Faversham is well connected on paper and runs on the car in practice. Three stations sit within reach. Hardly anyone takes the train to work. Nearly half drive. Almost a third don't go in at all. The rail line looks good on the brochure, and the driveway is what people actually use.
Faversham Rail Station is in the town itself, with Selling and Teynham on either side. Even so, only 4% of working residents took the train to work at the last census. Buses carried 1%, from 76 stops across the area. The trains exist for the days out and the occasional office visit. The commute, for most people, happens somewhere else.
Driving is the biggest mode at 46% of working residents. Working from home comes next at 31%, which says more about the broadband than the trains. Some 12% walk and 2% cycle. A fifth of households have no car, and 35% have two or more. The two-car household is the town's real transport network, and its timetable is set by whoever gets up first.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for the area in 2019 rather than traced from any particular front door, put the nearest town centre about 10 minutes away by car, 16 by public transport, 12 by bike and 22 on foot. A GP is about 8 minutes by car, 14 by public transport or 17 on foot. A food store is about 14 minutes' walk or 8 minutes' drive. Employment is about 13 minutes by car and 24 by public transport. The hospital is where it stretches: about 24 minutes by car and 51 by public transport. That is a long time on a bus when someone is unwell. Distances do not change, but the public transport times date from 2019, and services have been cut since, so treat those with more caution than the car and walking figures.
Bus stops are only half the story. Across the stops with timetable data, the average is about 35 weekday departures per stop and about 2 an hour at the peak. Some 69% of those stops have any weekend service at all. That is a bus network you plan around, not one you walk out and catch. Anyone relying on it on a Sunday should read the timetable before assuming.
Broadband is the part that works. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 81% of premises and superfast about 98%, and none fall below the legal minimum service level. Mobile is the same story: at least one network covers every part of the area with 4G or 5G, and all of them together cover about 98%. The home office has better connections than the bus stop.
Road noise is widespread. By official noise mapping, almost every postcode, about 100% once rounded, is near or above the 65-decibel level at which road noise counts as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate issue: about 42% of postcodes are near or above the same threshold from trains, with the loudest band at 70 decibels. Neither figure tells you how a particular bedroom will sound, but both are worth standing outside for at rush hour before you offer.
Electric car drivers get 4 public charge points with 11 connectors between them, and just 1 of those is a rapid charger. With only one rapid unit, charging is something you plan the day around rather than something you do while the shopping gets done. A home charger on the drive is not a luxury here.
For a typical working household, the likely pattern is a car for most journeys, a laptop at home for a good share of the week and the train kept for the days that need it. Anyone moving here expecting to give up the car will manage the town centre and struggle with the hospital.
Faversham is better connected than most market towns, mainly because of its broadband and its station. It stops short of being easy to get around without a car.