Cheshunt is well connected, and better on paper than most of its residents use. There are two stations, and only a sliver of the town commutes by train. Half the town drives to work. The broadband is close to universal. On paper the town is built for rail, and in practice it is built for parking.
Cheshunt Rail Station runs direct trains to London and north up the valley, and Theobalds Grove gives the southern end its own platform. Only about 6% of working residents commuted by train at the 2021 census. The town has 118 bus stops, and about 2% of commuters used a bus. That is a lot of rail and road for people who mostly bypass both.
The commute mix shows what the town actually does. About 50% of working residents drove to work at the 2021 census, and about 29% worked from home. Walking accounted for about 5% and cycling for about 1%. Around 16% of households have no car, while 43% have two or more. The Paul Cully Bridge went up in 2010 to carry cyclists safely over the main road. With about 1% of commuters on a bike, the bridge has never needed a queue system.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 11 minutes away by car and 17 by public transport, 13 by bike and 26 on foot. A GP is about 7 minutes by car, 10 by public transport and 12 on foot. A food shop is about 9 minutes' walk or 7 by car, and the nearest large employment centre is about 16 minutes by car or 18 by public transport. Hospital is the long trip, at about 23 minutes by car and 50 by public transport. All of these are modelled averages for the area, and the public transport times come from 2019. Services have been cut in places since then, so the bus and train times are the shakiest of the set, while the distances to the GP and the supermarket haven't moved. Fifty minutes to a hospital by bus is the figure that changes how a household without a car would plan its week.
The buses are better than their passenger numbers suggest. Of the stops with timetable data, the average sees about 70 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 5 an hour at peak, and about 88% get some weekend service. That is a real bus service, which most of the town drives past on the way to work.
Broadband is close to complete. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 93% of premises, ultrafast about 94% and superfast about 99%, and no premises are recorded below the minimum service level. Mobile coverage is complete as well, with every network reaching every postcode. A town where three in ten work from home has the infrastructure to do it.
Road noise is the price of all those roads. About 79% of Cheshunt's postcodes are near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats traffic as significant, and the loudest band reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, and about 10% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels from trains, with a top band of 75 too. The Romans ran Ermine Street through here, and the traffic has never stopped. Look up the exact postcode on the government's noise map, because a house backing onto the main road and one three streets in can sit in very different bands.
Charging an electric car is still planned around. There are 12 public charge points in the area with 23 connectors between them, and only 2 are rapid. With two rapid units, charging is something you book ahead, and you won't top up while you do the shopping.
Cheshunt is well connected. It has good rail, buses that run often, and broadband that would embarrass a city centre. It falls short only in the hospital trip and the noise from its own roads.