Close by road, awkward by rail
From the middle of Slough the western edge of Heathrow is only a few miles away, near enough that aircraft climbing out or coming in are part of the sky over Langley. The trouble is that no railway runs straight there. A rail link into the airport from the west has been discussed for many years and has not been built, so the train from Slough goes east first and then turns back out towards the terminals.
That leaves three honest ways to make the trip without a car of your own: the Elizabeth line with one change, the buses that follow the Bath Road east through Langley and past Colnbrook, and a taxi. Each is the right answer for somebody. Which one is right for you depends on the time of your flight, the size of your luggage and, more than people expect, which terminal you are flying from.
By rail: east to Hayes, then out to the airport
Take an Elizabeth line train east from Slough and get off at Hayes and Harlington. The trains that serve the airport come from central London and call there on their way west, before branching off towards the terminals, so you change onto a train heading back the way you came, which sounds stranger than it is. The station was modernised when the Elizabeth line arrived, and the change is manageable with a case.
From Hayes the airport trains run first to Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3 and then on to either Terminal 4 or Terminal 5, depending on the train. Check the destination on the front before you board, because the two branches split after the central station and a train for Terminal 4 will not take you to Terminal 5. The Heathrow Express does not stop at Hayes, so it is no help from this direction.
With a reasonable connection the whole journey takes around forty minutes from Slough to the central terminals and a little more to Terminal 5. Allow an hour, so that a missed connection costs you nothing. It is the most predictable of the three options at any time of day when the trains are running, and it is the only one that does not care about the traffic on the M4.
By bus: the Bath Road through Langley and Colnbrook
Slough bus station sits beside The Curve on William Street, a few minutes on foot from the railway station, and buses leave from there eastwards along the old Bath Road. The road they follow is older than anything else on the route. It was the main coaching road from London to the west long before there was an airport, which is why Colnbrook still has an inn on its High Street that has been taking in travellers for centuries.
London route 81 has run this way for a long time, from Slough through Langley and along the Bath Road towards Hatton Cross and Hounslow, skirting the north side of the airport rather than going into it. Other routes linking Slough more directly with Terminal 5 have come and gone over the years, with numbers and timetables that change, so check the current service on the day rather than trusting a number you read somewhere.
The bus suits a traveller with light luggage and time to spare, or somebody staying at one of the Bath Road hotels on the airport's northern edge. It is slow at the times of day when everyone else is on the same road, and it is the least pleasant of the three with a large case and a check in deadline.
By taxi: when it is simply the right answer
A car from a Slough hotel to Terminal 5 takes about twenty minutes on a clear road, a little longer to the central terminals, and noticeably longer at the start and end of the working day. It is the right choice for a dawn departure, when the first trains of the morning may not deliver you early enough; for anybody with several cases; for two people travelling together; and for Terminal 4, on the south side of the airport, where the rail journey needs the most care.
Book it the evening before through your hotel or a local firm, and give the flight time rather than the time you would like to leave, so the driver can allow for the traffic. A pre booked car at five in the morning is far more dependable than a phone call from the kerb, and any hotel front desk in town will arrange one.
The hours either side of the flight
Getting to the airport is only half the problem. The other half is the dead time a flight leaves behind: an evening before an early departure with nothing in it, or an arrival hours before anyone is expecting you. That is what the travel companion booking is for. Anything on the airport edge, at Heathrow itself or in the Colnbrook hotel belt, runs to three hours as a minimum at £700, with her journey out counted inside the figure rather than added to it.
Send Etta the flight number rather than a guess, and she will watch the inbound rather than the clock. Your companion meets you at your hotel rather than at arrivals, and her fee changes hands in person the moment she arrives, the figure already confirmed in writing. For a guest who has not booked out here before, the guide to a first booking beyond the M25 sets out the few things that work differently from central London.
Who knows the airport run
Tina walks to places other people drive to and comes out on the Elizabeth line herself, so she has opinions on the Hayes change and is usually right about them. Nora is awake at hours that defeat most people and watches aircraft land for pleasure, which makes her good company on the night before a dawn departure. Laura is entirely at home on the Heathrow side of Slough and likes an evening that starts early.
All three are on the toned list, and all three actually keep up the running, climbing or swimming that put them there. Tina is also among the petite. Check who is on for the week you fly.
Cross filed: most of the names on this marker also sit on the toned and athletic list under by look.