Mysore does not have a functional airport. The nearest airport to the city is the HAL Airport at Bangalore. The Mandakalli airport near the city is being upgraded by the Airports Authority of India and is expected to be operational by 2009.The absence of an airport has been a hindrance to the economic growth of Mysore.

Inside the Mysore railway station

Mysore city has a railway station and three railway lines connect it to the cities of Bangalore, Hassan and Chamarajanagar. The first railway line established in the city was the Bangalore-Mysore metre gauge line, which was commissioned in 1882. However, all railway lines that serve the city are single track ones which impede faster connectivity to the city.Though there are plans to double at least the Bangalore-Mysore track, the project is yet to be completed. All trains that connect to Mysore are operated by Indian Railways and the fastest train to serve the city is the Shatabdi Express which connects it to Bangalore and Chennai.

Mysore is connected by National Highway NH-212 to the state border town of Gundlupet which then forks into the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The high traffic State Highway 17 which connects Mysore to Bangalore was, in 2006, upgraded to a four-lane highway which has reduced the travel time between the two cities.[84] A project was planned in 1994 to construct a new expressway to connect the cities of Bangalore and Mysore. But this has run into numerous legal hurdles and the work has yet to be completed.[85] Other main roads are State Highways 33 and 88, which connect Mysore to H D Kote and Madikeri respectively.

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and other private agencies operate buses from Mysore. Within the city, buses offer a cheap and popular means of transport. Auto-rickshaws are also available for intra-city commute. Tongas were popular in Mysore in the past decades, but this mode of transport has become rare due to the popularity of faster modes of transportation.