Lydney is well connected by car and by broadband, and poorly connected by everything else. Most working residents drive to work. Hardly any take the train, even with a station in town. The buses run at intervals best measured in hours. For a household with a car and a fibre line it works, and for anyone without a car it is hard work.
Lydney Rail Station is the town's railway, and about 1% of working residents commute by train. Another 1% go by bus, even though the area has 106 bus stops. The Dean Forest Railway, the last working piece of the old Severn & Wye, links the town centre to the station. Lydney has more railway history than railway commuters.
About 62% of working residents drive to work, 22% work from home and 8% walk. Cycling is 1%. About 16% of households have no car, and 42% have two or more.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey times, which date from 2019, put the nearest town centre about 8 minutes away by car, 13 by public transport, 10 by bike and 17 on foot. A GP is about 8 minutes by car, 13 by public transport or 17 on foot. A food shop is about 7 minutes by car or 11 on foot. A hospital is about 51 minutes by car and 70 by public transport. A centre of employment is about 14 minutes by car and 42 by public transport. Car and walking times last because the places don't move. The public transport times come from 2019 and are the ones most likely to have worsened as services were cut. The hospital trip is the longest on the list, and without a car it takes most of a morning.
Bus provision is current, and thin. The 50 stops with timetable data average seven scheduled departures each on a weekday, and about 0.1 buses an hour at the peak. That is not a timetable anyone can plan a working day around. About 56% of stops have any weekend service.
Gigabit broadband is available to about 78% of premises and ultrafast to 82%. Superfast reaches every premises, so no home in Lydney falls below the legal minimum broadband speed. Mobile coverage is near complete, with almost every postcode getting a 4G or 5G signal from at least one network and about 93% from all of them. Lydney's broadband is far better than its rush-hour bus service.
Road noise affects almost every street. Every postcode in Lydney is at or near 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping treats road traffic as significant, and the loudest band recorded is 75 decibels. No postcode reaches that threshold for rail noise. The mapping describes the postcode, and how it sounds inside a particular house depends on the glazing and which way the bedrooms face. Visit the house during the evening rush hour as well as at a quiet weekend viewing.
There are two public charging sites in the area, with six connectors between them, and one of them is a rapid charger. For an electric car owner without a driveway, that means charging is something to plan, because a quick top-up while shopping depends on one rapid charger being free.
Lydney's connections are middling to poor. It works for a driver who works from home or close by, and it is hard going for a household that needs the trains or buses for daily life.