Heathrow Express takes 15 minutes from Paddington and costs £26.00 if you turn up and buy a ticket. The Elizabeth line takes 28 minutes from the same station and costs £14.60. But book Heathrow Express 30 days ahead and it falls to £10, which makes the fast train the cheap one, and children aged 15 and under travel free on it. The right answer depends on when you book and where in London you start.
Both trains run from Heathrow into central London on the same pair of tracks for most of the way. Our guide to the Elizabeth line explains how that railway works across the whole city, and every way into town from Heathrow sets the two of them against taxis, coaches and the Piccadilly line. This page does one job: it compares these two trains properly, including the cases where the expensive one is cheaper.
The two trains at a glance (September 2026)
- Heathrow Express, time
- 15 minutes Paddington to Terminals 2 & 3; 6 minutes more to Terminal 5
- Heathrow Express, frequency
- Every 15 minutes, 4 trains an hour
- Heathrow Express, fares
- Single £26.00; Advance Discounted Single from £10 booked 30+ days ahead; return £42.00; PREMIER+ single £32.00
- Elizabeth line, time
- 28 minutes Paddington to Terminals 2 & 3
- Elizabeth line, frequency
- 6 trains an hour to Heathrow; only 2 of them reach Terminal 5
- Elizabeth line, fares
- £14.60 from Paddington; £15.50 from Zone 1, at any time of day
- Counts towards the daily cap?
- Elizabeth line yes; Heathrow Express no
The thirteen minutes you are paying for
Between Paddington and Terminals 2 & 3 the gap is thirteen minutes. Heathrow Express runs non-stop; the Elizabeth line calls at Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Hanwell, Southall and Hayes & Harlington on the way. That is the entire difference in the tunnel.
At the walk-up fares, those thirteen minutes cost £11.40 for one person. For two people it is £22.80, and for a family of four travelling at adult rates it is £45.60. Put like that, most visitors choose the Elizabeth line, and for a walk-up purchase that is usually right.
Frequency complicates it slightly. Heathrow Express runs four trains an hour, all of them to the airport. The Elizabeth line runs six an hour, but only two of those continue to Terminal 5, so if Terminal 5 is your terminal the effective frequency is every half hour. Waiting twenty minutes for the right Elizabeth line train erases the saving in time entirely.
Photo: LadyJetA1 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
The £10 ticket that turns the comparison upside down
Heathrow Express sells an Advance Discounted Single from £10 to passengers who book 30 or more days before travel. The tickets are limited in number and are valid only on Heathrow Express, in the direction bought, so they suit a flight home you have already booked rather than an arrival at an unpredictable hour.
At £10 the fast train costs less than the Elizabeth line's £14.60 from Paddington and less than its £15.50 from anywhere else in Zone 1, and it is thirteen minutes quicker. If you know your departure date a month out and your hotel is anywhere near Paddington, this is the single best-value airport train in London.
Two more prices worth knowing. PREMIER+ costs £32.00 and includes Fast Track security at Heathrow, which is sold separately at £12.50, so the upgrade is close to free if you were going to buy Fast Track anyway. And a national railcard takes a third off the Heathrow Express walk-up fare, bringing the £26.00 single down to roughly £17: our guide to railcards a visitor can buy explains which ones you can get without living in the UK.
Children aged 15 and under travel free on Heathrow Express. The operator carries them free in Standard Class alongside a paying adult, or unaccompanied on production of a flight booking or boarding pass and photo ID. On the Elizabeth line only under-11s travel free, and an 11 to 15-year-old pays half the adult fare, and only if a Young Visitor discount has been loaded onto an Oyster card. For families with teenagers this reverses the usual advice.
Where you start matters more than the trains do
Heathrow Express goes to one place in London: Paddington. That is its great weakness. The Elizabeth line runs on from Paddington to Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel and Canary Wharf without a change.
If you are staying in the streets around Paddington, Heathrow Express is quick and simple; our guide to Paddington and Bayswater covers that corner, and hotels near the big termini explains who ends up there. From anywhere else, getting to Paddington first costs a Tube fare and, more to the point, a change with luggage. A thirteen-minute advantage does not survive one interchange.
The rule of thumb is short. If you can walk to Paddington, consider Heathrow Express. If your nearest station is on the Elizabeth line, take the Elizabeth line. If it is neither, compare what it takes to reach Paddington against what it takes to reach the nearest Elizabeth line platform, and choose on that rather than on the airport leg.
What it costs a couple and a family
These are one-way fares from Paddington at September 2026 prices, with adults paying the standard fare.
| Travelling party | Heathrow Express, walk-up | Heathrow Express, booked 30 days ahead | Elizabeth line |
|---|---|---|---|
| One adult | £26.00 | From £10.00 | £14.60 |
| Two adults | £52.00 | From £20.00 | £29.20 |
| Two adults, two children aged 5 to 10 | £52.00 | From £20.00 | £29.20 |
| Two adults, two children aged 12 and 14 | £52.00 | From £20.00 | £43.80 |
On the Elizabeth line, an adult paying a fare may bring as many as four children of primary-school age, 5 to 10, at no cost, so they change nothing in that column. Children aged 11 to 15 pay half the adult fare on the Elizabeth line, but only with the Young Visitor discount added to an Oyster or Visitor Oyster card by station staff; without it they are charged in full. Our guide to children's fares on London transport sets out how that works, and the Visitor Oyster card page explains where the discount is loaded.
Booked ahead, Heathrow Express beats the Elizabeth line for every party in that table. Bought on the day, it beats it only for families with children aged 11 to 15.
