Gatwick to Heathrow: the coach, the cross-London train, and the taxi

Gatwick to Heathrow is the run between London's two largest airports, roughly 40 miles apart on opposite sides of the city, linked by the M23 and the M25. The single most useful fact is that there is no railway line between them, so the quick, cheap, direct option is not a train but a coach: National Express and others run terminal to terminal in about 50 minutes to an hour and 5, over 60 times a day, from around £15. For most people that is the answer, and the rest of this page is the detail behind it.

The one-line version: take the coach unless you have a specific reason not to. Rail is possible but means going into London and out again, which roughly doubles the time and adds a change with luggage. A taxi is the door-to-door choice for a group, a pile of bags, or an awkward hour, at several times the coach fare. And if you are connecting between two flights, the number that matters most is how much time to leave, covered below. For the London-bound trip instead, see the Gatwick to London guide.

The coach is the only mode that links the two airports directly, and it is both the cheapest and, in normal traffic, the fastest public transport. National Express runs the core service terminal to terminal in about 50 minutes to an hour and 5, with well over 60 departures a day, from around £15 one way booked ahead. Other operators run the corridor too, so departures are frequent through the day and into the night. The coach picks up and sets down at the coach stops at each airport, so there is no cross-city trek in the middle.

The trade-off is the one every coach faces: it shares the M25 with everyone else, so a bad traffic day stretches the trip, and you should build in slack when a connecting flight depends on it. Book ahead, because the cheap advance fares climb closer to the day, and check the departure point at the Gatwick end. The coach guide has the operators, the exact stops at each terminal, and the booking detail. For the great majority of Gatwick to Heathrow trips, this is the mode to start with.

There is no direct train, and that single fact shapes the whole rail option. To do the trip by rail you travel into London from Gatwick, cross to the Heathrow line, and head back out west, which turns a 40-mile hop into a journey across the capital. The tidiest routing is Gatwick to Farringdon on Thameslink, then a single change onto the Elizabeth Line west to Heathrow, because Farringdon is the one station where those two lines meet. Even so, it takes around 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours end to end.

That makes rail slower than the coach and usually dearer once you add the two legs, so it earns its place only in specific cases: when you are already heading into central London between the flights, when engineering work or traffic has fouled the roads, or when you simply prefer trains to a coach on the motorway. If rail does suit you, the London leg fares and tickets are set out on the Gatwick to London page, and the airport-to-airport train that actually works as a single seat is Luton to Gatwick, not this one.

A pre-booked taxi or private-hire car is the door-to-door option, meeting you at arrivals and taking you straight across on the M25. Budget roughly £60 to £95 for a standard saloon booked in advance, more for a larger vehicle or at a busy time, and expect about 45 minutes to an hour and a quarter for the roughly 40 miles, longer in the rush-hour peaks. Get a fixed quote before you travel rather than trusting a meter, and remember both airports charge a forecourt drop-off fee, which a fixed fare should already include.

The taxi is the priciest way to make this trip, several times the coach fare, so it is worth it mainly for a group splitting the cost, a heavy load of luggage that makes a coach or a rail change a chore, or an arrival at an hour when the coach frequency has dropped. The Gatwick taxi guide covers the official operator, the pickup points, and how to compare a fixed private-hire quote against a dynamic ride-hail fare.

If you are self-connecting, flying into one airport and out of the other, the most important number on this page is the buffer. Allow at least 3 to 4 hours between your scheduled landing at the first airport and your departure from the second. That has to cover taxiing and disembarking, reclaiming any hold luggage, the transfer itself, and then check-in, bag drop and security at the far end, each of which can eat more time than you expect at a busy airport.

Treat this as a genuine self-connect, because that is what it is: two separate bookings with no protection if the first flight lands late or the transfer is delayed, and no through-checking of baggage between them. If the connection is tight, the direct coach is the mode that keeps the most control, since it does not depend on a rail change lining up. When the gap is uncomfortably short, an airport hotel and a rebook can be cheaper than a missed flight, and the wider disruption picture is covered on the site's flight pages.

For almost everyone, the coach is the right call: it is the only direct link, the cheapest, and in normal traffic the quickest public transport, terminal to terminal in about an hour from around £15. Take rail only when you are already crossing central London anyway, or when the roads are the problem rather than the solution, accepting that it will take the best part of two hours with a change. Take a taxi when the door-to-door convenience is worth paying several times the coach fare, which usually means a group, a lot of luggage, or an awkward hour.

Whichever you pick, plan around handling your own bags the whole way and leave a generous buffer for a connection. To see this corridor alongside every other way in and out of the airport, use the transfers hub, and if part of your trip is a drive to Gatwick with the car left behind, the parking guide compares the car parks by stay length.