Reasonably well, as long as you like buses. Ham has no station of its own. The buses come often enough that nobody needs the timetable. Six in ten working residents never commute at all. The road matters less here than the broadband, and the broadband is good.
Ham has no railway station. The nearest stations are elsewhere, at Richmond (London), Kingston, Teddington across the river and Norbiton, so every rail journey starts with a bus, a bike or a walk. At the 2021 census only about 4% of working residents took the train to work and about 4% the bus. There are 158 bus stops in and around the district, and the 65, the 371 and the K5 all run to Kingston, with the first two also serving Richmond.
At the same census about 61% of working residents worked from home, by far the largest group. Driving came next at about 15%, then walking at about 5% and cycling at about 4%. About 30% of households have no car and about 20% have two or more. A third of the street manages without a car while a fifth runs two, and the parking on the street reflects that split.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 11 minutes away by car, 15 by public transport, 12 by bike and 17 on foot. Those four figures sit close together, so in Ham the bike is as quick as the car and the walk is not much slower than the bus.
The same statistics put a GP surgery about 8 minutes away by car and 11 on foot or by public transport, a food shop about 7 minutes away whether you walk or drive, and employment 8 minutes away by car or 10 by public transport. The hospital is the long trip, at about 16 minutes by car and 34 by public transport. All of these are modelled averages for the area, and the public transport times date from 2019, so services cut since then make those the least reliable. A hospital appointment without a car takes up most of a morning.
Broadband is strong. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 76% of premises, superfast about 96%, and no premises fall below the legal minimum service. That second number explains how six in ten people work from home without complaining much.
Mobile coverage is complete, with 4G or 5G from at least one operator and from every operator across 100% of the area.
The buses are a proper service. The average stop sees about 371 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 20 buses an hour at peak, and about 98% of stops have some weekend service. These are current timetable counts, unlike the modelled journey times. By coincidence, the weekday average matches the number of one of the routes.
Road noise covers almost everywhere. About 99% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping treats road traffic as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source and much smaller, with about 5% of postcodes near the 65-decibel line and a top band of 70. Ham has a royal park on one side and river meadows on the other, and still nearly every postcode is close to a road loud enough for the official map to record it. Go and stand outside the house at rush hour, because the mapping cannot tell you which side the bedroom faces.
There are 105 public charge points in and around Ham with 125 connectors between them, of which 5 are rapid. With so few rapid units, charging an electric car is something you plan ahead.
For a typical commute the pattern is clear. A trip into Richmond or Kingston is a short bus ride, anything further means a bus to a station first, and a large share of residents have stopped commuting altogether.
Ham is better connected than a place with no station should be, thanks to frequent buses, short local journeys and solid broadband. It still falls short of anywhere with a station of its own.