Bedford is very well connected, though most of the town still drives. It has two stations of its own and two more on the edges. Nearly nine homes in ten can get gigabit broadband. Most bus stops still see a bus at the weekend. The trains to London run whether Bedford takes them or not.
Bedford Rail Station is on the Midland Main Line, with direct trains to London St Pancras and stopping services that carry on through the capital to Gatwick and Brighton. Bedford St Johns, the smaller station, serves the Marston Vale Line to Bletchley, as do Kempston Hardwick and Stewartby. At the 2021 census, about 2% of people in work went by train and about 3% by bus, from an area with 684 bus stops. A town with a main-line station into St Pancras sends more of its workers to work by bus than by rail.
The car is how Bedford actually gets to work. At the 2021 census, 44% of workers drove, 29% worked from home, 10% walked and about 4% cycled. A quarter of households had no car, while a third had two or more. Some streets are full of drivers with two cars and others have no car at all.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics, which date from 2019, put the nearest town centre about 11 minutes away by car, 14 by bike, 19 by public transport and 29 on foot. Half an hour each way on foot puts the centre beyond an easy walk for most of the town, and so most people don't walk it.
The same modelled statistics give about 8 minutes by car to a GP, 14 on foot and 11 by public transport. A hospital is about 13 minutes by car and 29 by public transport. A food shop is about 7 minutes whether you walk or drive, and the nearest sizeable employment is about 10 minutes by car and 13 by public transport. The distances don't change. The public transport times are from 2019, though, and bus services have been cut in places since, so they are the least reliable figures in the set. On those times, a hospital trip by bus takes as long as walking into town.
The bus figures are current. Each stop averages about 34 scheduled departures on a weekday, about 2 an hour at peak, and 87% of stops get some service at the weekend. At two an hour you can learn the timetable rather than relying on it.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 88% of premises and superfast 97%, and no postcode falls below the universal service minimum. Mobile coverage is complete, with every postcode getting 4G or 5G from all of the networks.
Road noise is everywhere in Bedford. About 100% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping counts road traffic as significant, and the loudest band reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, and about 18% of postcodes are near the same threshold from trains, also reaching 75 decibels at the worst. For houses that back onto the main line, a visit to the garden while a train goes past will tell you more than the floor plan. Living next to the railway brings the noise as well as the trains.
The area has 44 public charge points with 105 connectors between them, 14 of them rapid. With 14 rapid units, charging is something most electric-car owners will plan around, at least for now.
For a typical Bedford commute, you can be in the car and at work in about ten minutes, or at St Pancras by train if your job is there. Very few people choose the second option.
Connections are one of Bedford's real strengths, with a main line, fibre broadband and a bus network that still runs at weekends. It is a good choice for anyone who can make use of all three.