Well connected, and mostly by bus. More than twenty buses an hour pass a typical stop at peak. Nearly half the workforce works from home. More than a third of households have no car at all. The train gets the credit, and the bus does the work.
Kingston Rail Station is the main stop, with direct trains to London Waterloo, and Norbiton, Surbiton, Berrylands and Hampton Wick are all within reach. Even so, only about 6% of working residents took the train to work at the 2021 Census, against about 8% who took the bus from one of the area's 159 stops. Surbiton station was called Kingston when it opened in 1838, and Kingston's own station did not arrive until 1863, so the town has spent its railway history sharing the credit with the neighbours. Buses run from the town's two bus stations, Cromwell Road and Fairfield, out across south-west London and Surrey and straight to Heathrow.
The commute mostly happens without a commute. At the 2021 Census, about 47% of Kingston's working residents worked mainly from home, about 19% drove, 12% walked and 3% cycled. About 37% of households have no car, and about 16% have two or more. The flat by the station and the semi with the double drive share a town and very little else in how they get to work.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for 2019, put the nearest town centre about 9 minutes away by car, 11 by bike, 15 by public transport and 18 on foot. The same modelling puts a GP about 8 minutes by car, 10 by public transport and 11 on foot, a hospital about 11 minutes by car and 21 by public transport, a food store about 6 minutes on foot or by car, and a centre of employment about 7 minutes by car and 8 by public transport. These are area averages, so the distances hold, but the public transport times are the oldest part of the set and services have changed since they were drawn up. Even allowing for that, a supermarket six minutes' walk away is the kind of figure that makes the car optional.
The buses earn their reputation. The average stop sees about 406 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 22 in the peak hour, and 99% of stops have some weekend service. That is a timetable nobody has to memorise.
Broadband is strong. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 85% of premises, ultrafast about 86% and superfast about 96%, and no premises fall below the universal service minimum. Mobile 4G or 5G coverage from at least one operator reaches 100% of the area, and from all operators also 100%.
The cost of all that traffic is noise. About 92% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats it as significant, and the loudest band present reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, and about 24% of postcodes are near or above the same 65-decibel threshold from the railway, again peaking at 75 decibels. Look the specific address up on the government's noise mapping for both sources early on, because a flat facing a bus corridor and one facing a courtyard can share a postcode.
Electric car drivers have 96 public charge points to choose from, with 104 connectors between them, but only 2 are rapid units. Charging here is something you plan overnight, with the rapid pair reserved for the days the plan fails.
For a typical commute, the answer depends on whether you go anywhere at all. Half the working town does not, the bus covers short hops at a frequency that removes the need to check, and the train handles the London runs for the minority who still make them. A river tour boat runs between Hampton Court and Richmond in summer, which is the most scenic commute available and also the least useful.
Kingston is well connected, a clear strength of the town for anyone who lives by bus, broadband and the occasional train. Drivers and electric-car owners get a noisier, slower version of the same deal.