Haslemere is connected first by car, second by laptop, and only a distant third by train. Half the workforce works from home. A third drive. Almost nobody commutes by rail, despite the station. The trains are there for the odd day in the office, not the daily grind.
Haslemere Rail Station sits to the west of the town centre, with direct trains to London Waterloo and to Portsmouth Harbour, and Witley and Liphook stations are within reach nearby. For all that, only about 3% of working residents took the train to work in the 2021 census. Buses cover the area with 95 stops, and less than 1% of workers used one to get to work.
The commute mix explains the station's quiet life. In the 2021 census, 50% of working residents worked from home, 35% drove and about 7% walked. Cycling barely registers at about 1%, which on these hills is less a lifestyle choice than a verdict on the gradient. About 47% of households run two or more cars and about 12% have none at all. The town is split between people who never leave the house for work and people who never leave it without the car.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for the area rather than for any particular front door, put the nearest town centre about 9 minutes away by car, 11 minutes by bike, 15 minutes by public transport and 19 minutes on foot. A GP is about 9 minutes by car, 20 minutes by public transport and 25 minutes' walk. A food store is about 7 minutes by car or 11 on foot. The nearest employment centre is about 13 minutes by car or 30 by public transport. The hospital is the outlier: about 32 minutes by car and about an hour and a quarter...
Correction to that last line in plain terms: the hospital is about 32 minutes by car and about 62 minutes by public transport. That's the figure to take seriously if anyone in the household needs regular appointments. The public transport times in all of this date from 2019, and services have been cut in plenty of places since, so trust the car and walking times more than the bus ones.
The buses themselves run better than the commute figures suggest. The average stop sees about 48 scheduled departures on a weekday, about 2 an hour at peak, and 95% of stops have some weekend service. That's a working bus network. Most people here simply prefer their own car.
Broadband is where half the workforce actually commutes, and it's the weak spot for them. Superfast broadband reaches about 97% of premises and no premises sit below the legal minimum, but gigabit covers only about 59%. For anyone running video calls all day from a spare bedroom, check the specific address before exchange. Mobile is better: 4G or 5G from at least one operator covers the whole area, and all operators reach about 97% of it.
Road noise is more widespread than the countryside around the town might suggest. Every postcode in the area sits near or above 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band reaches 75 decibels or more. Rail noise is a separate source: about 64% of postcodes sit near the 65 decibel threshold for rail, with the loudest band at 65. How loud a particular house is depends on its position and its windows, so listen at the viewing.
For electric cars, the area has 3 public charge points with 6 connectors between them, and only 1 of them is rapid. For a town where nearly half of households own two or more cars, charging here is something you plan for at home rather than something you do while shopping.
Haslemere is well connected for the life most of its residents lead: a car on the drive, a decent connection in the spare room and a train for the days that need one. The gigabit gaps and the half-hour drive to hospital are the parts that don't match the house prices.