Leatherhead is reasonably well connected, mostly for people who don't need to use it. The station has direct trains in four directions. Hardly anyone takes them to work. Four in ten residents work from home, and most of the rest drive. The rail map is better than the way people actually use it.
Leatherhead Rail Station runs direct to London Victoria via Sutton, London Waterloo via Wimbledon, Horsham via Dorking and Guildford via Bookham, and Ashtead Rail Station and Bookham Rail Station are each a stop away. At the 2021 census, 4% of working residents went to work by train. There are 73 bus stops, and 2% of commuters went by bus. The current station, built in 1867 in a Gothic Revival style, is the one that survives, and the town now mostly looks at it from the car park.
The commute mix is mostly home and car. About 41% of working residents worked from home at the 2021 census and 38% drove. Walking accounted for 10% and cycling 1%. About 19% of households have no car, and 36% have two or more.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for the area, put the nearest town centre about 9 minutes away by car, 11 by bike, 13 by public transport and 17 on foot. The same 2019 model puts a GP surgery 11 minutes away by car, 20 by public transport and 31 on foot. A hospital is 18 minutes by car and 35 by public transport, a food store 9 minutes' walk or 7 by car, and a cluster of employment 14 minutes by car or 21 by public transport. Distances to fixed places do not change, but the public transport times were modelled in 2019 and bus services have been cut since, so they are the least reliable figures here. A 31-minute walk to the GP is the one that matters, because it means most residents drive to the doctor.
The buses are better than the commuting figures suggest. The stops with timetable data average 31 scheduled departures each on a weekday, about two an hour at peak, and 91% of them have some weekend service.
Superfast broadband reaches 98% of premises and gigabit about 69%, and no premises fall below the universal service minimum. Mobile coverage from at least one operator reaches every postcode, and from all operators 99%. For the four in ten working from home, that matters more than the train timetable.
Road noise reaches almost everywhere. About 99% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest mapped band reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, and about 30% of postcodes are near its 65-decibel mark. Leatherhead grew up where the Kingston to Dorking road crossed the Epsom to Guildford road, and the traffic has never left. The noise map is worth checking for any address before a viewing, especially a flat facing a main road.
There are 10 public charging points with 17 connectors between them, and 2 of them are rapid chargers. With only 2 rapid chargers, most electric car owners will be charging at home.
In practice, a typical Leatherhead commute is either a laptop or a car, with the train for the trips into London. Plans for a branch line south from Chessington to Leatherhead were stopped by the Green Belt in the late 1930s, so the town kept the railway it had.
Leatherhead's connections are middling. The rail links and the broadband are good, while long walks to everyday services and noisy roads hold it back. It works well for anyone with a car and a reliable internet connection.