Hertford is better connected than most of its residents need it to be. Two stations. A bus at most stops roughly every quarter of an hour at peak. Fast broadband nearly everywhere. Nearly half the workforce has stopped commuting altogether, so the trains mostly serve the people who still have to go in.
Hertford has two stations, Hertford East and Hertford North, on separate lines with direct trains to London, and Ware, Bayford and Watton-at-Stone each have a station a short trip away. Only about 4% of Hertford's workers took the train to work at the 2021 census, and about 1% took the bus, even though the town has 120 bus stops. Two lines to London and a town that mostly doesn't use them is an odd combination.
The census shows how Hertford really gets to work. About 45% worked mainly from home, about 38% drove, about 7% walked and about 1% cycled. About 15% of households have no car, and about 39% have two or more. The flats near the stations and the semis with a double driveway are in the same town but live very differently.
Getting around town is short by any measure. The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 10 minutes away by car, 16 by public transport, 13 by bike and 23 on foot. Those are averages for the area as a whole, so a flat off the high street and a house on the edge of Bengeo will see very different numbers.
The same Department for Transport set puts a GP about 9 minutes away by car, 14 by public transport and 19 on foot. A food shop is about 8 minutes' drive or 11 minutes' walk, and a centre of employment about 16 minutes by car or 11 by public transport. The hospital is the outlier, about 25 minutes by car and 49 by public transport. These are modelled averages from 2019, and the distances haven't changed since, but the public transport times are the least reliable because bus services have been cut since then. The supermarket is a short walk and the hospital is a proper trip, so plan the second one.
The buses are better than the census commuting figures suggest. Hertford's stops average about 53 scheduled departures each on a weekday and about four buses an hour at peak, and about 97% of stops have some weekend service. Those are current timetable figures, and they describe a real service that most commuters simply aren't using.
Broadband is good. About 87% of premises can get gigabit speeds, 88% ultrafast and 96% superfast, and none fall below the legal minimum service. Mobile coverage is near-complete too, with about 99% of the area covered by every network. Hertford is set up well for the people working from home.
Road noise is the catch. About every postcode in Hertford is near or above 65 decibels on the official noise mapping, the level at which road noise counts as significant, and the loudest band reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate and much smaller source, reaching 65 decibels near about 1% of postcodes. The noise maps are public, and a house a few streets back from the main roads can be in a completely different band from one facing them. A medieval town with a modern through-road is going to sound like one.
Hertford has nine public charge points with 11 connectors between them, and none of them are rapid. Charging an electric car here means planning ahead, because there is nowhere to top up quickly while you shop.
Hertford is well connected overall. The trains, buses and broadband all deliver, and the main things a buyer gives up are quiet streets and anywhere to charge an electric car quickly.