Travel from Heathrow to York

The fastest way would have been to fly to Manchester rather than Heathrow - the airport there has a direct train service to York. So if you can change your flight that would be worthwhile.

Assuming the Heathrow flight is a done deal then the sensible although not very quick way is to take the tube from LHR to King's Cross station, from where the train to York takes around 2 hours. You will need to allow an hour to get through Heathrow and an hour for the tube ride.

Then what you do depends on your willingness to pay for expensive train tickets. The cheaper tickets are called Advance, where you book a specific train - miss it and you will need another ticket. But the walk-up fares are hugely expensive. If you choose to book an Advance ticket then I would want to leave 4 hours between plane landing and the train.

As examples of fares, if you were to travel in the next hour from now (13.30) you could travel for £65. On a random date in February you could do it for £22. The Anytime single walk-up fare is £168. All fares will rise a bit in March

When are you travelling?

You can also fly into Newcastle airport (BA have typically 6 flights a day from Heathrow to Newcastle) so that can be booked as a through ticket from any BA or partners served airport.

It is then Tyne and Wear Metro to Newcastle Central then multiple trains an hour from Newcastle to York- typical overall journey just over 90 minutes. That can even be booked on any Rail company website as a through ticket from the airport to York (or any other National Rail station).
About the same journey time as from Manchester, and a smaller one terminal airport.

Before 9.30 am on weekdays the maximum possible fare is £46 Airport to York, after 9.30am and all weekend £32.50 - although usually you will pay less than that with last minute turn up and go 'advance' train specific fares.

The LHR to NCL flight sector is often as low as about £40.

Hi tm -

I were were doing it and was only able to fly into Heathrow as your post suggests, then I’d take the Tube (Piccadilly line) from the station at Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3 straight through to King’s Cross (about an hour’s journey once aboard the Tube) and then at King’s Cross mainline station take the train direct to York (its usual final destination is Edinburgh, with York listed as one of the stops). No changes. Tube is relatively cheap, train to Edinburgh cheapest if an ‘Advance’ ticket is booked ahead of time. If you have a suitable app on your phone, I believe you can book ‘Advance’ up to half an hour before the train departs. As most of the trains are LNER run, I’d book through them direct on my phone via the LNER app, or online, but there are other operators doing the same trip - Lumo and Grand Central? - but these run less frequently. I’d leave a minimum of three hours from touchdown before your ‘Advance’ booked train departs (you are tied to that particular train, no others will be at the same cost, you’d have to upgrade or transfer, but this can be costly in itself). Do book a seat (it should be part of the booking process) as the trains are usually very busy and spare, unreserved seats can be difficult to find.

With the exception that I’d be catching a Leeds bound as opposed to York train, this is a journey I’ve done many times and it does seem the least complicated to me. If I’ve goofed and my info is not up to scratch or out of date, I’m sure one of the more train savvy Brits on here will correct me!

Have a great trip

Ian