Hayes is very well connected, by train, by bus and by broadband. The trains to London start here. Buses run from hundreds of stops, all day and at weekends. Nearly every home can get gigabit broadband. The one thing that isn't easy is getting anywhere quickly on foot.
Hayes (Kent) station is the terminus of the branch line from Elmers End, with West Wickham and Eden Park further along the same line and Bromley South the main alternative. The station was rebuilt in 1935 to cope with the commuters, and Station Approach became the shopping parade on the back of that traffic. At the 2021 census, 9% of working residents took the train to work. There are 425 bus stops in and around the area, though under 5% of commuters used the bus.
Most working residents here don't travel to work at all. Census 2021 found 48% mainly working from home and 28% driving, with walking at 4% and cycling at 1%. About a fifth of households have no car, and 32% have two or more. The suburb was built around a railway, and these days most of its commuters go nowhere.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey times, from 2019, put the nearest town centre about 10 minutes away by car, 17 by public transport, 13 by bike and 23 on foot. On the same basis, a doctor's surgery is about 8 minutes by car, 13 by public transport or 15 on foot, and a food shop is about 8 minutes' walk or 7 minutes' drive. The nearest hospital is 16 minutes by car, 28 by public transport and about an hour on foot. A centre of employment is 10 minutes by car or 12 by public transport. These are modelled averages for the area, and the public transport times are the least reliable of them, because they come from 2019 and some services have changed since.
The buses run often. Stops with timetable data average about 220 departures on a weekday, roughly 12 an hour at peak, and 400 of the 401 have some weekend service. Bus service here is frequent and runs seven days a week.
Gigabit broadband reaches 88% of premises, superfast reaches 98%, and no premises fall below the legal minimum speed, while mobile coverage reaches practically every postcode on every network. With half the workforce working from home, the broadband matters to more residents than the train does.
Road noise is the downside. About 67% of postcodes here are near or above 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source: 17% of postcodes are near 65 decibels from trains, with a maximum of 70. Visit the house at the morning rush hour as well as at a quiet time.
The area has 20 public charging points with 36 connectors between them, and one of them is rapid. With a single rapid charger, most electric-car owners will charge at home overnight, so a driveway matters more here than the charge-point map.
For most people the commute is the train from the end of the line, a frequent bus, or a home office on fast broadband. All three work well in Hayes. Connections are one of the best things about Hayes, and they make up for most of what the place lacks.