Heathrow Express charges £26 for a single to Paddington. The Piccadilly line makes the same trip into central London for £5.90 off peak. The difference in time is thirty five minutes, which works out at £34.46 an hour for the hurry.
That is the whole decision, and both numbers come from Heathrow’s own website, on two pages that sit one click apart and are never put side by side.
Here is the full fare table, the arithmetic the operator does not do for you, and the three things about this train that its own marketing leaves out.
What it actually costs
Heathrow Express publishes its complete price list, which is more than most airport operators manage. It reads:
Single £26 standard, £32 in PREMIER+. Same day return £30 and £36. Ordinary return £42 and £46. Carnet of six £125 and £160. Carnet of twelve £225 and £288. Advance discounted single from £10, standard class only.
The advance fare has a condition the operator’s own homepage does not mention. Heathrow’s page states it plainly: £10 applies when you book at least thirty days in advance. The Heathrow Express homepage says only “book in advance”. Thirty days is not a detail an arriving passenger can act on.
The advertised saving and the advertised price do not agree. The offer is described as saving 40 percent. Forty percent off £26 is £15.60. The quoted £10 is a saving of 61.5 percent. Both numbers appear on the same page.
The carnets are cheaper than the company says they are
This one runs in the customer’s favour, which makes it rarer still.
The six ticket carnet is described as six journeys for the price of five. Five singles at £26 is £130. The carnet is £125.
The twelve ticket carnet is described as twelve for the price of nine. Nine singles at £26 is £234. The carnet is £225.
Both PREMIER+ carnets follow the stated formula to the penny. Five PREMIER+ singles at £32 is £160, which is the price of the six. Nine at £32 is £288, which is the price of the twelve.
So the description is exactly right in premium class and understates the discount by £5 and £9 in standard. If you are buying, buy standard and ignore the explanation.
Two singles or one return
A same day return is £30. Two singles are £52.
That is a £22 difference for a journey most people make in both directions on the same day, and the return sits five rows down a table rather than being offered as the obvious answer. It is the single easiest £22 to save on this railway.
The ordinary return, for coming back on another day, is £42. So the flexibility of a different return date costs £12 on top.
PREMIER+ costs £6 and includes something sold at £12.50
PREMIER+ is £32 against the standard £26, a difference of £6.
Fast Track airport security is included with a PREMIER+ ticket and sold separately at £12.50 per person.
If you were going to buy Fast Track anyway, the upgrade pays you £6.50 to take the better seat. If you were not, £6 buys extra legroom and privacy. The operator sells both products on the same site and never sets one against the other.
The train that cannot reach Terminal 4
Heathrow Express serves Terminals 2 and 3 and Terminal 5. It does not serve Terminal 4.
Its own timetable page carries the note: Terminal 4 is reached by the free Elizabeth line service from the Terminal 2 and 3 station, and allow extra time for boarding. So the premium service reaches three of the airport’s four terminals, and directs you onto the cheaper railway for the fourth.
The Elizabeth line serves all four. So does the Piccadilly line.
Transferring between Terminal 5 and Terminals 2 and 3 on Heathrow Express is free, but you still need a ticket to do it. A free one, from the platform machines, or tap in and out with contactless or Oyster.
The fastest train is also the least frequent
Heathrow Express runs four trains an hour, one every fifteen minutes.
The Elizabeth line runs six an hour to Terminals 2 and 3, four of them through to Abbey Wood via Canary Wharf and two to Shenfield via Stratford. Terminal 4 gets four an hour and Terminal 5 gets two.
The Piccadilly line promises a wait of no more than ten minutes, even off peak.
So on frequency to the busiest terminals, the express is the thinnest service of the three.
What the cheap train publishes that the expensive one does not
Heathrow Express publishes a first train of 04:34, Monday to Saturday. It publishes no last train, and no Sunday first train.
The Piccadilly line publishes both ends: 05:00 to 23:30, with the Night Tube running all night on Friday and Saturday, and a note that the Night Tube does not serve Terminal 4.
The £5.90 service is more forthcoming about its own timetable than the £26 one.
The Piccadilly line fare is stranger than it looks
Heathrow’s published off peak fares by destination zone read: Zone 1 from £5.90, Zone 2 from £2.60, Zone 3 from £2.50, Zone 4 from £2.40, Zone 5 from £2.30.
Zone 1 costs more than twice Zone 2. Travelling further out from the airport is cheaper than travelling into the middle, because the Zone 1 premium is £3.30 on its own. If you are staying anywhere outside the centre, the tube from Heathrow is close to bus money.
