The Best Ways To Get To Twickenham On Match Day!

With a capacity of 82,000, match day at Twickenham is a busy affair. Be prepared for busy train stations and trains; along with road closures to allow for the flood of fans walking the last stretch, to and from the stadium. So if you’re travelling to Twickenham to watch the match, what are the best ways to get there?

Take the train to Twickenham station. Take the tube to Richmond or Hounslow East Underground Station, or the overground to Richmond (London) Station; followed by an RFU shuttle bus to the stadium. Catch a London bus. Take a taxi. Drive and park nearby. These are the best ways to get to the stadium.

Next up I’m going to expand on each of the travel methods written above. I want to give you the best routes to use, and flag up things to bear in mind. By the end of this post you’ll have all the information you need to make a decision as to how you’re going to get to Twickenham on match day.

Getting To Twickenham Stadium By Train.

There is no tube station at Twickenham. There is however a train station. Twickenham railway station is on the South Western Railway line with the following train routes stopping at Twickenham:-

Waterloo – Reading

The quickest direct train to Twickenham is the one that runs from Waterloo to Reading. Take this, and you’ll reach Twickenham in 3 stops with the journey taking you 20 minutes. Conversely, the Waterloo train from Reading is 14 stops to Twickenham and will take you just over an hour.

The 2 stops before Twickenham are Clapham Junction and Richmond, both of which have Tube and / or Overground stations, meaning that you could take the London Underground or Overground to either Clapham Junction or Richmond and then jump on the train to Twickenham.

---

Waterloo – Windsor & Eton Riverside

This line from Waterloo takes 22 minutes and 5 stops to get to Twickenham. If you’re coming the other way, from Windsor & Eton Riverside, you can expect a 32-minute journey with Twickenham station being the 8th stop.

It’s worth noting that the 4 stops en route to Twickenham from Waterloo are Vauxhall, Clapham Junction, Putney & Richmond. All of these have London Underground and / or London Overground stations. So you could travel to any of these on the relevant tube line and then catch the train to Twickenham.

---

Do bear in mind that on match days the trains will be busy. If you are planning to travel to Twickenham by train, then be sure to leave plenty of time to spare as you may find yourself waiting on the platform for longer than expected due to trains being full.

If you want to avoid the crowds on the platform after the match, and you don’t mind a stroll; then it’d be worth considering walking from the stadium to either St. Margarets or Richmond station and getting the train from there.

It’s around 1 mile to St. Margarets and will take you 23 minutes on foot, or around 2 miles to Richmond and a 40-minute walk.

By the time you get there and on to a train, the trains should be a touch calmer, plus you’ll have less queueing to do at the station.

How far is the Stadium From The Train Station.

Twickenham Stadium is 0.6 miles from Twickenham station and will take 13 minutes on foot to arrive at the Rugby Road Entrance to the East Stand. Walking to the West Stand of the stadium is 0.7 miles from the station and will take 16 minutes.

If as a part of your journey to Twickenham, you’ll be travelling to London and you happen to be arriving at Kings Cross Station; then you may want to have a read of this article I wrote, where I cover in detail how to get from Kings Cross to Twickenham.

Getting To Twickenham Stadium By Tube.

Earlier on in this post, we established that Twickenham itself doesn’t have a tube station. However, there are tube stations within reach of the stadium. And it’s walkable too.

Personally I prefer the idea of a nice stroll to the stadium from either Hounslow East or Richmond. If you don’t fancy it though, there’s good news…..

The RFU provide a shuttle bus service to the stadium from Hounslow East and Richmond, for any stadium events where the attendance will be more than 35,000. This will cost you £3 and will take around 10-minutes from Hounslow East, or nearer to 15 minutes from Richmond.

It’s important to note that you won’t be able to use the shuttle service until 3 hours before kick off, which is when the buses start shuttling people.

So if you’re one for getting to the stadium as early as possible (Twickenham opens 3 hours 45 minutes before kick off) then you’ll need to either walk there or catch a bus.

If you’re not sure about your timings on match day, then you may find it useful to have a read of this post I wrote on how early to get to a rugby game.

You may also want to check out an article I wrote on where to go before the rugby at Twickenham if you’re planning to get to the area nice and early with plenty of time to spare.

Hounslow East

Hounslow East Underground Station is on the Piccadilly line and is 1.7 miles from the stadium. To get from here to the stadium, you could either:-

• Take the shuttle bus as mentioned above. It’ll cost you £3

• Walk, which will take you around 35 minutes.

• Take bus. The 281 bus to Tolworth is the one to get from Hounslow East. It will cost £1.65 and will get you to the stadium in approximately 20 minutes. This includes a 5-minute walk from Hounslow East to Hounslow Bus Station.

---

Richmond

Richmond Station is on both the District line and the London Overground. It’s 2 miles to the stadium from here, and your choices of how to get there are:-

• Take the shuttle bus for £3

• On foot, which will take you around 40 minutes to walk the 2 miles

• By bus. From Richmond, you’ll want to catch the 110 bus to Hounslow. Like the bus from Hounslow East, the journey will take around 20 minutes and will cost you £1.65.

---

Getting To Twickenham Stadium By Bus.

There are plenty of bus routes running to Twickenham that will take anywhere between 1 – 15 minutes to walk from the nearest stop to the stadium. I’ve displayed these all in the table below for you.

---

Driving To Twickenham Stadium.

If you want to avoid the crowds on public transport and retain some flexibility and independence, then driving is a great option. Especially if you’re travelling a reasonable distance.

You’ll need to be organised though and pre book parking well in advance. The stadium itself has very limited parking, but there are plenty of places for you to park that are within close walking distance of the stadium.

I find the most important thing if you’re parking anywhere near the A316, is to park on roads that access the side of it that you’ll be heading down on your way out after the game. This will save you a chunk of time when you’d otherwise be sitting in traffic.

Another tip if you’re driving in, is to plan to get to your parking location at least 2 hours before kick off. This should mean that you beat the match day traffic and avoid any diversions due to road closures that are put in place on match day.

Flying To Twickenham Stadium

If you’re flying to the UK for match day, the closest airport to the stadium is Heathrow. It is 10 miles from Twickenham and will take you around 20 minutes by car. You can also jump on the tube at Heathrow from where the journey to Hounslow East will take you 17 minutes.