Henley is well connected to the internet and only loosely connected to everywhere else. Half the working residents don't travel to work at all. About one in a hundred commutes by train. Four in ten households run two cars or more. For most people here, the broadband is the commute.
The town has its own railway station, Henley-on-Thames, at the end of a branch line to Twyford, with Shiplake and Wargrave stations on the way. At the 2021 Census about 1% of working residents commuted by train. Buses stop at 61 points around the area, and about 1% of workers used them to get to work. The rail line exists, and it looks good on a map. Hardly anyone leaves for work on it.
What people actually do is stay put or get in the car. About 52% of working residents worked from home at the Census, about 30% drove and about 12% walked. Cycling barely registers at about 1%. Only about 15% of households have no car, while 40% have two or more. A household that relies on a second car is telling you what the rest of the transport is like.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, which are modelled for the area rather than timed from any particular front door, put the nearest town centre about 9 minutes away by car, 11 by bike, 13 by public transport and 20 on foot. A GP is about 9 minutes by car, 16 by public transport and 23 on foot. A food store is about 7 minutes by car and 12 on foot. Employment centres are about 16 minutes by car and 26 by public transport. The hospital is where it stops being convenient: about 29 minutes by car and about 62 by public transport. The public transport times date from 2019, and services can change, so treat them more cautiously than the car and walking times. An hour to hospital by bus is the figure that matters to anyone who doesn't drive.
The buses themselves run at a level you can use but can't forget about. Each stop averages about 30 scheduled departures on a weekday, around two an hour at peak. About 70% of stops have some weekend service, which leaves nearly a third with none. For most people that makes the bus a fallback rather than a daily habit.
Broadband is where Henley pulls ahead. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 93% of premises, and superfast broadband reaches all of them, with none below the minimum legal standard for a decent connection. Mobile signal is equally solid: at least one operator covers the whole area, and all operators cover about 99% of it. The town decided not to commute and then made sure it wouldn't have to.
Road noise is the cost of all those cars. Almost every postcode in the area, about 100%, sits near roads mapped at or above 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. That doesn't mean every house is noisy, because it depends on which side of the building faces the traffic. It does mean the main roads are close to most homes. No postcodes register meaningful rail noise, which says more about the branch line than it does about peace and quiet.
Electric-car owners should plan ahead. The area has 9 public charge points with 16 connectors between them, and just 1 of those is rapid. With one rapid charger, topping up is something you schedule rather than something you do while shopping.
In practice, a typical Henley working day means a laptop at home or a car to wherever the job is. The station suits the occasional trip rather than the daily routine, and the bus covers a gap rather than a timetable.
Henley's connectivity is middling: the fibre does exceptionally well and the transport network makes up the rest by assuming you own a car. If the job lets you work from home, it's more than enough. If it doesn't, keep the car keys somewhere handy.