Horsham is very well connected by broadband and reasonably well by everything else. Four in ten workers stay at home. Four in ten drive. The train, the thing commuter towns are supposed to be built around, barely registers. Horsham is a commuter town where most of the commuting now happens on a home connection.
The rail network is generous for a town this size. Horsham station has direct trains toward Gatwick Airport and London Victoria, and Littlehaven, Warnham, Faygate and Christs Hospital stations all sit in or around the edges of town. Despite all that, only about 3% of workers took the train to work at the 2021 census. The bus network is wide, with 225 stops, and it carries about 1% of commuters.
Once working from home is counted, the picture changes. About 42% of workers mostly worked from home at the 2021 census, and about 40% drove. Walking took about 9% and cycling about 2%. About 16% of households have no car, and about 41% have two or more. Five stations is a fine thing to put in a brochure. In practice the laptop and the family car do most of the work.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics are modelled for the area as a whole rather than routed from any particular door, and they date from 2019. On those figures, the town centre is about 11 minutes by car, 14 by bike, 19 by public transport and 27 on foot. A GP is about 9 minutes' drive, 15 by public transport or 18 on foot. A food shop is about 7 minutes by car or 9 on foot. Employment centres are about 15 minutes by car and 11 by public transport. Hospital is the long trip: about 38 minutes by car and 72 by public transport. Buses have been cut since 2019, so trust the public transport times less than the driving and walking ones. The drive to hospital is the figure to think hard about if anyone in the household needs regular appointments.
The buses themselves run well. Across the 178 stops with timetable data, each averages about 71 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 4 an hour at peak. About 97% of stops have some weekend service. Those are counts of departures, not routes, but they describe a working bus service, not a timetable left over from the 1970s that nobody reads.
Broadband is the strongest part of the story. Gigabit-capable broadband reaches about 88% of premises, ultrafast about 92% and superfast about 99%, and no premises fall below the government's minimum universal service standard. For a town where four in ten work from home, that matters more than any train timetable.
Mobile coverage is complete. Every postcode gets 4G or 5G from at least one operator, and about 99% get it from all of them. You will not need to stand at the end of the garden holding the phone up in the air.
Road noise needs some thought. About 96% of postcodes are near or above the 65-decibel mark, the level at which official mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. That is what happens when a town sits where several main roads meet. Rail noise is a separate source: about 36% of postcodes sit near the 65-decibel mark for trains, with that as the loudest band present. Neither figure tells you how a particular bedroom will sound, so visit at rush hour before you sign.
Electric vehicle charging lags behind the rest. There are 9 public charge points in the area with 14 connectors between them, and one rapid unit. With a single rapid charger, charging here is something you do on your own driveway, not something you fit in while shopping.
For a typical working week, Horsham works best for someone who splits their time between the home office and the car, with the station as an occasional option rather than a daily habit.
Horsham is well connected, with excellent broadband and a strong bus service. The weak points are the long trip to hospital and a train service the town mostly ignores.