Very well, though about half its workers no longer commute. There are eight stations and a tram. Buses come about every six minutes at peak. Most homes can get gigabit broadband. At the last count, half the working town stayed at home anyway.
Beckenham grew up around the railway that reached it in 1857, and the stations still cover the town. Beckenham Junction and Kent House run into London Victoria, Beckenham Junction also runs to London Bridge and Orpington, and New Beckenham and Clock House reach Charing Cross and Cannon Street. Ravensbourne and Beckenham Hill run through the City to St Pancras, Eden Park and Elmers End serve the south, and Tramlink runs from Beckenham Junction to Wimbledon through East Croydon. The area has 307 bus stops. Even so, at the 2021 census only about 10% of working residents took the train to work and about 4% the bus. The villas went up around the stations, and the people living in them now mostly don't use them.
At that census, about 53% of Beckenham's workers worked from home, 23% drove, 4% walked and about 1% cycled. About a quarter of households have no car, and about 26% have two or more. A town built so City clerks could catch the 8.12 now mostly commutes from the kitchen table, and the ones who leave the house usually take the car.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 9 minutes away by car, 14 by public transport, 11 by bike and 18 on foot. A GP is about 7 minutes by car, 10 by public transport and 11 on foot. A food shop is about 7 minutes whether you walk or drive, and the nearest large employment centre about 15 minutes by car or public transport. Hospital is the outlier, at about 20 minutes by car and 35 by public transport. All of these are area averages from a national model. Distances don't change, but the public transport times date from 2019 and bus services have been cut since, so those are the times to trust least.
The buses are a proper service. Stops average about 196 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 10 an hour at peak, and every stop has some service at the weekend. Those are current timetable counts, unlike the modelled journey times. A town where the bus comes about every six minutes at peak has little need to memorise the timetable.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 84% of premises, ultrafast about 86% and superfast about 99%, with no premises below the legal minimum. Mobile coverage is complete, and every network reaches almost everywhere. For the half of the workforce working at home, the broadband matters more than the railway.
Road noise is the cost of all this access. About 72% of Beckenham's postcodes are close to or above 65 decibels, the level at which England's official noise mapping treats road traffic as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Railway noise is mapped separately, and about 47% of postcodes are close to the same threshold from trains, peaking at 70 decibels. The railway that built Beckenham can be heard across nearly half of it. The official noise maps are searchable by address, so check how near a road or line the house is before assuming the double glazing will cope.
There are 22 public charge points in the area, with 45 connectors between them, and 5 of those are rapid. With 5 rapid units, charging is something most drivers here plan, not something done while the shopping goes in the boot.
Connectivity is one of Beckenham's real strengths. The town has more railway than most of its residents use, and broadband good enough that half of them don't need to.