Stansted Express leaves from a station under the terminal and reaches Liverpool Street in about 48 minutes. Coaches cost less and run all night but take longer, and Cambridge is closer still by direct train. First, though, everyone clears passport control.
What's the best way from Stansted into London?
For most layovers, take Stansted Express from the station under the terminal: about 48 minutes to Liverpool Street, every 15 minutes, £21 off-peak or £23 peak with a contactless card. National Express coaches start from £7 but take 1 hour 10 minutes or more. Allow about an hour from landing to the train, and be back at Stansted 2 hours before departure.
Getting through the border
Before any train, you clear UK passport control: at London Stansted Airport (STN) every international arrival does, connecting or not. Stansted doesn’t publish queue times, so plan on about an hour from landing to sitting on the train, and more at busy times.
- eGates are the quick route if you’re 8 or older (8 to 17-year-olds with an adult), at least 120cm tall, with a biometric passport, and British or Irish, or from the EU, the US, Canada, Australia or another listed country with a valid ETA.
- Everyone else uses a staffed desk. Allow more time.
- Passport Control FastTrack is a paid lane, from £15 a person and open 24 hours, booked on stanstedairport.com before you land. Every passenger needs a pass, children included. It’s worth it if you can’t use the eGates and your layover is tight.
- Bags: if they aren’t checked through, you collect them in arrivals first, which adds time. See at the airport for what to do with them.
The options at a glance
| Stansted Express | National Express coach | Train to Cambridge | Taxi or Uber | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| To | Tottenham Hale and Liverpool Street | Stratford, Liverpool Street, Victoria and more | Cambridge | Anywhere |
| Time | About 48 min to Liverpool Street | 1 hr 10 min or more to Liverpool Street | 31 to 34 min | About 57 min to London (Uber’s average) |
| Single fare | £21 off-peak, £23 peak; from £9.90 in advance | From £7, few seats at that price | Ticket from the station | About £87 by UberX (Uber’s average) |
| Pay with | Contactless, tickets | Tickets, booked ahead | Tickets (not contactless on CrossCountry) | App, or as booked |
Stansted Express: the way in for most layovers
- The station is directly under the terminal, 2 minutes’ walk away, and trains leave every 15 minutes in the day, 7 days a week.
- About 48 minutes to Liverpool Street, calling at Tottenham Hale (about 36 minutes) for the Victoria line. Liverpool Street has the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines and the Elizabeth line.
- With contactless, £21 off-peak and £23 peak to Liverpool Street, on TfL’s fare finder from 1 November 2026. Peak is 6:30am to 9:30am Monday to Friday, and 4pm to 7pm on journeys from London; weekends and bank holidays are off-peak all day. Oyster cards aren’t valid.
- Advance tickets cost from £9.90 one way if you book ahead online, and two people travelling together pay from £18.75 each way. Children and railcard holders usually do better with a ticket than with contactless.
| Monday and Friday | Tuesday to Thursday | Saturday | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First train from Stansted | 5:30am | 5:55am | 5:28am | 5:28am |
| Last train back from Liverpool Street | 11:21pm | 11:21pm | 11:21pm | 11:21pm |
These are Stansted Express’s own times; TfL’s Journey Planner showed the first Sunday train at 5:30am on 15 November 2026, and a last train at 11:24pm on Monday to Thursday nights, reaching the airport at 12:21am. The train before the last leaves Liverpool Street at 10:51pm every night. The last trains reach Stansted after midnight, when the terminal is closed until 2am. Planned engineering works change these times, so check Stansted Express on the day.
At Christmas, no trains run on 25 December 2026, and on Boxing Day Stansted Express runs only between the airport and Tottenham Hale, every 30 minutes.
Coaches: cheaper and all night, but slower
- National Express runs three routes from the coach station opposite the terminal, 2 minutes’ walk: the A6 to Baker Street, Paddington and Victoria; the A8 to Shoreditch, Liverpool Street, Waterloo and Victoria; and the A9 to Stratford, Canary Wharf, Whitechapel and Liverpool Street. Stansted says coaches run 24 hours a day.
- The fastest journey to Liverpool Street is 1 hour 10 minutes, National Express says, and fares start from £7 one way, with limited seats at that price. The A9 timetable from 7 November 2026 has a coach every 20 minutes through the day: the 10:25am reaches Stratford at 11:10am and Liverpool Street at 11:40am.
- Flibco runs every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, direct to Liverpool Street, Stratford or Finsbury Park.
Stansted itself warns that coaches can take much longer at peak times, so this guide’s plans use the train.
Taxis, Uber and pre-booked cars
- Taxis: Stansted’s taxi firm, Street Cars Taxis, has a desk in the international arrivals concourse. It publishes no fares on Stansted’s page, and London’s taxi fare card doesn’t cover Stansted, so agree the price first.
- Uber: its Stansted page gave an average UberX fare between London and Stansted of about £87 over the past month, and about 57 minutes for the ride (seen November 2026).
- Pre-booked transfers give you a fixed price and a driver waiting after passport control. Prices seen in November 2026: Kiwitaxi (opens in a new tab) listed transfers between London and Stansted from about £96. Check the quote for your exact trip.
A car beats the train mainly for a group with bags, or once the last train has gone.
Cambridge instead of London
Cambridge is closer than central London. Direct trains from the airport station take 31 to 34 minutes, about twice an hour, on CrossCountry and Greater Anglia. The first direct train leaves at 5:20am on weekdays, 5:25am on Saturdays and 8:46am on Sundays; the last direct train back from Cambridge leaves at 10:09pm on weekdays, 10:07pm on Saturdays and 9:47pm on Sundays (TfL’s Journey Planner, November 2026). Buy a ticket at the station or online before you board: CrossCountry doesn’t take contactless.
Greater Anglia says Cambridge station is about a mile from the city centre, a 20 to 25-minute walk, and Citi buses 1, 3 and 7 run into town. The free Fitzwilliam Museum opens from 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday and noon to 5pm on Sundays, and is closed on Mondays. Our itineraries have a Cambridge plan, and GetYourGuide lists Cambridge tours (opens in a new tab).
Storing bags near Liverpool Street
Stansted’s own pages list no left luggage. At Liverpool Street, Network Rail lists a left-luggage desk run by Excess Baggage Company, open 7am to 11pm every day; it publishes no prices. App-booked storage nearby is another option: Stasher listed spaces from about £1.49 a bag a day at more than 20 places near the station, and Bounce from about £4.30 a day (both seen November 2026). You book in the app and drop your bag at a shop or hotel.
Timing your return
Be back at the airport 2 hours before departure, with your onward boarding pass. That’s Stansted’s own advice: it recommends getting to security at least 2 hours before your flight. If you have a bag to drop, check your airline’s cut-off: from 10 November 2026 Ryanair’s bag drop closes 60 minutes before departure.
| Layover | Time in London |
|---|---|
| 6.5 hours | About 1.5 hours, near Liverpool Street |
| 7 hours | About 2 hours |
| 8 hours | About 3 hours |
| 10 hours | About 5 hours |
| 12 hours | About 7 hours |
These figures allow about an hour from landing to the train, about 50 minutes into Liverpool Street and 65 back (a train every 15 minutes, the 48-minute ride and the walk to the terminal), and 2 hours at the airport. Use our layover length guide to see what fits.