Enfield Town is very well connected, and buses do most of the work. There are five stations nearby. Every postcode is close to a stop with a frequent bus service. Nine in ten homes can get gigabit broadband. The commute residents use most is working from home, and more of them do that than take the train.
On rail, Enfield Town Rail Station is in the middle of the town, and Bush Hill Park, Southbury, Enfield Chase and Gordon Hill stations are all close by. Even so, only about 5% of working residents went to work by train. Buses carried about 8%, from 218 stops in and around the area.
The bigger groups were drivers, at about 36%, and home workers, at about 33%. About 6% walked and about 1% cycled. About 28% of households have no car, and about 27% have two or more. With five stations to choose from, more people now commute by working from home than by train.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey times put the nearest town centre about 10 minutes away by car, 11 by bike, 15 by public transport and 19 on foot. Those figures are averages across the area, and the public transport times date from 2019, so they have had longer to go out of date than the road times. On the same basis, a GP is about 7 minutes by car, 10 by public transport and 11 on foot. A hospital is about 15 minutes by car and 30 by public transport, and a food shop is about 7 minutes whether you walk or drive. The nearest large employment centre is about 6 minutes by car and 12 by public transport. In practice, most errands here are a short walk, and only a hospital trip is a real journey without a car.
The buses are the strongest part of the network, and these figures are current. Of the 185 stops with timetable data, the average stop has about 413 departures on a weekday and about 23 buses an hour at the peak, and 184 of them have a weekend service. These are departures rather than routes, but at those numbers the timetable hardly matters, because another bus is never far away.
About 90% of premises can get gigabit broadband, and 98% can get at least superfast speeds. No postcode falls below the legal minimum for a decent connection. Every postcode has 4G or 5G from every network, so phone signal is not something to worry about. For the third of residents who work from home, the broadband is the connection they actually use every day.
The traffic has a cost. About 100% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats it as significant, and the loudest band in the area reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source: about 10% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels from the railway, also peaking at 75. A frequent bus network means plenty of traffic. The government's noise map for the exact postcode, which shows road and rail separately, is the one check worth making here, because nearly every postcode is flagged for road noise and the useful question is how loud it gets on that particular street.
There are 17 public charge points in the area, with 35 connectors between them, 8 of which are rapid. With 8 rapid connectors, topping up during a shopping trip is realistic. Drivers who need more than that will be charging at home.
Connectivity is one of Enfield Town's real strengths. The buses run constantly, the broadband is close to universal, and the trains are there for the minority who still use them.