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Central London to Stansted Airport
- Thread starter kingston
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If you book directly through the Stansted Express website, you can get discounted "Advance Offer" fares. Note - these are not the same as the Advances you might get elsewhere on the network. They are valid for travel on any train on the selected date; if you buy a Return, the return portion is valid for a month. The price purely seems to depend on how far ahead you book, they say it can be as low as £9.50 each way (£9.20 from Tottenham Hale).
Alternatively, it is often still cheaper to buy a ticket to a destination beyond Stansted. All of the 'usual suspects' you might use here (I'm not going to spell it out!) are valid for break of journey, so it's entirely legitimate.
Alternatively, it is often still cheaper to buy a ticket to a destination beyond Stansted. All of the 'usual suspects' you might use here (I'm not going to spell it out!) are valid for break of journey, so it's entirely legitimate.
capitalconnect
Member
Buying a ticket to and from Elsenham is slightly cheaper and is valid to use to and from Stansted Airport instead.
BluePenguin
On Moderation
Buying a ticket to Cambridge is also cheaper
It depends on when you're travelling. The original post doesn't mention days or times, making it difficult to provide bespoke and accurate advice.
For example, a single at peak time is definitely not going to be cheaper to Cambridge (CBG) than Stansted (SSD), whereas the cost of a day return at the weekend is much cheaper to CBG than SSD.
https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=LST&dest=SSD
https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=LST&dest=CBG
Depends where you are in Central London but the National Express A9 from Stratford Westfield (next to the station) is pretty good. It's normally £14 one way £20 return. I normally come in to London on HS1 and its a lot less faff than the rail alternative. It generally gets to the airport in under an hour in my experience.
capitalconnect
Member
If you want to really save money than you can always do the entire journey by local buses:
• Arriva 29 - Trafalgar Square - Manor House Station
• Arriva 279 - Manor House Station - Waltham Cross
• Arriva 310 - Waltham Cross - Hertford
• Arriva 724 - Hertford - Harlow
• Arriva 508/509/510 - Harlow - Stansted Airport
The first two buses cost £1.55 total (using Contactless or Oyster and then boarding the second bus within 62 minutes using the Hopper Fare transfer) and then the last three buses cost £7.80 total (using an Arriva The Shires All Zones Day Saver ticket) so the total cost is £9.35 total.
All of these buses are very frequent so it is not too hard to do. At night times there is also a direct N279 from Trafalgar Square to Waltham Cross (rather than taking two buses) which is useful if you have a morning flight to catch. There is also a direct 86 which runs directly between Waltham Cross and Harlow (rather than taking two buses) but it only runs five times a day so is not very frequent compared to the other options.
The total journey time from Central London to Stansted Airport is around four hours so it is not quick. However it is good if you are not in a rush and wish to save money. You really can not get it for any cheaper than £9.35 total so it is good value.
Since we started suggesting bus options too, I'm surprised no one mentioned easyBus. It's actually National Express but bought through easyBus website is cheaper. Well, it was at least pre covid. Currently it shows tickets from Victoria to Stansted from £10.
In the past you could travel from more places, like Golders Green, Paddington. Now it's just Victoria for Stansted, and Baker Street for Luton. Also, prices in the past were much lower and it was easy to get tickets for £2-6.
capitalconnect
Member
I forgot about the Easybus website. That is certainly a cheaper option for a £10.00 Single journey. Although it depends on what time you are travelling as some of the journeys seem to be as high as £15.00 Single which is more expensive than purchasing it on the day from the coach driver.
I think that this route has become a lot more expensive recently due to the lack of competition. There used to be so many coach operators on this routes and now there is only National Express who have a monopoly on this route. We used to have all of this running on the Central London to Stansted Airport route:
• Airport Bus Express A20
• Airport Bus Express A21
• Arriva Greenline 720
• National Express A6
• National Express A7
• National Express A8
• National Express A9
• Stansted Citylink 767
• Terravision Coaches A50
• Terravision Coaches A51
• Terravision Coaches A52
Now only the National Express A6 and National Express A9 remain in operation.
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