The daily cap, and the ride that can end up free
This is the part most comparisons miss. Elizabeth line journeys to Heathrow count towards the Transport for London daily cap; Heathrow Express journeys do not, even though you can tap in and out with the same card.
The daily cap for Zones 1 to 6 is £16.30. A single Elizabeth line trip from Zone 1 to Heathrow costs £15.50, which is 80p short of it. So on your departure day, every other journey you make in London, in any zone, costs you at most 80p more once that airport trip is on the same card. Arriving, the logic runs the other way: the airport trip uses up almost the whole cap, and the rest of the day's travel is nearly free.
On Heathrow Express, £26.00 is £26.00, and it sits outside the cap and outside Travelcards entirely. If you are the kind of traveller who uses the Tube heavily on arrival and departure days, the effective gap between the two trains is wider than the headline fares suggest. Our explainer on how contactless and Oyster charging works covers capping in detail, and London's travel zones explains why Heathrow counts as Zone 6.
Heathrow fares are charged at the peak rate at any hour. Every Tube and Elizabeth line journey to or from Heathrow that starts, ends or passes through Zone 1 is priced as a peak fare all day, every day, including Sundays. Travelling at 11am does not make it cheaper, which is different from every other journey in London.
Terminals: which train goes where
Heathrow has four operating terminals, and neither train serves all of them directly.
| Terminal | Heathrow Express | Elizabeth line |
|---|---|---|
| Terminals 2 & 3 | Direct, 15 minutes | Direct, 28 minutes, 6 trains an hour |
| Terminal 4 | Free transfer from Terminals 2 & 3, about 4 minutes more | Direct, 4 trains an hour |
| Terminal 5 | Direct, about 6 minutes beyond Terminals 2 & 3 | Direct, but only 2 trains an hour |
Transfers between the Heathrow stations are free on both services. On Heathrow Express you still need a ticket for the free transfer between Terminal 5 and Terminals 2 & 3, which you take from a platform machine, or you can simply tap in and out with contactless or Oyster and not be charged. The same applies on the Elizabeth line between all three stations.
Check your terminal before you leave central London rather than at the airport. Our guide to Heathrow's terminals explains how to find out which one your airline uses, and the Heathrow arrivals guide covers what happens once you land.
Luggage, seats and what the ride is like
Heathrow Express is a proper train: reserved-style seating in bays and rows, tables, power sockets, toilets, luggage storage in the carriages and free Wi-Fi. You will get a seat, because the trains are built for the number of people using them.
The Elizabeth line is a metro railway. The trains are long, the doors are wide, the carriages walk through end to end, and there is a great deal of standing room, but nothing designed to hold a large suitcase. At Paddington on a weekday afternoon you may well stand as far as Ealing with a case between your feet. Going the other way, out of Heathrow, you almost always get a seat because the trains start empty.
Both are step-free from street to train at every Heathrow station, and the Elizabeth line is step-free at all 41 of its stations, which is relevant if your onward journey involves stairs. Our guide to step-free travel in London covers the rest of the network, and luggage on the Tube deals with the stations that defeat a big case.
So which one
Take Heathrow Express if
- You can book 30 or more days ahead and get a ticket from £10
- You are staying within walking distance of Paddington
- You are travelling with children aged 11 to 15, who go free
- You want Fast Track security and a guaranteed seat
- You are very tight for time before a flight
Take the Elizabeth line if
- You are buying on the day
- Your station is anywhere else on the Elizabeth line, so you avoid a change
- You want the journey to count towards your daily cap
- You are using an Oyster card or contactless and do not want a separate ticket
- Your terminal is Terminal 4, which Heathrow Express does not serve directly
If neither fits, the Piccadilly line costs £5.90 at any hour from Zone 1 and takes about 50 minutes from the West End. It is slow, the trains are small and it is a difficult ride with big bags, but it is a third of the Elizabeth line fare and it counts towards the cap too. Our guide to the Underground covers the line, and late-night airport transport takes over once both these trains stop for the night, which our guide to first and last trains puts in context.
Frequently asked questions
Is Heathrow Express worth the money?
At the £26.00 walk-up fare, only if you are staying near Paddington and are short of time, or travelling with children aged 11 to 15 who go free. Booked 30 or more days ahead from £10 it is cheaper than the Elizabeth line as well as faster, which makes it the better choice for a planned departure.
Can I use contactless or an Oyster card on Heathrow Express?
Yes. Tap in and out as normal and you will be charged £26.00 for the journey. That fare does not count towards your daily or weekly cap and is not covered by a Travelcard, so it sits on top of everything else you spend on London transport that day.
How long does the Elizabeth line take from Heathrow to central London?
Twenty-eight minutes from Terminals 2 & 3 to Paddington, and a few minutes more to Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon or Liverpool Street, all without changing. Six trains an hour serve Terminals 2 & 3, four continue to Terminal 4 and only two reach Terminal 5.
Which is better for luggage, Heathrow Express or the Elizabeth line?
Heathrow Express. It has luggage storage in the carriages and enough seats for everyone on board. Elizabeth line trains are built for commuters, with standing room rather than luggage racks, and you may have to stand with your case on a busy weekday out of Paddington.
Is it cheaper to travel to Heathrow off-peak?
Heathrow Express charges the same fare all day. On the Elizabeth line and the Piccadilly line, any journey to or from Heathrow that starts, ends or passes through Zone 1 is charged at the peak rate at every hour of every day, so there is no cheaper time to travel.
Sources
- Heathrow Express - fares, journey times and free child travel (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Getting to and from Heathrow on the Elizabeth line (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Tube and rail fares (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Fare capping (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - National Railcard discounts (checked September 2026)
- Senior Railcard - discounts on express trains to the airport (checked September 2026)