Another Metro-North question (New Haven, Hartford, Stamford: work, costs , train station)

[Roadguy]

Can you park at any Metro-North station or do some require a pass. We will be taking a long weekend in NYC (coming from Hartford) and I thought it might be easier to drive to Norwalk, Fairfield, or some other location -- any suggestions?

One of these threads mentioned that the Fairfield station is free on the weekend, but if I don't return until Tuesday, how does the payment work? Sorry if the questions sound dumb, but we're new to the area.

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

[glxyman21]

I'm not sure how it would work, I think resisdents get priority for weekdays and they may not allow long term parking. Stamford is the easiest place I found to park the car with a 40 min direct train to grand central. I'm not sure how much the long term rates are though, you might be able to find it on the Stamford city website, but not sure if its a city owned parking garage or private.

[Roadguy]

Thanks glxman21 - kind of what I thought. Anybody else with suggestions? Or is it better to just drive into the city?

[NY2CT]

You can park at the train station lot in South Norwalk. I think the daily fee is $7 on weekends and possibly more during the week.

We live east of Hartford now and when we go into NYC, we usually drive to New Haven and take the train from there.

[rbeale98]

I used to live in Hartford, and I took the train a lot from New Haven to NYC. You pay to park, so you can probably park as long as you need (There might be some limitations). I stopped taking the train and started driving all the way because its a lot easier, a lot faster, and the parking costs were more than the gas I used. I recommend driving the whole way. Take the Merritt, its beautiful.