How the transport score works

1. 1

   Check location: London vs Great Britain

   For postcodes in Greater London, we use Transport for London’s (TfL) official Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL). Outside London, we calculate connectivity from the Department for Transport’s National Public Transport Access Nodes (NaPTAN) database.

2. 2

   Score London via TfL PTAL

   TfL measures access frequency, walking distance, and reliability to the nearest rail, tube, and bus services across nine standardized bands: 0 (worst) to 6b (best). We map these directly to scores: 0 (0), 1a (10), 1b (20), 2 (35), 3 (50), 4 (65), 5 (80), 6a (90), and 6b (100), and show the percentile compared to all London neighbourhoods.

3. 3

   Score outside London via NaPTAN

   Outside London, we search NaPTAN within 3 km of the postcode centre. Railway, underground, and tram stations are weighted at 4 points each, while bus stops receive 0.8 points (one station equals five bus stops).

4. 4

   Rank nationally

   For postcodes outside London, the composite stop score is ranked against all UK areas to produce a national decile score from 10 to 100.

In Greater London, public transport connectivity is governed by TfL’s PTAL system rather than raw stop counts.

A score of 100 indicates top-tier public transport accessibility, either as PTAL 6b in London or among the top 10% highest-connectivity areas nationally.

Nearest stations. Up to 5 closest railway, Underground, DLR, and tram stations, with their straight-line distances and transit lines.

Bus stops nearby. Total number of active bus stops within a 500 m walking radius (0.5 km) as well as the wider 3 km radius.

Multimodal commute calculator. Rough commute time and distance estimates for public transport, driving, cycling, and walking to key employment centres. Estimates apply network route detour multipliers (1.20× for cycling, 1.25× for walking, 1.30× for driving) and typical speeds (4.8 km/h walking, 15 km/h cycling, 20–65 km/h driving, and 33–60 km/h rail), plus rush-hour delays and transfer allowances.

When NaPTAN has nothing nearby. We evaluate stations and bus stops mapped in OpenStreetMap using the same weighting.

• Outside London, NaPTAN counts physical stops, not timetable frequency. A stop served once a day carries the same weight as a high-frequency interchange.
• Commute times are mathematical approximations based on typical network detours, not live turn-by-turn sat-nav routing or scheduled timetables.
• Distances are measured straight-line; actual walking or driving routes will be longer due to street layouts, rail tracks, or watercourses.
• NaPTAN and PTAL cover Great Britain; public transit data for Northern Ireland postcodes is currently limited.