How to Get to Royal Holloway: Train, Car, Bus and Airport Routes

Royal Holloway, University of London sits in the village of Egham in Surrey, on the edge of Windsor Great Park and about 19 miles west of central London. It is close to the M25 and Heathrow but not in London itself, which trips a lot of people up on their first visit. Here is every sensible way to reach campus - by train, by car, by coach and from the airports - with what each one costs and how long it actually takes.

By Hasseeb Hussain, founder of RHUL Mobile.

The short answer

• From London: South Western Railway train from London Waterloo to Egham, roughly 40 to 50 minutes, then a 20 minute walk or the £1 RHU shuttle bus into campus.
• By car: leave the M25 at junction 13, join the A30 towards Egham, follow signs for the University. Postcode TW20 0EX. Parking on campus is very limited.
• From Heathrow: about 7 miles, 20 to 30 minutes by taxi or the low-cost 8 bus. See the Heathrow to Royal Holloway guide.
• From Gatwick: further out to the south, best by train or taxi. See the Gatwick to Royal Holloway guide.

By train from London

The nearest station to Royal Holloway is Egham, on the South Western Railway line between London Waterloo and Reading. Trains from London Waterloo to Egham take roughly 40 to 50 minutes and run about every 30 minutes for most of the day, with some faster services coming in closer to 37 minutes. There is no station on campus itself, so everyone arriving by rail comes in through Egham.

• Journey time: around 40 to 50 minutes from London Waterloo, depending on the service.
• Frequency: roughly every 30 minutes through the day.
• Fare: an off-peak single is usually in the region of £8 to £12; check on the day as fares change.
• From other directions: Egham is also reachable from Reading, so if you are coming from the west or the Midlands you can route via Reading rather than into London and back out.

From Egham station the main campus is about a 20 minute walk uphill, or a few minutes on the RHU shuttle bus for around £1 a journey with contactless. The full walk-through of that last leg, including where the stop is and where the bus drops you, is in the Egham station to Royal Holloway guide.

By car via the M25

Royal Holloway is about two miles from junction 13 of the M25. Leave the motorway at junction 13, join the A30 towards Egham, carry straight on at the first roundabout and follow the signs for the University. The campus postcode for sat navs is TW20 0EX, which brings you to the main Egham Hill entrance.

The catch is parking. Parking on the main campus is permit-controlled and very limited, and most undergraduates are not eligible for a campus parking permit at all. Visitors should not assume they can turn up and park by the Founder's Building. If you are driving to an open day or to drop someone off, check the university's parking pages first and use the designated visitor parking rather than the residential streets, which are heavily restricted.

• From the M25: junction 13, then the A30 towards Egham, roughly a five minute drive.
• Postcode: TW20 0EX for the main entrance.
• Parking: limited, permit-controlled, and not open to most students. Plan it before you arrive.
• Drop-offs: on move-in day the university runs a managed arrivals scheme with designated drop-off points; check your move-in pack.

From the airports

Heathrow is the closest airport, about 7 miles away and a 20 to 30 minute drive outside rush hour. The cheapest route is the 8 bus to Englefield Green, the fastest is a taxi or Uber. The full breakdown of every terminal, with real fares, is in the Heathrow to Royal Holloway guide.

Gatwick is further out, around 30 to 40 miles to the south. There is no quick single route, so most people either take a train up towards London and back out to Egham, or book a taxi for the full run. The options, times and rough costs are covered in the Gatwick to Royal Holloway guide.

Stansted and Luton are both well to the north of London and are the slowest airports to reach Royal Holloway from, so if you have a choice of where to fly into, Heathrow is by far the easiest for campus.

By coach

There is no direct long-distance coach that stops in Egham for campus, so coach travel to Royal Holloway is a two-part trip. National Express and Megabus services run into central London terminals such as Victoria, and to Heathrow. From there the practical move is to switch to the train from Waterloo to Egham, or to pick up a bus or taxi from Heathrow. Coach can work out cheap if you are travelling a long way, but budget extra time for the transfer at the London or Heathrow end.

Arriving on campus

However you travel, you will arrive at the Egham Hill entrance or one of the pedestrian entrances near Founder's Square. The Founder's Building, the big white French Renaissance landmark, is the easiest thing to aim for. The campus map in RHUL Mobile works offline and uses real walking routes, so once you are dropped at any entrance it will route you door to door to your hall or lecture theatre.

Getting around once you are here

Day to day, the two campus bus routes are the RHU between Hox Park, the Founder's Building and Egham Station (£1 flat fare to or from Egham Station, free between Founder's and Hox Park) and the RH2 between Royal Holloway and Huntersdale. Both are tracked live in RHUL Mobile's bus times feature, so you can see when the next one leaves rather than reading a printed timetable.

The campus itself is about 12 to 15 minutes end to end on foot, so most teaching is within walking distance of the halls. The campus map includes walking routes from every hall to every academic building.