Wallington is well connected, and its residents mostly ignore that. The station runs trains towards central London. The buses are frequent and run every day of the week. The broadband is fast almost everywhere. And yet the car and the home desk still take most of the commute between them.
Wallington station has services to Victoria and London Bridge via West Croydon, and the other way to Sutton and on to Epsom and Epsom Downs. Hackbridge, Carshalton Beeches and Waddon stations are all close by, with West Croydon a short hop away. Even so, at the 2021 census only about 7% of working residents took the train to work. The 134 bus stops across the area carried about 7% too. Two railway lines, half a dozen stations within reach, and the train commuters would fit in a couple of carriages.
The commute is split down the middle. About 37% of working residents worked from home at the 2021 census and about 36% drove, with walking at about 5% and cycling about 1%. About 23% of households have no car and about 30% have two or more. Wallington divides between the driver's seat and the home desk, and the train comes a distant third.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 9 minutes away by car, 11 by bike, 15 by public transport and 18 on foot. On the same modelled figures, a GP surgery is about 7 minutes by car, 9 by public transport and 10 on foot, and a food shop about 8 minutes' walk or 7 by car. Employment centres come out at about 11 minutes by car or by public transport. A hospital is further: about 17 minutes by car, 34 by public transport and about 53 on foot. These are area averages from 2019; the distances hold, but the public transport times predate later service changes and are the shakiest numbers in the set.
The bus service is the real thing. The area's stops average about 218 scheduled departures each on a weekday, around 12 in the peak hour, and every one of them has a weekend service. Those are current timetables, unlike the modelled journey times above. Twelve buses an hour is a stop you turn up at without checking anything.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 86% of premises, the same share as ultrafast, and superfast about 97%. No premises fall below the legal minimum broadband speed. Mobile coverage is complete: every part of the area gets a signal from at least one operator and from all of them. For the third of residents working from home, Wallington has done its part.
Road noise is everywhere. Every postcode in Wallington is near or above 65 decibels on the official noise mapping, the level at which road traffic counts as significant, and the loudest band present reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source: about 34% of postcodes are near the 65-decibel level from the railway, which peaks at that band. Visit any shortlisted house at rush hour with the windows open, because the map says the road is close; only the visit says how close. No Wallington postcode is out of earshot of a road loud enough to make the official map.
There are 44 public charge points across the area with 64 connectors between them, and 3 of those are rapid. With three rapid units, charging here is mostly something planned the night before, rather than done while picking up the shopping.
Wallington is better connected than the way its residents commute suggests: frequent buses, a station with two directions of travel and broadband that copes, with only the road noise and a long trip to hospital counting against it.