Poorly, unless you count the car. Hardly anyone commutes by train. More than half of households run two or more cars. Three in ten people work from home. Ash's main connection to the outside world is the driveway.
There are stations nearby, just not in Ash. Sandwich, Adisham, Aylesham, Minster, Deal and Thanet Parkway are all in the surrounding area, and around 1% of working residents take a train to work. Buses are in the same position. The area has 131 bus stops, and about 1% of residents ride to work on one. You can wait for a bus here. Few people bother.
Here is how people actually get to work. About 58% drive and about 30% work from home, so the two biggest groups either use the car or stay put. About 5% walk and around 1% cycle. Car ownership fits: about 9% of households have no car, and about 55% have two or more. A second car in Ash is not a luxury. It is what lets two adults both leave the house on the same morning.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics describe the area as a whole, not a route from any particular front door. The nearest town centre is about 17 minutes away by car, 33 by bike, 38 by public transport and 91 on foot. The last figure is the one that counts. Ninety minutes each way is not a walk into town. It is a hike.
The same statistics put a doctor's surgery about 11 minutes away by car, 24 by public transport and 43 on foot. A hospital is about 28 minutes by car and an hour by public transport. A food shop is about 10 minutes by car and 41 on foot, so a pint of milk means taking the car. For employment centres, the model gives about 54 minutes by car and 29 by public transport. The public-transport figures date from 2019, and bus services have been cut in many places since then, so trust the car and walking times more than the bus ones.
The bus service itself, measured now rather than modelled, averages about 25 scheduled departures per stop on a weekday, around two an hour at peak. Only about 57% of stops have any service at the weekend. Two buses an hour is a timetable you have to plan around. A stop with no Sunday bus is a signpost.
Home internet is better than the roads. Superfast broadband reaches about 74% of postcodes and gigabit about 43%, and no postcode falls below the legal minimum speed. Working from home is a practical choice here, not a compromise. On mobile, 4G or 5G from at least one operator reaches every postcode, and from all operators about 99%, so signal isn't a worry.
Noise travels further than the buses do. About 68% of postcodes sit near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats it as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source: about 63% of postcodes sit near the 65-decibel rail threshold. Neither figure tells you how loud a particular house will be. Stand in the garden before you make an offer.
For electric cars, the area has 1 public charge point with 2 connectors, and none of them are rapid. With no rapid charger, charging is something you plan at home, not something you do while shopping.
Ash is a below-average place for getting about unless you drive: the broadband and phone signal are fine, but anyone without a car will struggle to get anywhere.