Travel information
By rail
There are regular services from London Paddington. There are also regular links to other parts of the country via, Didcot, Reading and Birmingham. (Interactive timetable from National Rail - enter London Paddington for trains to/from London.) Oxford station is about a mile from the Department. The Cityline 2A bus service runs by the labs, from the train station Monday to Saturday. The stop is on Banbury Road at the intersection with Keble Road - see Physics Department map.
By coach
Two services operate from London: one leaves from Victoria Coach Station every 15 minutes during weekdays (Oxford X90); the other from Grosvenor Gardens by Victoria Railway Station every 10 minutes at peak times (Oxford Tube). Both services pick up at Marble Arch. The Oxford coach station is about half a mile from the Department - see city centre map below. There is also a coach service from Cambridge (X5 via Milton Keynes).
By air
There are frequent coach services to Heathrow and Gatwick (The Air Line. The journey takes just over an hour on a good day (a little longer from Terminal 4). Tickets can also be bought on-line. There is a free shuttle service between Terminal 4 and the other terminals. A taxi from Heathrow to Oxford will cost you at least £50. Most taxis take four passengers. This is a rather expensive way of arriving at Oxford. There is a less frequent service to Stansted Airport (757 via Stansted). From Luton airport, a coach runs every 2 hours. The journey time is around 2 hours. More frequent connections are available by train. Trains run from Luton Airport Parkway station to Oxford via London. Two changes are necessary, the train arrives at St Pancras then you must take an underground link to Paddington, from which trains run to Oxford, see http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/. The journey time is about 3 hrs. Birmingham International Airport (BHX) is a good alternative airport for travelling to Oxford. The train station is linked to the passenger terminals by a free, frequent Air-Rail link, which runs every 2 minutes from 0515 to 0200. The journey time is less than 2 minutes. There is a frequent train service from Birmingham International train station to Oxford, and the journey time is approximately one hour. Timetables can be found at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/.
By car
The M40 motorway runs very close to Oxford on the north-east side and links with the M1, M4, M5 and M25. If you approach Oxford from the east on the M40 you should leave at junction 8 or, from the north and junction 9. Those travelling on the M4 should get off at junction 13, Newbury, and take the A34 north to Oxford.
Parking is difficult in Oxford city centre. There is some on-street parking available on Keble Road, which is controlled by a pay and display scheme with a maximum stay of two hours. However, Oxford is well serviced by 5 park and ride sites on the outskirts of the city with parking and quick bus services to the city centre. The police advise against leaving cars at these sites overnight.
