Very well, for a town where hardly anyone takes the train to work. The buses run often. Gigabit broadband reaches nearly every home. Four in ten workers never leave the house for the job. Reading's best connection is the one in the spare room, not the one on the platform.
The rail network is thick on the ground. Reading Rail Station sits at the centre, with Reading West, Tilehurst, Earley, Reading Green Park, Theale and Winnersh Triangle among the stations around the edges. Yet at the 2021 census only about 2% of working residents took the train to work, and about 7% took the bus. There are 1,139 bus stops in the area, which is plenty of shelters for that share of the commute.
The real commute runs through the kitchen table. About 39% of workers were based at home at the 2021 census, and about 34% drove. Walking accounted for about 10% and cycling about 2%. A quarter of households have no car, while about 33% run two or more. That split explains the traffic on the ring roads better than any timetable does.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, which are modelled for the area rather than timed from any particular front door, put the nearest town centre about 13 minutes away by car, 24 minutes by public transport, 18 minutes by bike and 40 minutes on foot. The car wins, the bike comes close, and the walk is long enough that only the people who live near the middle do it.
Everyday errands are closer. A food shop is about 7 minutes on foot and about 7 minutes by car, so driving to buy milk saves nothing except the walk. A doctor's surgery is about 15 minutes' walk, 8 minutes by car or 12 minutes by public transport. A hospital is about 16 minutes by car and 33 minutes by public transport. The nearest employment centre is about 10 minutes by car or 12 by public transport. The public transport figures date from 2019, and services have been cut since, so treat them with more caution than the car and walking times.
The buses count for more than the stop total suggests. The average stop sees about 74 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 4 an hour at peak, and about 92% of stops have some weekend service. For most of the area, a bus is something you turn up for rather than plan a day around.
Broadband is a strong point. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 95% of premises, ultrafast about 96%, and superfast about 99%. For a town where so many people work from home, that is the infrastructure that counts.
Mobile coverage is complete. Both measures, coverage from at least one operator and coverage from all operators, sit at 100%.
Road noise is the cost of all this movement. More than 99% of postcodes sit near or above the 65-decibel mark, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source: about 24% of postcodes sit near or above 65 decibels from the railway, again peaking at 75. That describes the neighbourhood, not the volume inside any one house, but it is worth a daytime visit with the windows open.
For electric cars, the area has 87 public charge points with 215 connectors between them, 21 of them rapid. The rapid ones decide whether charging fits into the weekly shop or needs booking like a dentist appointment.
A typical Reading commute is a short drive, a frequent bus, or no journey at all. The trains matter more to visitors than to residents.
Reading is well connected, with fast broadband and frequent buses making up for residents who rarely use the trains, and road noise as the price.