Heathrow Express vs Elizabeth Line 

Update: Heathrow Express have now made the £10 advance tickets permanent if booking 60 days out. Also, something I didn’t mention in the video is that Heathrow Express can also be booked with a railcard, so if booking at least 60 days out with a Railcard you can get the Heathrow express for £6.60

One thing that (might) justify the “Business” class on Heathrow Express is the fast track security you get at LHR, regardless of airline or ticket class. You can’t buy fast track security as a standalone product at LHR any more, unfortunately. Also any Star Alliance Gold card holder can upgrade to Business class for free on Heathrow Express.

Will be using the Elizabeth line personally simply due to coming into Liverpool street on the train from Norwich so just makes sense to get straight onto the Elizabeth line.

I always used to take the Heathrow Connect to the airport over the Express for leisure, but the Express if travelling for work. Using a commuter travelcard zone 4 to the airport was always economical. Living overseas now I was blown away by the Elizabeth Line the first time, especially as I was travelling to Tottenham Court Road. The prime benefit is for folk from South East London who get a seamless connection. Appreciate the comparison you did.

Great video - a few observations as someone who uses Heathrow nearly every week. 1) The cheapest fares for the Heathrow Express are now £10 each way, and must be bought 2 months in advance. Fine if you have firm plans but as you say, not flexible at all - you can't refund your ticket, or even change it to another day by paying the difference. 2) Mixing Heathrow Express & Elizabeth line and buying 2× singles is generally the most expensive way of making the journey. A HX day return is £30 and the open return is £39. Meanwhile the Elizabeth line is included in the TfL daily cap so it's £22.60 for a day trip including all Tube/bus travel (£15.90 after 09:30), or an open return to Paddington is £24.60. 3) The Elizabeth line frequency to T5 is only every 30 mins. So if one isn't due soon, take the next service towards T4 and change at T2&3 (same platform, level boarding) for the HX to T5. There's no extra charge for taking the HX between Heathrow terminals and it can save a bit of time. The same trick also works in reverse - always get on the first departure from T5, and then change at T2&3 if you want the Elizabeth line. 4) In theory, the free "Business First" HX upgrade only applies for GGL members. However it also applies to Star Alliance Gold members, and the "GL" marking on the BA app/card is very small. Therefore, when I was a newly minted GGL and stoll waiting for my GGL card, I tried using my old Gold card. It was accepted every time - this must have happened at least 10 times until the GGL card finally arrived. So I think in practice, you can get away with it as a BA Gold ;) Worst case scenario, you say you made a mistake and move back to standard - I see chancers doing this all the time, they don't care as long as you move.

I travel to London fairly regularly from New Zealand and find the Heathrow Express is quick, convenient and comfortable especially when I am pretty exhausted. The Tube is more of an ordeal.

Very useful! I, mistakenly, thought that the 'Heathrow Express' was a coach service!! Maybe it was in the 'olden' days! My only minor criticism of the commentary was that the narrations keeps mentioning 'The Lizzy Line'! I thought this was a bit disrespectful (to a famous, old, respected, world-famous and incredibly expensive.....train!)

Problem with Heathrow express is that Paddington is on the very edge of central London with a rather limited number of hotels nearby. A US work college made the mistake if taking it, then waiting 20 minutes for a taxi at the taxi rank, then took 15 minute taxi ride to tottenham court road. Told him it would have been quicker and cheaper to get the elizabeth line direct.

Time of day matters. Standard Class on the Heathrow Express was going SRO after my late arrival in the evening. Bought the Business ticket, and got a seat. I was in no condition after hours and hours of travel to stand up in the train for even 20 minutes. At a quiet time such as you experienced, no, I wouldn't bother.

The Elizabeth line is good, but the Air Con is brutal. 🥶

£5.50 to use the tube (piccadilly line) but does take a lot longer to get in to town. Plus it can get very busy at rush hour.

You can also get the t4 Elizabeth line and change at t2/3 onto ironically the Heathrow express for free when coming from the City, I commute from Canary Wharf and it just isn’t worth getting off and changing at Paddington, I think a lot depends on where you are heading too in London

It depends also if you want to go further than Paddington. For many, that makes Crossrail a better option.

Even last year the HEX had a limited number of £5.50 advance tickets. Sadly, those are no longer sold, so now it just comes down to a bit of luck of whether you can get a special offer. This last summer, I had a Britrail pass, which is one of the very few "universal" train passes that gets you on the HEX for free. If you are really running short on funds, I think you can get a bus to the Hayes and Harlington station and get on the Elizabeth line there...but at some point, it just becomes too painful.

Heathrow Express Class 387

Elizabeth Line Class 345

The cheaper Heathrow Express tickets are advanced tickets and can only be used on a single train. Heathrow Express does 110mph and Elizabeth Line does 90mph. Depending on what railcard you have Elizabeth Line could be £3.13. The reason for the high cost is because Heathrow Airport owns the track rather the Network Rail. Heathrow Express is owned by Heathrow Airport but operated by Great Western Railway using 12 of there former 387s used on Didcot Parkway semi-fasts.

Fun fact, The EL trains are driverless through the core of the city, the drivers only push the button to depart.

Thanks for some really useful info-need to get to London city airport for a connecting flight when we come into LHR from Jersey in October-if you pre book does the express price come done?

I travel to Ealing Broadway once every 2 weeks, tfl so fast, maybe tube be slower

Heathrow express is super expensive… go on the Elizabeth line stop in Hatton garden get out tap out and then back in again save a few quid…..

Heathrow express cuz its faster and less stops

The Heathrow express is such a waste of money.