Romford is very well connected, by rail, by bus and by broadband. Trains run from the middle of town straight across central London. Buses stop at each stop roughly every two minutes at the peak. Nearly nine in ten homes can get gigabit broadband. The trade for all that is road noise, which almost every postcode in town has to live with.
Romford Rail Station is in the town centre, with direct trains across central London and an Overground line out to Upminster. Gidea Park and Emerson Park stations serve the eastern side, and Chadwell Heath, Goodmayes and Harold Wood are all within reach. At the 2021 census, only about 8% of working residents took the train to work, and about 7% took the bus, from an area with 133 bus stops. Romford spent the early 19th century trying to build a canal to the Thames, and the two miles that were dug never reached the town. The railway arrived in 1839 and has done the job ever since.
The biggest shares of the 2021 commute were driving, at about 33%, and working from home, at about 33%. Walking accounted for about 8% and cycling for about 1%. About 29% of households have no car and about 29% have two or more. A town built around its station still splits evenly between the driver's seat and the home desk.
The bus service is as good as the stop count suggests. Across the 127 stops with timetable data, the average stop sees about 559 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 32 an hour at the peak. Every one of those stops has a weekend service.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for the area in 2019, put the nearest town centre about 10 minutes away by car, 11 by bike, 15 by public transport and 17 on foot. A GP is about 7 minutes by car and about 10 on foot or by public transport, and a food shop about 7 minutes on foot or by car. Employment centres are about 14 minutes by car and about 10 by public transport, so on the model, the bus or train beats the car to work. A hospital is about 13 minutes by car and about 24 by public transport. Those are modelled averages for the area. The distances don't change, but the public transport times date from 2019 and services have been cut since, so those are the least reliable figures in the set.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 87% of premises and superfast about 97%. Mobile coverage is complete, with every network reaching essentially the whole area on 4G or 5G.
The road noise is the real catch. About 100% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels from road traffic, the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is separate, with about 15% of postcodes near or above 65 decibels from the railway, also topping out at 75. The Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust took over the London road in 1721, and the traffic has kept coming ever since. Visit at rush hour with the windows open, because the noise maps cover whole postcodes and can't tell you how loud one house is.
The area has 9 public charge points with 18 connectors between them, 5 of them rapid. With only five rapid units, drivers without a driveway will have to plan their charging around them.
Connections are one of Romford's real strengths. It works best for a buyer who commutes by train or bus and doesn't need a quiet road outside.