It's well connected by car and by broadband, and poorly by everything else. Hardly anyone commutes by train. A third of workers stay at home. Four in ten drive. In Marlborough, the router carries more commuters than the railway does.
The town has no station, and the Census shows it: under 1% of working residents commute by train. Buses call at 61 stops, but only about 1% of workers use them to get to work. Public transport exists here, but people don't build their working week around it.
The 2021 Census count of how people get to work tells the real story. About 41% drive and about 35% work from home. About 18% walk, which a compact town makes easy for anyone whose job is in it, and about 1% cycle. About 17% of households have no car, and about 41% have two or more. The second car on the drive isn't a luxury here. It's what the town expects of you.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for the area rather than measured from any particular front door, put the nearest town centre about 8 minutes away by car, 11 by bike, 12 by public transport and 20 on foot. For most residents, the town centre is Marlborough's own.
The same modelled figures cover everyday trips. A GP is about 9 minutes by car, 14 by public transport and 23 on foot. A food store is about 7 minutes by car or 14 walking. The nearest employment centre is about 13 minutes by car or 24 by public transport. The nearest hospital is the real distance: about 22 minutes by car and 39 by public transport. The public transport figures date from 2019, and services have been cut in many places since, so give them less weight than the car and walking times.
The bus figures below are current. Across the 51 stops with timetable data, the average stop sees about 23 departures on a weekday, and fewer than two an hour at peak. About 88% of those stops have some service at the weekend. That's enough for a trip into town or a bus to see the doctor. It isn't enough to rely on to get to a job.
Broadband is the town's saving grace. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 81% of premises and superfast about 98%, and no postcode falls below the government's minimum broadband standard. That goes a long way to explaining the home-working share.
Mobile coverage is complete: at least one operator reaches 100% of the area with 4G or 5G, and all operators reach about 98%. Mobile signal is not a problem here.
Road noise is the price of sitting where several main roads meet. 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 band on the map reaches 75 decibels. That describes nearness to busy roads, not what any particular bedroom will sound like, but it's worth an evening visit before you buy. Rail noise registers nowhere.
The area has 5 public charging points with 14 connectors between them, and one of those is rapid. That means charging an electric car is something you plan around a home charger, not something you fit in while buying milk.
For most households, the daily routine is a short drive, a walk into town or a laptop at the kitchen table. Anyone commuting further by public transport should start with the timetable, not the house listings.
Marlborough is middling for connections. Broadband and the roads do their job, and public transport doesn't cover enough to live without a car.