Getting here | BSMBSpring2025

Getting To Nottingham

There are a number of international airports including East Midlands Airport that delegates from overseas can fly into, although the main ones are in London, Birmingham and Manchester. All are well connected to Nottingham by train or coach.

Here we give some advice about how best to travel onwards to Nottingham and some links to useful websites.

In general travel by coach is cheaper (but slower) than by rail, although booking in advance (www.nationalrail.co.uk) can considerably reduce the cost of rail travel. Open tickets are recommended for added flexibility in case of flight delay.

Rail travel

Buying a one-way ticket at the station for immediate travel can be almost the same price as buying a return ticket. This is a strange pricing policy so do ask about the cost of a return ticket. It is also cheaper to travel outside of 'peak times'. Generally 'peak times' are on weekdays (Monday -Friday) from 06:30 to 09:30, and from 16:00 to 19:00.

Booking clerks at a rail station will be able to provide information about the cheapest ticket for your journey.

From London Heathrow you will need to transfer to the centre of London and take a direct train to Nottingham from St Pancras station. To do this you can take the underground train from London Heathrow. It runs on the Piccadilly line direct to St Pancras station. This journey takes about an hour. Alternatively you can take the Heathrow Express train from the airport to Paddington Station and then take a Circle Line underground train to St Pancras. This is slightly quicker but more expensive and not as easy when travelling with luggage.

Coach Travel

Information about coach services can be found here:

http://www.nationalexpress.com/airports/heathrow-airport.aspx

If you arrive at London Heathrow it seems that the cheapest way to travel is by coach to Nottingham from the main Heathrow bus station. The Heathrow Bus station is situated in the complex of terminals 1, 2 and 3. If you arrive at terminals 4 or 5 you will need to take an underground train between the terminals to get to the bus station. There is no charge for this. The coach takes about the same time as the train journey will take in total (because of the time taken to transfer between airport and St Pancras station). Make sure you allow plenty of time for the journey as traffic near the airport is very heavy, especially during weekends.

From East Midlands Airport

East Midlands airport is the airport nearest to Nottingham and there are Skylink buses that run regularly from the airport to the city centre; they also stop near the University campus. Further details can be found here:

http://www.eastmidlandsairport.com/emaweb.nsf/Content/SkyLinkNottingham

There are also taxi services to and from East Midlands Airport - booking these online in advance is highly recommended as it is considerably cheaper.

Maps

The meeting venue

University Park Campus

A full version of this campus map is available as a PDF from the University of Nottingham website at the address below:

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sharedresources/documents/mapuniversitypark.pdf