Harlow is better connected than its commuting habits suggest. Two stations run direct trains to London. Fast broadband reaches most homes. About half of working residents still drive to work. On rail and fibre the town does well, and in practice most journeys are made by car.
Harlow Town and Harlow Mill both have trains to London Liverpool Street and Cambridge, and Harlow Town is also a stop on the Stansted Express. Roydon and Sawbridgeworth stations are close by. Even so, at the 2021 census only about 2% of working residents took the train to work. The town has 329 bus stops, and about 2% of working residents used the bus to get to work.
The rest of the 2021 commute is mostly by car. About 53% of working residents drove, about 22% worked from home, about 9% walked and about 2% cycled. About a fifth of households have no car, and about 37% have two or more. The town has one of the most extensive cycle-track networks in the country, yet the Department for Transport models the average cycle to a place of work at about 6 minutes. On the government's own model, the quickest way to work in Harlow is the one hardly anybody uses.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics are modelled averages for the area, and the public transport figures date from 2019, so they're the least reliable part of the set; car and walking times hold up better. On those figures the town centre is about 12 minutes away by car, 18 by bike, 20 by public transport and 34 on foot. Thirty-four minutes on foot is a real walk. Harlow was built as separate neighbourhoods with their own shops, and the town centre was never meant to be a stroll from every front door. A GP is about 8 minutes by car, 12 by public transport and 13 on foot. A food store is about 8 minutes by car and 12 on foot. A hospital is about 12 minutes by car and 26 by public transport. A place of work is about 13 minutes by car and 11 by public transport.
The bus figures are current. Across the 276 stops with timetable data, each stop averages 39 scheduled departures on a weekday and a little over two an hour at peak, and about 90% of stops have some weekend service. That's a usable service, and the town's commuters mostly don't use it.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 79% of premises in Harlow, ultrafast about 82% and superfast about 95%. No premises fall below the legal minimum broadband speed. Every postcode gets 4G or 5G from all the mobile operators. Harlow is better wired for home working than its rail service is used for commuting.
Road noise is everywhere in Harlow. Effectively every postcode, 100% when rounded, is near or above 65 decibels. That's the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded here reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source and affects about 12% of postcodes, also peaking at 75 decibels. The town's main roads run between its neighbourhoods, so a house's distance from the nearest main road matters more than its postcode. Walk the street at rush hour to hear it for yourself.
The town has 15 public charge points with 26 connectors between them, and only 1 of those is a rapid charger. With one rapid unit, charging in Harlow is something an electric-car owner plans around, mostly at home on a driveway.
Harlow is fairly well connected. The trains, buses and fibre are good, and the town still goes most places by car.