Stansted Express

The Stansted Express is a direct train service linking London Liverpool Street to London Stansted Airport. It is a brand of state-owned operator Greater Anglia.

History

In 1986, British Rail extended the electrification of the West Anglia Main Line from Bishop's Stortford to Cambridge. Included in this plan was the construction of a new branch line—diverging from a triangular junction at Stansted Mountfitchet—to serve, at which a new terminal was to open in 1991 providing for a large expansion in scheduled aviation passenger services. Therefore, BR decided to build a dedicated fleet of units to work the new Stansted Express service, designated as Class 322, with the service operated by the Network SouthEast sector.
Upon the privatisation of British Rail in 1996, the Stansted Express was part of West Anglia Great Northern franchise until the tender was reorganised in 2004, at which time it became part of the Greater Anglia franchise operated by one Railway until February 2012, when the franchise was taken over by Abellio Greater Anglia.

Operations

Services

Unlike the Heathrow Express and the Gatwick Express, trains also stop at intermediate stations between the airport and central London. The Stansted Express stops at Tottenham Hale. Trains operate every 15 minutes, running to a clock-face schedule and typically take 46 minutes to London Liverpool Street, though some services take slightly longer, especially around peak rail times.
Stansted Express offers several ticket types. In addition to the Single and Return tickets, percentage discounts are available for advance bookings, those travelling in pairs with WebDuo and groups with GroupSave. Every Stansted Express ticket comes with money-saving "2FOR1" offers on some of London's favourite restaurants, shows and attractions like The London Eye, Madame Tussauds, the Sea Life Centre and Thorpe Park resort. Oyster or Contactless payment cards are not valid on Stansted Express services to/from Stansted Airport, but can be used between Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale.
, Stansted Express' off-peak services Monday to Friday are:

Route		Calling at
-	4	Services alternate between Harlow Town and Bishop's Stortford; with Stansted Mountfitchet being served by Bishop's Stortford services, or Harlow services.

Criticism

operates a pay-as-you-go system for public transport services. Passengers indicate the journey they are making by presenting a contactless payment card or Oyster card to readers at the start and end of the journey; the system then uses this information to automatically charge the appropriate fare. At stations fitted with ticket barriers, the readers are attached to the barriers and the barriers open when a valid card is presented. Stansted Airport, being located some distance from London, is outside the area covered by this system, so PAYG cannot be used to travel there - instead, a ticket must be purchased. With 'London' in the name of the airport, rail passengers and visitors to the airport might assume that they would be able to tap out using a contactless card when arriving at the airport from London stations.
London stations served by the Stansted Express nonetheless have ticket barriers with readers for contactless and Oyster cards because they are also served by other trains on which PAYG can be used. This means it is possible for a passenger to board a Stansted Express train having entered the station using their card, and then travel to Stansted Airport, where they are charged a penalty for travelling without a valid ticket. This has led to accusations that Stansted Express is operating a scam by penalising passengers who are unaware that they have done anything wrong; in 2019 it was reported that the number of penalty charges issued at Stansted Airport was 16,000 per year. The plan of rolling out contactless to Stansted is subject to 'necessary funding and approvals from the Department for Transport'. The Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan has expressed his interest in the rollout of contactless payment on the line to remove the current confusion with the system in 2024.
In September 2024, it was reported that Stansted Express services to Stansted Airport, along with 47 unnamed stations across London and South-East England, will be included in contactless and oyster card payments from the second half of 2025 with £27million of government funding.

Rolling stock

Current fleet

As part of the 1,300 new carriages to expand the UK's passenger rail fleet, Stansted Express was designated to receive 120 new vehicles. In February 2009, it was announced that Bombardier Transportation would produce the new trains. Bombardier announced on 2 April that a contract had been signed for the delivery of the 130 coaches between December 2010 and March 2011. The first of the new Class 379 units entered passenger service on 3 March 2011. The Class 379s were later replaced by Class 745/1s, the first of which entered service on 28 July 2020.

Past fleet

Stansted Express originally used a fleet of five Class 322 EMUs until it was decided to change to a dedicated fleet of nine Class 317/7 EMUs in 2000, further supplemented by twelve Class 317/8s in 2006. The displaced Class 322s were redeployed on several other routes/franchises around the country before settling into their former role in Scotland, working services between Glasgow/Edinburgh and North Berwick; they stayed there for some time before transferring to Northern Rail, working out of Leeds. They eventually returned into workings out of London Liverpool Street on the GEML, as Greater Anglia needed replacements for the Class 360s sent to EMR. They are planned to be put out of service by the end of 2022. Following the arrival of the new Class 379 units on Stansted Express services, the Class 317/8s were used alongside Class 317/5 and 317/6 units as a common pool. However, since Abellio took over the East Anglia franchise on 5 February 2012, all but one of the Class 317/7s have been scrapped.