Heathrow Airport served by The Airline bus service (frequent buses, takes around 90 minutes) and National Rail (more expensive, via the Heathrow Express to the centre of London)

Gatwick Airport served by The Airline bus service (frequent buses, takes about 2½ hours) and National Rail (most trains change at Reading station)

London’s other airports (Luton, Stansted and London City) are less well-connected to Oxford: reliable travel directions can be found here.

Details  of the Oxford Central station closure are available here.  

London Paddington – Oxford (operated by Great Western Rail)
Trains on this route will stop at Didcot Parkway and a replacement bus will continue the service onto Oxford (total travel time approx. 75 minutes).

London Marylebone – Oxford (operated by Chiltern Railways)
Trains on this route will stop at Oxford Parkway. Bus number 500 operated by the Oxford Bus Company will continue the service onto Oxford at increased frequency (journey time is approx. 90 minutes). Your rail ticket will allow you to travel on the bus at not extra cost.  Oxford Parkway station is well connected to FLoC venues by bus and taxi: details here.

Cross-Country Rail Services to Oxford
 – Trains from Birmingham and the North will terminate at Banbury Station
 – One train an hour from Bournemouth will terminate at Reading

Coaches will run from Didcot Parkway and Oxford to Banbury.

N.B: Assisted Travel  – A mix of low-floor buses and non-accessible coaches will be used to run the various replacement services. If you are not able to travel on one of the services, Great Western Rail will arrange an accessible taxi for you free of charge. More information available here.

We recommend that you check your train journey before travelling as information on disruption is constantly being updated: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

See National Rail enquiries or TheTrainLine for information on train times and fares.  Note that train tickets can be substantially cheaper if purchased 2 weeks in advance.

The Eurostar arrives at London St Pancras Station.  You will need to take the Tube to London Marylebone Station (info), and from there you can get a train to Oxford Parkway.  The connections are well signposted and the trains are frequent – be sure to book the London-Oxford Parkway train tickets in advance (see above) for cheapest fares.  Alternately, you can catch a coach from central London (see “by coach” below).

The Coach Station at Gloucester Green is approximately 15 minutes’ walk from the Mathematical Institute.

National Express services to Oxford (details)

Oxford Tube and X90 bus services to Central London (about 90 minutes, 24-hour service, very frequent).  The two services follow slightly different routes in London: both services stop at London Victoria, Marble Arch and Hillingdon.  X90 route info, Oxford Tube route info.

Times and fares can be found on the Oxford Bus Company website.  From East and South Oxford, buses will stop at the end of Cornmarket: a 10-minute walk from the FLoC venues.  Google Maps is very useful when planning bus journeys in Oxford (select the “public transport” option: the icon looks like a little train).  Oxford buses now accept contactless payment (ApplePay, contactless debit card, etc.), with no preliminary setup required.

The FLoC venues are in central Oxford and parking is extremely limited – there is no guaranteed parking nearby.  However, we are well served by the excellent Park and Ride system: there are five park and ride sites located around Oxford’s ring road, with regular bus services to the city centre (details).

The two best Park and Ride locations for FLoC are at Pear Tree (buses stop just outside the FLoC venues) or Water Eaton (buses stop a three-minute walk from FLoC).

Taxis can also be booked in advance (often substantially cheaper than hailing one on the street). Google will find you lots of companies, but here is a starting point.  They all offer relatively economical airport transfers as well:

Radio Taxis: 01865 24 24 24 online booking available.

 A1 Taxis: 01865 248 000 online booking available.

Go Green Taxis: 01865 922 222 online booking available.

Royal Cars: 01865 777 333 online booking available.

The main FLoC venues (the Mathematical Institute and Blavatnik School of Government) are new buildings with modern accessibility design (level-ground building access, automatic doors, elevators, wheelchair accessibility in the lecture theatres, hearing loops, accessible bathrooms and trained facilities staff).  We will conduct an audit of the other venues and post accessibility considerations here.  If you have any special requirements, please let us know.

In terms of getting around: all of the London Black Cab-style taxis (the kind you can hail in the street) are wheelchair-friendly (see video demo here).  Minicabs (the kind of taxi you can book by telephone) are not always accessible vehicles but if you tell the dispatcher about your requirements they should be able to send you a suitable car.  Public buses in Oxford have dedicated wheelchair/baby stroller space and roll-on-roll-off “kneeling bus” design.  Note however that there is only one wheelchair space per bus and if it is full, you will have to wait for the next bus.  Generally this isn’t a problem but it’s something to bear in mind.  The coaches to central London and to Heathrow and Gatwick Airports are advertised as “100% wheelchair accessible fleet and driver training” but some coaches are newer than others – you might want to contact the Oxford Bus Company to find out more.

Since some of Oxford’s infrastructure (especially the Colleges) is literally medieval, accessibility can be patchy, but the Oxford City Council has been making an effort to open up the central public areas and they have published a helpful set of accessiblity guides to the city.