Children, where this train is genuinely generous
Children aged fifteen and under travel free on Heathrow Express, in standard class, with a paying adult. Not half price, free.
Children can also travel alone, with proof of air travel such as a booking confirmation or boarding pass, and photo identification.
Set against the other London airport railways this is unusually good. Stansted Express charges half fare for five to fifteens. On Gatwick Express it is £2. A family of two adults and three teenagers pays £52 on the Heathrow Express and would pay considerably more on either of the others.
What to know
£26 against £5.90, for thirty five minutes. That is £34.46 an hour. Decide whether your time is worth it rather than whether the train is good, because it is.
Buy the same day return. £30 against £52 for two singles.
The £10 fare needs thirty days’ notice. Not “in advance”. Thirty days.
No Heathrow Express to Terminal 4. The Elizabeth line and the Piccadilly line both go.
With children, this is the cheapest airport train in London. Under sixteens go free, which no other London airport railway offers.
Paddington is not always where you want to be. The Elizabeth line from the same terminals runs to Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf without a change, from £13.90.
Everything here was taken from Heathrow Express’s and Heathrow Airport’s own published pages and rechecked on 28 September 2026. The per hour figure and the carnet comparisons are arithmetic on their published prices rather than claims either of them makes. Fares change, so confirm before booking.
Where to go next
London’s six airports covers which to fly into and how far out each one really is, since only Heathrow and London City are inside Greater London at all.
Gatwick to London and Stansted to London are the same exercise at the other two big airports, and both are worse published than this one. Gatwick’s four operators manage a single price between them. Stansted’s railway never prints its standard fare at all.
What the tube costs covers the daily cap that governs everything after you arrive, and the Night Tube covers the Piccadilly line service that runs all night on Friday and Saturday.
Airport drop-off charges covers the £7 Heathrow charges anyone who drives you to the terminal door, and the £80 it becomes if they forget to pay by midnight the next day.
The Congestion Charge is the alternative cost of driving the same journey, and Heathrow sits outside the zone but central London does not.
The London Travelcard will not pay for this train. Heathrow Express and Southeastern high speed services are excluded from Travelcards and from the daily caps, which TfL states in a footnote.
Santander Cycles is the answer to the last mile from Paddington, and there is a docking station outside it. An annual pass costs half what twelve monthly ones do.
Where to stay in London is the decision that makes Paddington either convenient or a detour, and the travel tips cover the rest of an arrival.
Questions we get asked
How much is the Heathrow Express?
£26 for a standard single to Paddington and £32 in PREMIER+. A same day return is £30, an ordinary return £42. Advance discounted singles start at £10 but require booking at least thirty days ahead, a condition stated on Heathrow’s page rather than on the operator’s homepage. Carnets are £125 for six journeys and £225 for twelve.
Is the Heathrow Express worth it?
It depends what thirty five minutes is worth to you. The Express takes 15 minutes to Paddington at £26. The Piccadilly line takes about 50 minutes into central London from £5.90 off peak. The gap is £20.10 for 35 minutes, which is £34.46 an hour. If you are travelling with children under sixteen, who go free on the Express, the arithmetic changes completely in its favour.
Does the Heathrow Express go to Terminal 4?
No. Heathrow Express serves Terminals 2 and 3 and Terminal 5 only. Its own timetable page directs Terminal 4 passengers onto the free Elizabeth line service from the Terminal 2 and 3 station and advises allowing extra time. The Elizabeth line and the Piccadilly line both serve all four terminals directly.
Can you use Oyster on the Heathrow Express?
Yes. Both Oyster and contactless work on Heathrow Express: tap in at the start and out at the end on the yellow readers and the correct fare is charged. This is worth knowing because it is not true at every London airport. Oyster is not valid at Stansted at all, where only contactless pay as you go works alongside paper tickets.
How often does the Heathrow Express run?
Four trains an hour, one every fifteen minutes, with the first at 04:34 Monday to Saturday. No last train time and no Sunday first train are published. For comparison the Elizabeth line runs six trains an hour to Terminals 2 and 3, and the Piccadilly line promises a wait of no more than ten minutes even off peak, running 05:00 to 23:30 with Night Tube on Friday and Saturday.
Do children travel free on the Heathrow Express?
Yes. Children aged fifteen and under travel free in standard class with a paying adult, and children may travel alone with proof of air travel such as a boarding pass or booking confirmation plus photo identification. This is the most generous child policy of the London airport railways, against half price on Stansted Express and £2 on Gatwick Express.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 139 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
