street, Paddington
A8: Tottenham Hale, Stamford Hill, Dalston, Shoreditch, Liverpool Street, Southwark, Waterloo, Victoria
A9: Stratford, Canary Wharf, Bow, Mile End, Whitechapel, Liverpool Street, Bethnal Green

One caveat on that list: the exact stops vary by direction and timetable version, and the airport’s own summary shows the A6 calling at Tottenham Hale and Victoria as well. Book to a named stop rather than to a line number, and check the stop printed on your ticket.

The journey is about 45 minutes from Tottenham Hale and correspondingly longer from stops further into town. Flibco also runs every 30 minutes around the clock to Liverpool Street, Stratford, Finsbury Park and Wood Green, with tickets valid for 24 hours, which is useful insurance if your flight slips.

The bus and coach station is opposite the main terminal entrance, step-free, which is the other reason the coach works better here than at most airports.

For a delayed flight on the return leg, National Express sells Change & Go at £5 each way: board any coach up to 12 hours either side of your booking.

National Express fares quoted are correct as published on 13 July 2026 for travel between 13 July and 9 November 2026.

The private transfer: one leg, fixed price

A booked car leaves from the arrivals hall to your address. Stansted approaches London from the north-east, which is the part most visitors get wrong: Islington, Shoreditch, Hackney and the City are 50 to 70 minutes away, often quicker than the same addresses from Heathrow on the opposite side of the city. The West End is 60–80 minutes, Mayfair and Marylebone 65–85.

To central London, prices start from £70 and are fixed at booking: no meter, no surge at 23:00 on a Friday. Pickups include 60 minutes of free waiting from your booked pickup time.

And the route people overlook: Cambridge is about 48 km from Stansted, 40 to 60 minutes by car. Stansted is the closest major airport to Cambridge. A direct train takes about 30 minutes, so the car earns its place with a group, heavy luggage or an address away from the station.

Which one to choose

One person, hand luggage, going to the City or east London. Stansted Express. Book an Advance fare from £9.90 ahead; tapping in with a contactless card on arrival charges the peak or off-peak single, so if you have not booked, compare that with the coach or a booked car.

Arriving at 01:00 on a low-cost flight. The coach. It runs all night and the Express does not, since the last departure from the airport is 00:30. A booked car does the same job with no waiting, which is the trade you are making.

Two adults with checked bags. Compare properly: two Express singles plus a taxi from Liverpool Street to your hotel against one fixed-price car. The gap is smaller than people assume, and the car has no platform, no escalator and no second queue in it.

A family with children and a pushchair. The station is under the terminal and the coach station is opposite it, so both are more manageable here than at most airports. Past three people, the car usually wins on cost as well as on effort.

Going to Chelmsford or the eastern counties. Drive. The train sends you towards London first. For Cambridge, the direct train takes about 30 minutes, and a car suits groups and heavy luggage.

If someone is meeting you by car

Stansted’s kerbside Express Set Down is barrierless with a 15-minute allowance: cameras read the plate and you pay online or by phone by midnight the day after. Miss the deadline and it is a £100 Parking Charge Notice, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. Blue Badge holders are not exempt here.

Prefer to walk in and meet someone properly? The Short Stay car parks (Green and Blue) charge £13 for up to 30 minutes, £21 up to an hour, £25 up to two hours and £38 up to four.

The free option is the Mid Stay car park, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal. For a pickup, where your wait depends on a passport queue you cannot see, that is the one to use.

Book your Stansted transfer

Fixed prices, vehicle sizes and journey times are on our London Stansted Airport transfer page. Travelling as a group, or with children? See group transfers and family transfers.