Witney is reasonably connected if you drive and badly connected if you want a train. Almost nobody commutes by rail. Around half of workers drive, and close to a third work from home. Broadband is excellent. The town works for anyone with a car and a router, and it is a frustrating place to live for anyone relying on public transport.
Fewer than 1% of Witney's workers commuted by train at the 2021 Census, and the only station on this area's list is Combe (Oxon) Rail Station, out in the village of Combe. Buses do more of the work. The town has 146 bus stops, and about 3% of commuters used them. The Windrush crossing made Witney a town in the first place, and the town's main transport link is still the bridge Thomas Wyatt rebuilt in Bridge Street in 1822.
The Census commute figures are mostly cars and home offices. About 48% of Witney's workers drove to work and about 31% worked from home. About 10% walked and 3% cycled. About 16% of households have no car, and about 42% have two or more. The town has more home workers than walkers, cyclists, bus users and train users put together.
The buses are better than the stop count suggests. Each stop averages about 58 scheduled departures on a weekday and roughly three an hour at peak, and about 74% of stops have some service at the weekend. Those are current timetable figures. On many stops a bus comes often enough that nobody bothers with the timetable. On the quieter stops, the weekend service is where people start to miss having a car.
The Department for Transport models the trip from Witney to the nearest town centre at about 9 minutes by car, 13 by bike, 15 by public transport and 22 on foot. The same 2019 modelling puts a GP about 9 minutes away by car, 13 by public transport and 18 on foot. A food shop is about 7 minutes by car or 9 on foot. Employment is about 14 minutes by car and 10 by public transport. Hospital is the long journey: about 36 minutes by car and 57 by public transport. The distances in those figures will not change. The public transport times are from 2019, and bus routes have been cut since then, so they are the figures to check most carefully.
Broadband is the strongest link Witney has. Gigabit-capable broadband reaches about 88% of premises, ultrafast about 92% and superfast about 99%, and no premises fall below the government's minimum service level. Mobile coverage is complete, with every network available almost everywhere. Thirty-one per cent of Witney's commuters stay at home, and they have the fibre to do it.
Road noise is the price of a town built around the car. More than 99% of Witney's postcodes are at or near the 65-decibel level at which official noise mapping counts road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise does not register at all, because no railway line runs through the town. A house can be close to a main road without the listing saying so, so visit at rush hour and listen from the garden.
Witney has three public charge points with 16 connectors between them, and one rapid charger. With a single rapid unit for a town of about 30,400 people, charging an electric car means planning ahead, and the people who can charge at home have a big advantage.
The town's connections are middling: good for drivers and home workers, poor for anyone who needs a train, and slow for anyone who needs a hospital without a car.