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Visitors’ guide to London Victoria Coach Station
Victoria is the London terminus for virtually every scheduled bus or coach service originating outside London. Nearly every major town and city in England is linked to Victoria, while other services go to Scotland, Ireland and Europe, notably Paris.
There are two coach stations at London Victoria, plus a bus station for the local red London buses. Victoria Coach Station itself is monopolised by National Express and Megabus services.
The Green Line Coach Station has Airport Bus Express coaches amongst others. Long distance European services leave from both terminals, though FlixBus and BlaBlaCar Bus go from Victoria Coach Station.
Location
Both Victoria Coach Station and the Green Line Coach Station are south of Victoria Rail and Underground Station around a 5-min walk away. We have a dedicated page that compares travel passes, including Oyster card, to make an informed choice.
The station for local red bus services within London is at the bus station in front of Victoria rail station. Only red London buses, whose routes terminate at Victoria, come into this bus station. A lot of other routes that pass-through Victoria, stop in the streets outside and around the station.
Coach operators
The two dominant coach companies in England are National Express and Megabus.
National Express are the largest operator with a network reaching just about every town and city in England. Megabus are the young start up that burst onto the scene offering dramatically low fares and competing directly with National Express on all the major routes out of London. On these routes fares can be incredibly low.
Both National Express and Megabus use comfortable, full size coaches with air-conditioning and washrooms on board. National Express has a far larger network, Megabus has focus on just the busiest routes, going head to head with National Express. Both companies have very large parent companies with deep pockets and global interests. They both offer discounted promotional fares online in advance from their respective web sites.
We cover the European coach services below, in its own section.
Timetables and purchasing bus tickets
You can view timetables and purchase National Express and Megabus e-tickets online which you can then print from your email. You can find advance purchase promotional tickets online which are often a fraction of the price of paying on the day. On National Express, a return ticket can cost only a little more than a single ticket at standard fare rates.
National Express tickets
Low-cost airport and cruise port transfers and inter-city travel.
Book National Express tickets
Megabus tickets
Inter-city travel at prices as low as £1 when booked in advance.
Book Megabus tickets
Victoria Coach Station facilities
Victoria Coach Station is just like a busy regional airport. Coaches leave every couple of minutes, there are airport-style departure screens and departure gates where you board the coach.
Victoria Coach Station is physically two buildings, the bigger departures building and the much smaller arrivals building which is at the other side of the road (Elizabeth Street) which is basically just a few coach bays in a large shed where the coaches unload passengers and has basic facilities compared with the departures building.
Retail outlets are dominated by grab and go food outlets, Burger King, Upper Crust (bakery) are amongst them plus cafes and newsstands. In Elizabeth Street between the departures and arrivals buildings is a parade of “greasy spoon” cafes, a pub and a fish and chip shop.
Opening hours
Station is open for 24/7 with staffed ticket office open 8am-8pm. National Express and Megabus have their own ticket machines too.
Toilets
There are public toilets with baby changing facilities (no showers) at a small charge. Victoria railway station toilets nearby are free.
Cash machines & foreign money
Many ATMs can be found dotted around the coach station and a Foreign Exchange kiosk is available although not open for 24 hours.
Telecommunications
If there is one thing Victoria Coach Station is not short of it is phone booths, over 60 of them. No Wi-Fi provision available, either free or commercial.
Left luggage
There is a manned left luggage office open from 8am to 8pm. Fees are slightly cheaper than the left luggage facility at London's train stations like Victoria.
Photo booth
If you require passport size photos taken for any reason, there are coin or card operated photo booth machines available in Victoria station.
Taxi, buses and Underground
The taxi rank is out the front of the arrivals building. London's red buses stop outside Victoria Coach Station in Buckingham Palace Road. Only a couple of frequent routes stop here, routes 11 and 211.
Both 11 and 211 go up to Victoria Train station and Westminster Parliament Square. From here the 11 goes up to Trafalgar Square and through the City Of London to Liverpool Street. The 211 goes across the river and terminates at Waterloo Station by the London Eye.
The London Underground Station is just outside Victoria Train Station, about a 500m-walk down Buckingham Palace Road.
Travelling from Victoria Coach Station
Arrival
It is recommended that you arrive at least 30 minutes before your coach departs. As you enter Victoria Coach Station look up at the bank of departure screens, just like at an airport. Find your departure and coach bay number.
Getting on the bus
There are 21 coach bays, each with a waiting area where you can sit. The coach will park outside the bay and the driver will invite you to walk across to the coach with your luggage. Although outside the waiting area, the coach is still under cover. The driver will check you in and load your luggage into the luggage bay of the vehicle.
London airport buses from Victoria
There are frequent dedicated airport buses between Victoria and all of London's four major airports.
Heathrow
National Express run services from Victoria Coach Station to Heathrow Central Bus Station (note not individual terminals). These buses do not terminate at Heathrow but go onto towns and cities all over England.
National Express Heathrow Airport services
Gatwick
National Express run services from Victoria Coach Station to both of Gatwick's two terminals - North and South.
National Express Gatwick Airport services
Stansted
National Express run services from Victoria Coach Station and Airport Bus Express run services from the Green Line coach station opposite. Airport Bus Express services are non-stop while National Express takes a longer route with other pick-up locations in London.
National Express Stansted Airport services
Airport Bus Express services
Luton
National Express run a 24/7 service to Luton Airport.
National Express Luton Airport services
Coach services to Europe
FlixBus is one of the main European operators from Victoria, having taken over Eurolines. Other companies also have routes to a wide variety of European destinations, such as Ouibus and BlaBlaBus.
If you want to go further afield to Europe cheaply, FlixBus are a one stop solution that covers most of the key cities in Europe, leaving from London Victoria Coach Station.
The most popular routes are the relatively short trips to Paris, Amsterdam or Dublin. This is normally the cheapest way of making this journey. You can also go as far afield as Rome or Madrid.
FlixBus has an umbrella network across Europe offering an integrated system by partnering with local coach operators
Book FlixBus tickets
The Green Line coach station
On the other side of the road from Victoria Coach Station is the Green Line coach station.
Coach services to Luton Airport, Airport Bus Express to Stansted Airport, plus day tours to Legoland and Windsor depart from Green Line station, as well as Oxford Tube services to Oxford.
It’s basically an office block with retail outlets on the ground floor and bus parking bays all around the building, so not really a coach station as such, more a place to board your coach.
This coach station has no facilities, not even toilets. It's just a string of bus stops where you board your coach. Having said that, there are quite a few cafes and food outlets here, including a Subway.
