Egham is well connected, more by cable than by rail. It has its own station with direct trains to London. The buses run often, weekends included. Broadband is strong and the phone signal is everywhere. Most residents still get to work by car or by not going at all.
Egham Rail Station has direct trains to London and west towards Reading, and Virginia Water, Staines and Sunningdale stations are all close by, with Heathrow Terminal 5 Rail Station a short hop away for anyone flying. At the 2021 census only about 3% of working residents commuted by train, and about 2% by bus, from an area with 106 bus stops. For a town with its own station on a London line, that is a remarkably small number of people using it to get to work.
The census commute splits two ways. About 40% of working residents worked mainly from home and about 40% drove. Walking accounted for about 8% and cycling about 2%. Car ownership follows the same pattern: about 19% of households have no car, while about 41% have two or more.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 9 minutes away by car, about 14 by public transport, about 12 by bike and about 23 on foot. A 23-minute walk to the centre is a fair stroll, short enough that a dry day settles the argument.
The same Department for Transport figures, modelled averages for the area that date from 2019, give a GP about 8 minutes by car, about 11 by public transport and about 13 on foot. A food store is about 10 minutes' walk or 7 by car. Employment is about 11 minutes by car and 12 by public transport. A hospital is the outlier, about 18 minutes by car and about 43 by public transport. The distances will not have moved, but bus services have been cut in many places since those timetables were modelled, so the public transport times are the least dependable of the lot and a 43-minute hospital trip may now take longer.
The buses themselves are a real service. Across the stops with timetable data, the average stop sees about 90 scheduled departures on a weekday and about six an hour at peak, and every one of them has a weekend service. That is a count of departures, which is what decides whether a bus is something you wait for or something you catch.
Broadband is close to complete. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 83% of premises and superfast about 99%, and 4G or 5G from at least one network covers essentially the whole area, with every operator present almost everywhere too. Two in five residents working from home is a habit the cables can carry.
Road noise is the price of all that access. About 99% of Egham's postcodes are near or above 65 decibels from road traffic, the level at which official noise mapping counts it as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, with about 19% of postcodes near or above 65 decibels and a top band of 70. Egham Hythe is cut off from the rest of Egham by the motorway, and it hears about it. Look the exact house up on the government's strategic noise maps, since a postcode average cannot say which side of the house faces the road.
Public charge points number 13 in the area, with 21 connectors between them, three of them rapid. Three rapid units means charging is something most drivers here plan for, or do at home.
For a typical commute, Egham works best for a household that splits its week between home and a car, with the train as the option for London days. Anyone relying on the bus for everyday trips is better served here than in most of Surrey, and the hospital is the journey to think about.
Egham is better connected than average, with strong broadband, frequent buses and a London station, and held back mainly by traffic noise and a commute most people still drive.