Dorchester has two railway stations and almost nobody uses them. Under one in a hundred workers takes a train. About a quarter work from home and another fifth walk. The broadband is better than the trains by a mile. This is a town where the connection that matters is the one coming into the house.
Dorchester South Rail Station and Dorchester West Rail Station both sit in the town, which for a place this size is generous to the point of absurdity. About 1% of working residents commute by train. Buses reach further into the surrounding country, with 105 stops across the area, and roughly 1% of workers use one to get to a job.
What people actually do is drive or stay put. Around 43% drive to work, about 26% work from home and roughly 22% walk, with cycling at about 2%. Around 22% of households have no car at all, and about 32% have two or more. Those two figures together describe the split: a walkable centre where a car is optional, and a ring of villages where two are standard.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre at about 7 minutes by car and roughly 12 minutes by public transport, with a cycle at around 10 minutes and a walk at about 14. These are modelled for the area as a whole rather than measured from any particular front door, and the public transport figures date from 2019, so treat them as older and less reliable than the car and walk times.
Broadband is the standout. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 89% of premises, ultrafast the same, and superfast covers every premise measured. No premises fall below the universal service obligation, which for a rural county town is not something to take for granted.
Mobile coverage is close to complete, with all four operators reaching about 97% of the area and at least one covering all of it.
On the same modelled statistics, a doctor's surgery sits at roughly 7 minutes by car, about 8 minutes on foot and around 8 by public transport. A hospital is about 8 minutes by car and roughly 16 by public transport. A food store is about 7 minutes either driving or walking, which tells you most of what you need to know about how compact the middle of Dorchester is. Employment averages around 9 minutes by car and about 8 by public transport, though again that public transport figure is a 2019 number and services have thinned since.
The bus figures worth trusting are the current ones. Across the 78 stops with published service data, the average stop sees around 173 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 10 in the peak hour. Weekends are the problem: only about 45% of stops have any weekend service at all. A stop outside your house is not the same as a bus service, and in over half the area it is decorative by Saturday.
Road noise touches almost everywhere. Around 99% of postcodes sit near or above 65 decibels, the level at which official mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band present reaches 75 decibels. The trunk route through the area does that, and it is worth listening at the kerb before making an offer. Rail noise registers on no postcodes at all.
For electric vehicles there are 10 public charge points in the area offering 34 connections, of which 5 are rapid. That is charging you fit around a shop rather than an overnight event, provided the rapid units are free when you arrive.
Connectivity here is middling and oddly shaped. Two stations serving almost nobody, a bus network that clocks off at the weekend, and a broadband service that quietly makes the whole question less urgent than it looks.