I am traveling to London on Aug 8 and arrive at 3:40pm. I have a group of 9 and need to go to Bath. What is the best way to get there. We are just getting off a 15 hr flight and would like to take a train, but don't know which ones. Thanks for all help!

Consider a National Express bus directly from Heathrow to Bath. Examples:

http://coach.nationalexpress.com/nxbooking/journey-list

You can also take a bus nonstop to Reading and a train from there but with 9 people a bus directly from Heathrow makes the most sense to me.

>>would like to take a train, but don't know which ones.<<

Absolutely take the National Express coach Cathinjoetown linked. Simple -- board at Heathrow and get off in central Bath, no transfers, no red tape. easy peasy.

Any trains would require either schlepping in to London Paddington and then on another train out to Bath, or taking the bus to Reading and train from there.

Thank you for all your input. I just need to verify a few things.
Apparently we will be arriving at Terminal 2 on Luftansa at 3:40pm Aug 7, a Sunday.
I can not find a coach that will take us from Heathrow Airport to Bath, England.
Can anyone help me here?

Gee that is weird -- I've taken that coach a few times but now the National Express site doesn't show Bath Spa from LHR. I wonder if that coach has been discontinued. Sure hope not . . .

Website shows London Heathrow 2,3 to Bath as first selection (in green all caps).

I didn't get any farther as a msg said website down for maintenance. Will try again in the morning.

When I did that the first entry in the drop down was Matlock Bath which is a whole different matter . . . maybe there was a glitch on the site??

Let's see when the site comes back up.

OK -- I just looked again and Bath is now the top option (it was missing when I looked a couple of hours ago). The rest of the site is still down but at least Bath does show as an option so it seems all is well again

As I live in the U.K., the times on posts on Fodors show U.K. time, and I see that most of the recent posts on this topic are from the middle of the night, U.K. time. That is when large organisations do computer upgrades and maintenance. Which may explain why you got some funny results.

We have it the other way round, with Fodor's sometimes down for maintenance when it is nightime in the U.S., but daytime in the U.K.

A further argument for taking the coach rather than the train is that the line is currently being electrified, and there are many diversions, delays and cancellations. The work is taking longer than expected, and costing a lot more money. Bridges have to be raised, track lowered in tunnels, and clearances increased because of the hgih voltage.

You're right, Chartley, it's showing the usual schedule to Bath now.

The preferred option, in this case, BATH in green, is above the drop-down box so it's natural for the eye to look at the black on white box and miss the type above the box, if that makes sense.

Anyway, lots of good choices now for the OP.