2many pimms- I am lucky our train service is good. I just recently moved from Bedford and the Thameslink service if you get the fast train gets into London in 45 mins. I have just moved to Cambridgeshire and our local station is Huntingdon now and again that is a direct service if you get a fast train is 50 mins.
Where we live we are 5 mins away from the a1 so if I need to drive anywhere no probs. We are near a14 for other direction if i was to get any shoots over Birmningham way (you never know).
We do rely on the trains for getting there and never had a problem. In a couple of weeks we are going down for assesment yet this time as we have 2 people to see a day after each other we are going to make the most of it and overnight as its half term plus in my job I can get reductions on hotels(which is a bonus)
The negative side is that now I am Cambridgeshire instead of Bedfordshire any days off school is unauthorised where as Bedfordshire authorised it. so I suppose that is something else to consider.
Also cost wise the Bedford tourist board does cheap train tickets at 10 pounds return for a trip down so its cheaper going on the train than driving with petrol etc. I need to check with the Huntingdon one actually to see if they do the same offer.
My advise to you would be to check out the train service before deciding on a property as you don't want to have to travel miles to get to the train station before getting the train to the casting etc.
In Bedford there was so many commuters to London each day , it was worth it for the extra money they earned each day and they couldn't afford to buy a place in London so it suited them well.
What sort of region are you looking at? East Anglia ?